Another RT-P project

steadysteve

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I recently bought an ex-Police R1200RT-P in silver as a winter project. A few of you might have seen my previous thread where I converted one from police spec to civilian spec. A few people commented that they would have liked to see pictures of 'work in progress' which I kept forgetting to take:blast so this time I made an effort and took a few pics as I went along:thumb2

The main differences are the radio box/hump where the pillion seat should be(there is no seat under the hump), no pillion footrests and nowhere to hang the civvy panniers onto. Also the rear mudguard/light unit/number plate holder is different. The main (read 'most expensive/hardest to find 2nd hand') seems to be the rack and grabrails which are £400 quid from BMW.

The first one had a full respray because it was white and the replacement panniers didn't match etc. This latest one is silver and in pretty good condition considering it's a 2008, '57' plate with 69000 miles so it's just had a tart up and all the police bits replaced with standard stuff. This was never intended as a full restoration in the style of Tunneruk, Nin , Mike P etc so don't expect a concours bike at the end.

I already had a few bits on the shelf that are necessary: pillion footrests, pannier hanger brackets but the seat and grabrails came from Italy.

Anyway, enough typing- a few pics of the victim. A bit ropey in the usual places but no significant damage- the paintwork seems to have been protected by the stickers and police markings. The headlight is pebble dashed but the paint is almost unmarked with the vast majority of patina having been caused by the guy that removed the stickers- there are a few lines where he has obviously used a scalpel or blade of some sort to get under the edges of the vinyl:blast
It does have a screen but it was removed to get the bike and trailer under the garage door.
 

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More pics

A few more of the bike before stripping bits off it..

Under the screen is a bit tatty where a ram mount has been bolted through, rear offside footrest hanger badly corroded and one showing the extra switch housings and brackets on the handlebars. Most of the switches had been removed apart for the one that kills all the lights- normally the headlight is on all the time but this had a switch that knocks them all of to save the batteries when parked outside the doughnut shop.
 

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Time to get naked..

A few more with bodywork removed and pannier frames coming off.. exhaust a bit ropey but not bent.

First pic shows the pannier mounting points directly onto the chassis/frame and the front brace/crossbar that needs a hole in the side panel to allow the brace bar to poke through. It bolts onto the seat height steppy plastic thing under the rear of the rider's seat .

The second one shows the civilian pannier hanger bolted on- when the trim panel is in place you only see the hangers sticking out through the panel.

Third one shows the crossbar and it's fastening points under the steppy plastic thing(technical term) followed by the offside pannier hanger in place.
 

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Discovered some chrome on the exhaust..

The exhaust looked like it had never been introduced to autosol and was a bit rough to say the least.... so after attacking it with autosol, brake cleaner, optiglanz:eek: and a blunt old screwdriver to chip away the biggest lumps of tar it came up okay.
 

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Front end refresh next..

There was the usual corrosion on the front engine cover and exhaust headers which got my standard treatment with a rotary wire brush.

The front cover was painted with smooth hammerite ( told you it wasn't a full on concours resto...:augie) followed by removal of the bolts holding the cover on and replacing with stainless steel.

Really didn't want to get into the removal of the headers and the possibility of seized / snapped studs to do a full 'back to silver' clean-up so brown will have to do...

As you can see form the condition of the telelever and surrounding brackets etc it hasn't seen any detailed cleaning while it's been chasing crims...
 

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The different bits

A few pics to show all the extra bits hidden away behind the bodywork.
Apart from the various extra electrica connectors it's mainly brackets that just bolt straight on/off, I haven't found anything bodged or fabricated on either of the RT-P's. It's all BMW stuff with part No's etc and comes apart really easily. If anyone is thinking of tackling one of these then hopefully this thread will give you an idea what's involved:thumb2

Four brackets, L to R: No 1- cross brace for rear of panniers. No2: slots into rear of chassis to support radio box. No3: supports front of radio box. No4: Cross member that sits that fastens under the steppy plastic thing and braces the crash bar/ pannier frames.

