Cannibalizing an R1100S

[jdazey]

Last Fall I bought this beautiful Pacific Blue R1100S with 8700 miles. Perhaps not the fastest color but certainly the prettiest (my wife says so; end of discussion.) I had a black one about 15 years ago so had a good idea of what to expect. Reading the Meet Mandy thread though, got me thinking about possible upgrades. My budget and resources don't equal Josef's, so I knew I'd need to cut corners. Luckily(?) I found a 1999 R1100S with 78000 miles, Dymag wheels, Ohlins suspension, and a few other bits for a good price.

Here it's halfway to it's new home:


The donor in pieces:


The donee getting new parts:



Stock and Dymag wheels:



Ohlins rear shock inplace:



Does anyone know who made this peashooter LOUD exhaust?


Yesterday I got the blue bike buttoned up and will test ride today. I'm just checking for fit at this stage. If everything seems to be working out, next steps will be sending the shocks in for rebuilding and getting the wheels painted. The 99 orange bike came with a Wunderlich seat, but it does fit the 2004 blue bike. A trip to Rich's will be coming up. A LI battery and ABS delete should get me as close as I'm going to get to a Mandy. Will it be as good as my R1200S? Hmmm, that's a very high bar. The orange bike will get sold or used as a track bike.

[908/930]

Nice bunch of parts from the donor bike. The Yellow bikes are always faster.

[Jozef Schumann]

Originally Posted by jdazey

Does anyone know who made this peashooter LOUD exhaust?

Excellent score with what appear to be quite an assortment of NLA components. Those DYMAG's look to be the magnesium wheel they offered long ago.

A word of caution:

Decades ago a Ducati running at Willow Springs was fitted with a set of Magnesium DYMAG's which came apart on the fastest section of the course. Turn8. He survived, albeit beat up pretty badly.

At the very least. If it were me.

I would have them NDT tested. Try these folks:

Mitchell Laboratories
Pico Rivera, CA
(855) 210-9499

I believe the pipe used to be offered by these people.

https://www.rbracing-rsr.com/blackhole/bmwr1100exhausts.html

Best of luck with your project!

J.S.

[jdazey]

Yes, that's the very exhaust right down to the led license plate lights. That's quite a sales pitch they make for their intake/exhaust/fuel system all of which is NLA.

Now that everything is temporarily reassembled, I'll take the bikes out and compare the exhaust noise levels. Despite their claims, though, I wouldn't call the RSR exhaust "stealth".

I'll look into ndt testing. There are companies in the Seattle area that should be able to check out the wheels after I get the tires off.

As you may have noticed, I have two projects going on at the same time. I'd like to keep one of the bikes available for riding, so there will be some leap-frogging.

And thanks for the help and support.

[Jozef Schumann]

Originally Posted by jdazey

Yes, that's the very exhaust right down to the led license plate lights. That's quite a sales pitch they make for their intake/exhaust/fuel system all of which is NLA.

Now that everything is temporarily reassembled, I'll take the bikes out and compare the exhaust noise levels. Despite their claims, though, I wouldn't call the RSR exhaust "stealth".

I'll look into ndt testing. There are companies in the Seattle area that should be able to check out the wheels after I get the tires off.

As you may have noticed, I have two projects going on at the same time. I'd like to keep one of the bikes available for riding, so there will be some leap-frogging.

And thanks for the help and support.

I just realized you're up on the other side of Seattle. Absolutely. What with Boeing in Everett and Renton you'll have no issue locating a facility.

Referencing RSR;

Yes. For them to abandon the benefits of inlet natural frequency (Helmholtz) tuning was all that was required to arrive at a decisive conclusion for me.

I am not visiting the forum as often as I once did. As many are aware who have been following along, I also have an ongoing project with Mandy - nicely, but slowly progressing, with details coming soon.

Looking forward to yours as well.

J.S.

[John2Lman]

Thanks for posting this.
I am casually looking for a doner R1100S to upgrade my recently purchased stock BCR.
Good luck and keep the updates coming.

[Jozef Schumann]

Question:



If you have no idea then a close up photo would help. Thank you.

J.S.

[sgoodwin]

I'd bet it's a chinesium aluminum TPS cover.

[jdazey]

I won't be home until next Sunday (out riding). I'll post photo then, but I think sgoodwin is correct.

[jdazey]

I just got back from Manzanita, OR for the WSBMWR Rain Run. I put about 800 miles over four days on the 2004 bike with the Dymag wheels and Ohlins suspension. Those made a huge improvement. So far the transplants are doing their job.

Here are photos of the gizmo:





It is, as sgoodwin figured, a cover for the throttlebody.

