Fettling the new R1100S

[Gibson335]

Had a good day fettling the new R1100S yesterday.  Decided that the system cases, although perfect, we're a liability in terms of overall bike width - leading to a near miss on a neighbour's garden wall - so left the rails in situ and dug out an old pair of soft panniers from the loft (last used on my old Diversion) and spent a happy hour making up new webbing straps/quick connectors; only stabbed myself with the needle twice, which was a result.  Next installed a soft tailpack that's been gathering dust since I fitted a top box to the DL650. So far, so good - although I had to forego the pillion cowl, which has been put into storage with the (stupidly) non-captive bolts attached with rubber bands. 

I've always used a magnetic tank bag, so it was annoying to realise it wasn't going to stick to the 1100S's swooshy plastics.  The price of a Bagster setup made my wallet pucker in disbelief, so a reflective ten minutes with a glass of vino Collapso ensued.  Lateral thinking had me removing the fairings for the first time (went into prone gynaecologist mode for the four front bolts) for a looksee: Quick trip to town to buy 14 x 10 pence mudguard washers which I proceeded to tape at pre-determined points to the fairing inners - reassembled in best Blue Peter mode and that problem was solved (although I'll probably substitute the washers for a cluster of neodymium disc magnets at some stage for a much more secure job).  

Decided my old, sun-faded-to-khaki, Oxford tank bag didn't do the shiny BM justice - so out with a black permanent marker pen; ten minutes later, good as new.

When I bought the bike, it came with a 'dedicated' ABBA stand.  Try as I might, I couldn't make the bloody thing work; it was fine if I stood astride and pulled up the sidestand to allow SWMBO to feed it beneath the bike and connect up the other side, but simply impossible as a one-man operation as it fouled the sidestand.  Emailed ABBA with dimensions to discover that I'd actually got their standard super bike stand - and the upstands needed to be 75mm longer for the prep. with its jacked-up suspenders; a 'cut-and-shut' job was called for, so I've whipped it in to a local welder who's going to bung in the extra sections and use external angle to reinforce the joints - £40 struck me as reasonable, as not having a centre stand is a real pain for oil-level checks and tyre changes.

Have decided that the next 'farkle' will be a dipped-beam HID conversion, but not looking forward to delving under the tank to make the battery connections for the ballast. I made a fused distribution block with appropriate relays for the V-Strom - but there I had the luxury of a cavernous space under its seat, and the new bike is a lot more Kate Moss than Dawn French.  Don't really want to put a 3rd pair of electric strings in (already have an Optimiser and a Hella/Powerlet connected), but I suppose it's the easiest solution.

Tomorrow, the world...

[eyore]

All sounds good, but pictures required.

[Gibson335]

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Trying HTML first - if no go, will try img format...

[Gibson335]

Ah - that's better!

[adrianw]

Hi,

You can get 'City' lids for the panniers.

They are pretty much flat rather than the round doors used as standard.

You can try this comapny mentioned in this post:

viewtopic.php?t=14616&sid=b154a95500403 ... 675c752d82

I got mine from the dealer at the time.

Regards,

Adrian

[slparry]

as you've not got ABS on it there should be a nice fat space next to the battery

[Boxered]

When I bought the bike, it came with a 'dedicated' ABBA stand.  Try as I might, I couldn't make the bloody thing work; it was fine if I stood astride and pulled up the sidestand to allow SWMBO to feed it beneath the bike and connect up the other side, but simply impossible as a one-man operation as it fouled the sidestand.  Emailed ABBA with dimensions to discover that I'd actually got their standard super bike stand - and the upstands needed to be 75mm longer for the prep. with its jacked-up suspenders;

The Std ABBA stand is ok for your bike, the trick is to place the lhs in place in FRONT of your sidestand, then attach the rhs. The ABBA std will knock your side stand up during the lift.

Nice bike

Steve

[eyore]

Bike looks lovely and that luggage system looks perfect. Nice one.

[metropolis2k]

Lovely bike and great approach to solving challenges in mounting some of it! You've tempted me to do the same magnet trick and allow me to mount this tiny tank bag I have that is useful for carrying bits and pieces.

[Harry Lime]

Yep. Hats off to you for the magnetic tank bag fix. ( Hope it works......)

H.

[el-nicko]

.



Ahhhh. That is soooooo nice.

[tripe]

It was a long time ago that I did it but I thought the HID just connected up to the wires that go into the headlamp unit and you don't need to go near the battery, I know I didn't take the fairing off and used industrial velcro and cable ties to hold the ballast on to something!

[el-nicko]

Yes, That's wot I did too.

btw, thort you may not have seen this b4.

[meds8964]

im sure shes got a lovely personality el nico

[meds8964]

where you planning on going with all that luggage