Hello........almost ready to rock and roll

[Ksbeemer]

Been a while since I visited this forum. Been busy with other stuff and haven’t ridden much, lately. Now that it’s getting cold, naturally, I have the time to get my '02 R-bike cleaned up and ready to roll.

First, had to replace the fuel disconnects. Lucky I wasn’t very far from home when they went. I used the ones from the Beemer Bone Yard. Like most tell, getting the old clamps off was the hard part. I used a dremel cut-off wheel and tried not to worry about the sparks. The BBY ones are nice. Replaced the short piece of fuel line on each one, too. The battery wouldn’t hold a charge so got the one from BBY. I did have to put in about an inch spacer under the battery to insure the strap held it tight. Nice battery and on sale. The Youtube video someone here on the forum put up was a big help in removing the tank. While I had the tank off, I had the seat recovered by a local vinyl shop. They used black marine grade vinyl. Turned out pretty nice (IMHO). I have the low seat and I think they must have pulled it down tighter, because I can touch down with the balls of my feet, now. That’s a big deal when you have a 27” inseam.

Put on a new touring windshield that I got off ebay for less than half price. It was missing a few pieces of hardware, but I had all of that stuff from the old one. After one fairly short ride, the well nuts were coming loose. I disassembled and drilled out the blind holes. Going to use ¼ inch bolts with rubber washers. This is still a work in progress. Put new grips on. I was able to get the old cracked ones off with an xacto blade without disturbing the heating elements. I used aftermarket grips. Had to buy two pair to get two one inch ID grips. Took a lot of trimming, fitting, pushing, twisting and a few foul words, but got them on there. Tested them out and they heat up just fine. I don’t use the heated feature all that much, and I figure BMW probably doesn’t use a special rubber for the heated grips, anyway. Anyone know?

Next, added some BMW badging to the steering stem cover and saddle bags along with some round orange reflectors on the bags. IMHO kind of dresses things up a bit. Got one of those larger kickstand foot things. I have a gravel driveway and the foot is always sinking in. The foot I used is one for an R1100RT, but fits just fine. The only issue is the wider foot hits the edge of the muffler under the center of the bike when it is in the up position, does not interfere with the auto-engine shut-off and is folds up up well out of the way. I guess one could grind a notch in that part of the foot, if it hitting the muffler bothers/worries you.

Changed the oil and filter and put in new plugs. Syn oil from BBY. Finally, put on a small Suzuki universal carbon fiber tank pad. The tank is a little faded right there in front of the seat and the tank pad covers that up and (IMHO) looks good. Would post pics, but all of them are too large for the forum limit. Once I get the windshield mounts completed we will be ready to rock and roll….

[Ol' Jeffers]

In respect of the screen fasteners I would fight shy of running unprotected steel bolts through
the plastic/perspex blade. Far better IMHO to either buy new well nuts or put rubber grommets
into the holes and use smaller bolts (or carefully enlarge the holes and use grommets with the standard bolts).
You could also use some tough nylon bolts. HTH

[Dr. Strangelove]

been there done that.
wellnuts can be had at home depot or lowes in the drawers with small things.

Some people have no problem with the wellnuts. I was not opne of them. It is unnerving to see your windscreen wobbling at speed.

The reason people say not to bolt them as you are considering is that the wellnuts perform a safety function allowing the windscreen to let go if you have a crash and are lunging forward.
If that happens I think you have fer greater problems. BMW uses bolt through on other screens, so what's up with that with all the safety talk.

I wound up ditching my ytouring screen just because of the, in my case, inneffective wellnut design. I hated the problems with them.
Went to a tall 380 screen--that securely really screws in, running the risk of being cut in half by it if I go over the top.

But it doesn't trhreaten me with flying off in my face at speed

[Ksbeemer]

Thanks for the comments and advice. I have wondered why BMW used the well nuts, in the first place. Just like I have wondered why they used the plastic disconnects. I did a youtube search on well nuts, I see that they are used on Harley fairings and canoe anchor/paddle mounts. I have to tell you all, they just didn't work. They pulled through the windshield holes before they expanded. Not good.

I made spacers made out of hard nylon tubing to fit in the large holes in the windshield to slip over the quarter inch bolts. I cut them off so they are just a smidgen longer that the windshield is thick. I ground off the rounded backs of the windshield brackets, taking off about a quarter inch of material. They are flat where they once were round. Will use rubber washer on both sides and flat stainless washers on both sides, round head counter sunk stainless bolts to fit into the counter sunk stock washers, with acorn nuts on the back side mostly for looks. Gonna use red loctite on the acorn nuts.

As far a break-away in a crash, I think saving the windshield will be among the least of my concerns, if it comes to that. For what it's worth, used paint remover on the windshield brackets and a wire wheel on the grinder to clean them up. Then used SOS pads to give the surface some tooth, hopefully to help make the paint stick. Painted the first coat of the krinkle finish Rustoleum black on them tonight. Will sand them down and put another coat on tomorrow. I have no doubt that this setup will be better than well nuts.

Have a good one and thanks.

[Keppelj]

Well nuts can be had from Ztechnic which still sells the shield and parts. The correct well nuts are an inch long (an inch of rubber into the wells) which work fine. My experience with other sources was that the nuts were much shorter which will not provide the purchase needed in the wells. I really don't want that shield popping loose at speed! Sometimes the well nuts pull out Ok and sometimes I have had to drill them out. I bought some extras. My local BMW dealership sold nuts which were only 1/2" long and twice the price of Ztechnic's.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The ones I got from Lowes and Home depot were exact matches for the BMW ones in both length and width. For some people they work and for others they don't. Even though mine felt like they gripped when I tightened down, they always worked themselves lose. I think there may be some differences in the width of the holes. I would see my screen bouncing and a wellnut sliding in and out of the hole at 60mph and above. I finally had enough and changed the whole setup and never loked back.

[Sunbeemer]

I bought longer than original wellnuts from Home Depot (in their special parts drawers) and installed them after cleaning both the outsides and the bores they fit into on the brackets with isopropyl alcohol on Q-tips to remove all traces of grease. Whenever I remove them (to change windshields, etc.), I clean them similarly. Haven't had one come loose since.

[Ksbeemer]

Trying to post pics. It may not work. If it does there are two pics of my '02 Bike and two pics of the new grips.

http://s916.beta.photobucket.com/user/K ... 2001606099

Looks like it worked. Can anyone tell me how to post pics with Photobucket without posting the whole album? Thanks.