I discovered a couple of items while doing the wheel transplant. First, I knew that the wheels between the early abs bikes and the later ones differed in the posts for mounting the abs ring. No problem, I just transferred the rings. Oops, that screwed the offset up. If I'd left things as they were, I would have been fine. So back to original configuration. All would have been good except that I wanted the fancy wavy discs that came with the donor bike. I left those on the Dymag wheels and put them on the 04 donee bike. No problem, I thought. Putting the 04 wheels with stock discs on the donor bike was a different story. I just could not get the calipers to go on. Come to find out, the early bikes had 305mm discs and the later bikes have 320. So no fancy wavy rotors for me.

The donor bike came with an after market Wunderlich seat. The little I rode that bike, the seat seemed fine. After another 800 miles on the stock seat, I was really, really ready for something else. I ordered a pair of adapter pins from Sargent and installed the Wunderlich on the 04. I'll give a report after I ride it a bit.

The suspension - The Ohlins are great. The Nestucca River Road has some pavement patches and slide repairs. It makes for interesting riding. The Ohlins soaked it all up.I have noticed, however, that I can now flat-foot at stops. That's nice at stops but detracts from ground clearance, so the Ohlins rear must be shorter. The donor has a short shaft strut, so I'll move that over and see what happens.

The Dymags need refinishing. Any suggestions?

[Jozef Schumann]

Originally Posted by jdazey

Here are photos of the gizmo:

It is, as sgoodwin figured, a cover for the throttlebody.

Thank you for the photos. I initially thought it just might be. I was always skeptical of the value of that type of cover on the TPS - even on a GS - being the circumstances required. Perhaps an off road scenario in conditions one may encounter in an ISDT event with jagged, protruding rocks wreaking havoc, if - by hellacious chance—one were to even consider manhandling a brutish, heavy, opposed twin in impossibly rocky terrain, only to drop the machine on its left side, magically missing the sizeable jug and tagging the TPS. Inauspicious serendipity and weirdness happen though, and all it would take is that one-in-a-million to evoke a resounding hallelujah!

On an R11S? Functionally useless in my opinion, though some may consider it bling. To each their own.

Originally Posted by jdazey

The Dymags need refinishing. Any suggestions?

This is a tough one. Some folks have attempted to refinish magnesium wheels employing a similar process and procedures as those used on aluminum which is a monumental, emphatic no-no!.

If the part were a static, relatively low-load component i.e. cam/valve cover, powder painting is of little concern and can yield a positive result, as can be seen on Mandy. Years ago I owned a Modena 360 fitted with magnesium Campagnolo's in need of restoration, and the only qualified source relatively close was down here in Irvine. I have no clue if they're still operating but can check with a couple of owners in the club if you can't find anyone nearby. Be prepared. To properly rehabilitate your wheels to a cosmetically pleasing and safe condition may very well run more than you are willing to spend.

Personally, knowing the benefits and limitations of magnesium wheels leave me unequivocally certain on what I would do. There are very few, if any, components more important to safety than wheels. Period. Full stop.

Good luck.

J.S.

[jdazey]

Thankyou, Jozef, that helps my decision.

Originally Posted by John2Lman

Thanks for posting this.
I am casually looking for a doner R1100S to upgrade my recently purchased stock BCR.
Good luck and keep the updates coming.

I've come to the place where the cost of updating my 04 R1100S using the donor bike is a marginal propostion at best.. The Dymag wheels need work, probably at too high a cost. The wave rotors don't fit. The Ohlins shocks, which are an improvement, need rebuilding/valving for my weight. The Wunderlich seat is an improvement for sure, but it also need the cover reglued to the foam. The shorter BCR lenght strut is crude and a loose fit at the final drive. The handlebars are an intermediate version that puts the level between the low, below the triple tree and the high over the triple tree. I like that, but switching involves splicing the heated grips wiring.

While all of these issues can be addressed, my goal was to make meaningful, cost effective improvements to the beautiful, low mileage 2004 bike. My current thinking is to put the donor bike back into saleable condition. I may keep the Ohlins (or buy Tractive), do the absectomy, and find a seat, possibly from Rich as he's about three miles away. I may look for a GS torque arm as well.

I guess the moral is check out the donor bike very carefully. The expense of bringing the donor parts up to standard can escalate quickly. I knew the Dymag wheels had flaws, but I thought it would be a quick and easy fix. Not the case, and the put the cost over the top. Fortunately The 04 is rideable while I tackle dismantling the R1200S (see other thread).