The other two pics show the little bolster cushion unit that sits at the front of the radio box.
It's got two little lugs to pull out and release the assembly to allow the front seat to be removed / battery access etc, in the same way the pillion seat on the civilian bike would be removed first..
 

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Suspension adjuster

When I had removed the bodywork/ seats/ brackets etc i found the remote adjuster for the rear suspension tucked away in the space around the suspension unit. After fishing it out it was obvious that it wasn't going to fasten to it's proper mounting point without twisting or kinking the hydraulic pipe. The haynes manual came to the rescue with pictures of how it should look and fasten in place: the hydraulic pipe had been attached the wrong way so that the 45 degree bend on the connector was facing the wrong way. I assume this was to create space under the seats for the radio box / brackets etc.
Undid the pipe , re-attached it and it slotted straight in :)
 

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I like it, there's something satisfying about just going right through a bike and tidying up. It looks to only need a little tidying. All that full restoration stuff is for people with a bit of a screw loose :D
 
I like it, there's something satisfying about just going right through a bike and tidying up. It looks to only need a little tidying. All that full restoration stuff is for people with a bit of a screw loose :D

Yep, just tidying it up really and trying to show others that might be thinking of buying one of these what is involved in converting it.
I havent got the space to have a bike completely stripped down either....and spring is around the corner so this one needs turning round sharpish.
 
Panels and panniers on... and off again

Once all the 'stuff' is stripped off the back end its just a case of bolting the standard stuff back on.

Easier said than done: The grab rails, rack, seat and rear mudguard/number plate unit are like rocking horse shit to find- the last rtp I had came with a rack because it had been owned by somebody else for a year, so only needed the grab rails which were £97 each from BMW. The rack is £200 from BMW plus sundry bolts etc:eek:

Panniers aren't cheap either especially if they need painting to match. But.. UKGSER to the rescue for the panniers and rear mudguard thingy- thanks Stu and Mike:thumb2.
The mudguard unit is almost the same at first glance but actually has a bigger top section which fills the space under the rack towards the pillion seat. It also has the pillion seat latch attached- different type of mechanism to the one for the rtp radio box.

After fitting the rear mudguard unit and pannier hangers a quick fitting of the panniers was in order to be sure they fitted- I think they were for a R1200R originally. The nearside one has a heatshield on it, something I don't recall my RT having??
Anyway they fitted okay- the rear part is the same on the fixing points.
 

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Side panels on.... and off again

The side panels on the RTp have the holes in them for the crash bar/ pannier cross brace to pass through. Ugly and messy in my opinion but gain the chances of finding standard ones in the right colour are slim. Sooo, decided to fit them and deal with the fugly aspect later... BMW roundels stuck over the hole maybe..?

Now that the back end was bolted back together and panniers fitted okay a pair of panels appeared on ebay in the right colour by the looks of them. Click click I'll have them... panels duly arrived but are 'light magnesium' not 'titan silver'. Not a million shades away so I fitted them anyway. On balance I think they are better than the holy silver ones.

Whaddya reckon chaps? I originally intended getting some panels and pannier lids re-sprayed but after finding the panniers in a matt black and the general condition of the bike's bodywork I decided to save the dosh.
 

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Front crash bars.

The front crash bars on these are a lot heavier duty than standard ones and have a big bolt that screws into the bottom of the block, in addition to the ones on the civilian style bars.

Its a big bugger M10 x 70mm iirc and screws through the subframe into the engine block.

