fred_jb
Registered user
I'm a GS newbie, and get the impression that most people don't do much modding to these bikes, so I'm not sure if this will be of interest, but I thought I would post some pics of the mods I have done to my new GS to suit my touring requirements. I chose the GS as a touring bike because I found it best met my requirements for a very competent two-up tourer, while also being fun to ride solo. My two previous bikes, Versys 1000 and Triumph Trophy SE, both proved to be a less than ideal compromise in different ways for these two roles.
However, I wasn't keen on the standard adventure style Vario luggage or most of the aftermarket equivalents. The problem is that the high level exhaust compromises the capacity and/or the positioning of panniers, and we also find the large boxes can be a bit obstructive for getting on and off the bike. I therefore looked at alternatives, and having used Shad luggage in the past, I decided to see if I could fit their new SH35 36 litre panniers and the matching expandable SH59X top box - pics here:
http://www.fastbikebits.com/shopimages/products/extras/D0B35100-big.jpg
http://www.fastbikebits.com/shopimages/products/normal/sh59x-med.jpg
The standard Shad GS fitting kit and L shaped pannier mounting frames fit outboard of the exhaust on the right and also quite far out on the left which would have made the bike too wide for filtering, but I know from experience on a previous bike that the Shad mounting system does lend itself reasonably well to modification to fit closer to the bike - so I just needed to find a way of lowering the exhaust to get it out of the way. The problem with the LC range is that the link pipes that connect the end cans to the exhaust system are welded to the end cans, and it is this link pipe that determines the angle of the exhaust. This would have made it difficult to modify the existing exhaust, but this also means that the front part of the system, including the exhaust flap section, looked like it would be similar if not identical for all bikes using the LC boxer engine. To test this, I picked up a very nice chromed RT end can with integral link pipe on eBay for only £57 and also bought the matching heat shield, and found that these fitted perfectly on the GS - just needing an extension to the frame mounted hanger to support it. I might replace this with an aftermarket RT exhaust at some point, but I actually quite like the look of the BMW one.
Due to the new Shad panniers, originally promised in March having been repeatedly delayed, I bought the GS mounting kits and then found a set of ex-demo Shad SH36 panniers to use as a base for modding the Shad GS mounts, as the SH35 uses the same mounts and frames. I will sell the SH36s later. These came with a mounting kit for a Yamaha MT-07, and fortuitously I found this was a much more suitable for the mods I needed than the original GS kit, so I only used the top brackets from the GS kit. I also replaced the GS pillion peg hangers with secondhand GSA ones as the GS ones have a large prong for the Vario boxes which was difficult to work around, and the GSA items have a pannier frame mounting bracket which was ideal for bolting the front of the modified Shad frames to. As well as being a lot closer to the bike, the panniers ended up mounted lower and a bit further forward than with the standard GS mounts.
I also found space to mount two tool tubes inside the pannier frames and will probably use one of these for carrying an emergency 1 litre fuel bottle. The silver brackets used to join the frames to the top bracket and support the tool tubes will go off to be powder coated black next week, so should be less visible then.
With the standard GS mounting kit and the SH36 panniers the overall width when fitted was 115 cms compared with 98 cms for the bars (including hand guards) which was way too wide. With the modified mounts and lowered exhaust I got this down to 101 cms, so only 15 mm wider on each side. The SH35 panniers seem to be more flat sided and a bit slimmer, so I am expecting these to end up being about the same width as the bars which would be ideal. Some pics below.
Fred
Does my bum look big in these? (Note perspective makes them seem much wider than the bars, but they are not.)
However, I wasn't keen on the standard adventure style Vario luggage or most of the aftermarket equivalents. The problem is that the high level exhaust compromises the capacity and/or the positioning of panniers, and we also find the large boxes can be a bit obstructive for getting on and off the bike. I therefore looked at alternatives, and having used Shad luggage in the past, I decided to see if I could fit their new SH35 36 litre panniers and the matching expandable SH59X top box - pics here:
http://www.fastbikebits.com/shopimages/products/extras/D0B35100-big.jpg
http://www.fastbikebits.com/shopimages/products/normal/sh59x-med.jpg
The standard Shad GS fitting kit and L shaped pannier mounting frames fit outboard of the exhaust on the right and also quite far out on the left which would have made the bike too wide for filtering, but I know from experience on a previous bike that the Shad mounting system does lend itself reasonably well to modification to fit closer to the bike - so I just needed to find a way of lowering the exhaust to get it out of the way. The problem with the LC range is that the link pipes that connect the end cans to the exhaust system are welded to the end cans, and it is this link pipe that determines the angle of the exhaust. This would have made it difficult to modify the existing exhaust, but this also means that the front part of the system, including the exhaust flap section, looked like it would be similar if not identical for all bikes using the LC boxer engine. To test this, I picked up a very nice chromed RT end can with integral link pipe on eBay for only £57 and also bought the matching heat shield, and found that these fitted perfectly on the GS - just needing an extension to the frame mounted hanger to support it. I might replace this with an aftermarket RT exhaust at some point, but I actually quite like the look of the BMW one.
Due to the new Shad panniers, originally promised in March having been repeatedly delayed, I bought the GS mounting kits and then found a set of ex-demo Shad SH36 panniers to use as a base for modding the Shad GS mounts, as the SH35 uses the same mounts and frames. I will sell the SH36s later. These came with a mounting kit for a Yamaha MT-07, and fortuitously I found this was a much more suitable for the mods I needed than the original GS kit, so I only used the top brackets from the GS kit. I also replaced the GS pillion peg hangers with secondhand GSA ones as the GS ones have a large prong for the Vario boxes which was difficult to work around, and the GSA items have a pannier frame mounting bracket which was ideal for bolting the front of the modified Shad frames to. As well as being a lot closer to the bike, the panniers ended up mounted lower and a bit further forward than with the standard GS mounts.
I also found space to mount two tool tubes inside the pannier frames and will probably use one of these for carrying an emergency 1 litre fuel bottle. The silver brackets used to join the frames to the top bracket and support the tool tubes will go off to be powder coated black next week, so should be less visible then.
With the standard GS mounting kit and the SH36 panniers the overall width when fitted was 115 cms compared with 98 cms for the bars (including hand guards) which was way too wide. With the modified mounts and lowered exhaust I got this down to 101 cms, so only 15 mm wider on each side. The SH35 panniers seem to be more flat sided and a bit slimmer, so I am expecting these to end up being about the same width as the bars which would be ideal. Some pics below.
Fred
Does my bum look big in these? (Note perspective makes them seem much wider than the bars, but they are not.)
