Fettling the new R1100S
Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 11:48 am
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...
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...