Decided to support the block with the trolley jack because it seemed to be structural bolt. It's a torx key stud and is probably 100mm long because it passes through the crash bar tube first , recessed into the thick lug on the subframe. Bloody tight even after a bit of heat was applied(difficult to get it very hot because its well hidden at the thread end into a blind hole..). Anyway it came out with a 2 foot breaker bar persuaded it to move. I ordered some M10 bolts but the head of the original one is slightly different size (smaller) than the version 'off the shelf' meaning the new one wouldn't screw all the way home. It needed a couple of thou grinding off the outer edge of the head before it would screw right in.
The nearside needed a bit more work- removal of a couple of bits on the intake but again everything just comes apart without any drama.
Both of my RTp's I have had broken top mounting lugs on the crash bars- the tiny M6 at the top front of the engine block. I assume its due to over tightening of a ratchet strap at some time in it's life following recovery maybe, pulling the bar in a direction it wasn't designed to be pulled, i.e outwards rather than being shoved inwards as it would in a fall..?. There is no damage on the bars to indicate it's had a prang.
 

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Service

While the exhaust was off for cleaning I took the back wheel off to give it a good clean. Also removed the rear brake pads, or what was left of them... the bike came with a full MOT ticket but the seller was also the MOT tester:rolleyes:, you know where this is going dontcha... when I picked the bike up I asked him about the rear pads because they looked a bit thin- he said they were "within tolerances". The price was right so not worth arguing about a set of pads... I must have had a wry smile on my face because he went to great lengths to assure me he wouldn't let anything through if it wasn't right.. Daylight visible through one of the pads where the rivet should be and only about 1mm of pad left:rolleyes:

New pads, final drive and gearbox oil. Note the patented funnel and hosepipe filler for the gearbox. There was a small amount of gunge stuck on the magnet on the final drive drain plug but no lumps of metal so I assume its just normal wear and tear filings... anybody know what's 'normal'?
 

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Leftovers

Not a lot more to say really- more of a conversion than a restoration really.
A few bits leftover- Panniers and frames, radio hump/topbox, rear bolster cushion thingy, rear mudguard/number plate holder and front crash bars.

No nuts and bolts left over which is always a bonus...:thumb2
 

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Nailed it back together..

.. replacing a few bits with stainless steel fasteners, as I went along. Sanded and painted the centre stand, repainted the footrest hanger after failing to find a decent replacement, a bit of touching up of stone chips on the panels.
Not too shabby IMO.
 

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Nice job, that'll do someone for another 100k.

Panniers look good black, for some reason I've never liked colour matched panniers.
 
Nice job, that'll do someone for another 100k.

Panniers look good black, for some reason I've never liked colour matched panniers.

Another 100k definitely-- it sounds as sweet as anything, no rattles or tappety noises or bottom end noises.

It was the panniers that steered me away from respraying the whole lot. Shame about the slight mismatch on the side panels but hey ho.
If the panniers had been a different colour then maybe I would have shelled out the money for a respray(£260 for the last one) but don`t want to be out of pocket on the project.
 
Another 100k definitely-- it sounds as sweet as anything, no rattles or tappety noises or bottom end noises.

It was the panniers that steered me away from respraying the whole lot. Shame about the slight mismatch on the side panels but hey ho.
If the panniers had been a different colour then maybe I would have shelled out the money for a respray(£260 for the last one) but don`t want to be out of pocket on the project.

Just been studying the service history printout and it had a new engine at 29k.
Bike is for sale. Pm for more info, can email pics.
 
Side panels

Decided to go back to plan A and refit the original side panels and blank the holes with BMW roundels.
Bike is for sale if anybody wants a cheap tourer for the summer.
 

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Possible to keep authority panniers

Decided to go back to plan A and refit the original side panels and blank the holes with BMW roundels.
Bike is for sale if anybody wants a cheap tourer for the summer.

Really good job and nice write up! Cheers.
I may own a 2016 or 2017 R1200RT-P with a week so I am very curious.

Do you believe you could have kept the police panniers and still fitted the bike for a passenger. The reasons I ask are because a number of folk have pointed out the handiness of the authority side cases and how narrowing the bike is a plus. Also, I will be unlikely to find used >2014 r12rt luggage. And parts from BMW are hurtful

Also - I didn't really see the mounting holes you mention wanting to cover. But your observation makes me understand that its possible to keep some of the RT-P side plastic and therefore making the conversion slightly less expensive.

Anyhow - thank for the writeup
 


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