[tomvv11]

Jdazey, is your iABS functional now? Whether yes or no, but especially no, if you're going to remove it I'd like to get hold of your iABS module, to explore rebuilding.
Be happy to ride to you. My 11S has never been on a ferry.

[jdazey]

Here are two photos of the Ohlins from the donor bike.




Does anyone know what model this is? Is it, and the front, worth rebuilding or better to just get Tractive from Beemer Shop? The donor is a 1999, and the shocks may be that old.

Also, note the clean area just above the black knob. Turning the knob all the way raised the height just that much but changes the damping. Is there a way to adjust ride height?

[njsax]

Its worth rebuilding. Can't get them anymore from Öhlins, so they're hard to find. I tried to buy a set a couple of years ago and was out of luck, so I bought a set of HyperPros instead from Klaus at EPM Performance. They've been terrific so far.

I would have the Öhlins rebuilt. Their rebuildability is one of the features that make them popular. They'll come back like new. I would send the set to Öhlins USA in Hendersonville, North Carolina. I've had very good experience with them. (Nothing against Ted Porter [Beemershop], though. I have one of his Tractives on my R1200RS. Nice guy and excellent shop).

[jdazey]

OK, they're boxed up and on their way to Hendersonville.

[Jozef Schumann]

Originally Posted by jdazey

Does anyone know what model this is? The donor is a 1999, and the shocks may be that old.

I've been away on business for the past week - not following.

Indeed I do.

Your rear Ohlins is: BM 205 - details found here;

https://ohlins.com/storage/B652D0F37590E825C0EEA82A08799B9D10CAF3869E0E423948 D6ED82302B425F/a2ba94e3a7e3459d977a01bb38ee6bba/pdf/media/9f28f5a09b744e9090c2b07cb482dc47/MI_BM205_1_x.pdf

Your Front is: BM842 -
Open the page and scroll down to the installation PDF:

https://www.ohlins.eu/en/products/motorcycle/bm-842--4007/

Ohlins are absolutely worthy of a proper refurbishment. Many years ago, I had established a relationship with Stig "Stiggy" Pettersson. A wonderful Swedish fellow who, after a few years of successfully running his own business here in Anaheim, was hired by Ohlins USA and relocated to Hendersonville. His expertise in setting up Ohlins dampers was remarkable, matched only (in my experience) by a very select one or two others. Stig sadly passed away at 79 years old in 2022. He was a legend in the industry. Matter of fact, I had a lengthy personal chat with another very-much-missed-pelican forum member and legend in his own right; Brad Zimmerman about Stig as both of us had a motocross background. We shared some mutually fascinating as well as extremely interesting tales.
Brad's passing has also left a gaping void as his contributions here and elsewhere are incalculable.

His screen name here on Pelican is bradzdotcom

I urge anyone passionate about, not only their BMW's but motorcycling in general to look up Brad. He was truly an impressive man.

Here is an RIP call out on Stiggy:

https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/r-i-p-suspension-tuner-stig-pettersson/

Referencing the other two who are extremely competent. There is David Behrend. Proprietor of Fast Bike Industries and also located in - of all places - Hendersonville. Very, VERY capable fellow. Check out his site and scroll to Services/Technology then to cost for a breakdown. His site is here:

https://www.fastbikeindustries.com/index_htm.html

Finally, there's Doug Brenner out here in Simi Valley. Doug has been around longer than just about anyone else I know. He helped in setting up dampers on various machines I've owned including an Ariel Atom and is undeniably a top tier expert. Like myself, Doug is an elderly gentleman, always smiling and ready to help, drawing from his deep well of accumulated knowledge of racing for over 50 years! You can actually find him on YouTube as well where he is known as "The Ohlins Guy". Do yourself a favor and watch some of his videos which are chock full of valuable info, deep diving into Ohlins like few, if any others can - or will.

His site:

CONTACT - BRENNER SHOCKS

to the OP: jdazey

By sending your shocks to the mothership you can rest assured they'll be returned to you in as new condition. If not in appearance then certainly in function.

Please let us know how they turn out.

best,
J.S.

[jdazey]

Thanks, Jozef, I'll follow the links. I've been through a lot of threads on this forum.
Bradz's name has come up often.

[850dunstall]

so i am in the hunt for the sealing plate on the fuel tank. my low fuel sensor has packed it in. the plate as the sensor (a little white cyl mounted and is no longer available you interested?

[jdazey]

Sorry, but my very supportive wife will kill me and toss my carcass to the coyotes if I start parting this bike out. I've promised that the complete, running bike will be sold before I add another to my little collection.

So I checked eBay. I have to say that even used these parts are criminally expensive. Maybe it's time to find a donor bike?