R1200GSA bash plate bracket question

lagauk

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It seems BMW in their infinite wisdom decided that having three different size fasteners for holding the bash plate was a really good idea.

Has anyone tapped out the mounting bracket of the bash plate to use different bolts or even welded a captive nut to take a hex bolt?

Would appreciate peoples advice and experience if they've done that.

Cheers

Lag
 
One of my bolts has sheered of years ago. It does mean I've got one less to undo to drain the oil and remove the filter. Never worried about it.
 
One of mine failed a while ago and now the second of the two rubber mounts on the rear bolts of mine has separated, I've ordered new ones and added the front two bolts to the order whilst I was about it.
 
Thanks for the replies fellas. Not quite the answers I was looking for but appreciate the comments
 
Yeah, that is a head scratcher. My tcGS has same. It’s not that big a deal - bolts are bolts.

It’s actually a pretty ingeniously designed setup, too. The front cross bar that holds up the plate is designed to be sacrificial in the case of a hard hit - it will bend, pivot, and get distorted in order to disperse energy to save the engine case. It works, too. (Ask me how I know…).
 
bolts are bolts
but not all bolts are the same. It just seemed odd to me to have to use three different size spanners/sockets to remove the bash plate.

Agree it's good engineering to have a sacrificial part like that to avoid excessive damage.

lol ok so what happened to you? How did you find out?
 
lol ok so what happened to you? How did you find out?

I parked head first into a parking spot on the outside row in a big lot, and when it was time to leave, decided to show off my GS capabilities by riding straight over a curb rather than backing up. There was dirt on the other side of the curb, though, so I wasn't riding up onto anything, I was riding over a 8" high or whatever height it was curb. I stood up on the pegs, gave it a blip, and whack! The bike smashed down on the top of the curb on the bashplate, which was thoroughly munched as a result.
:1/10

Fortunately, stock bashplates are plentiful because a lot of guys swap them out for something sturdier. I posted up on a local forum and within a couple days an inmate offered to give me one. I left him a six pack in the back of his pickup truck, where he'd left the thing for me to snag when it was convenient.
 
Yeah, that is a head scratcher. My tcGS has same. It’s not that big a deal - bolts are bolts.

It’s actually a pretty ingeniously designed setup, too. The front cross bar that holds up the plate is designed to be sacrificial in the case of a hard hit - it will bend, pivot, and get distorted in order to disperse energy to save the engine case. It works, too. (Ask me how I know…).

Fact! I can attest to to this also. I was doing a reccy run on the Stella Alpina..... lost all the oil also as one of the bash plate fixings holed the oil filter. I freewheeled for about half an hour to the bottom, all the while getting strange looks from hikers wondering was this a prototype electric GS :D:D

What really cracked me up though was the when I found out that my carefully prepared touring toolkit did not contain a tool for any of the 3 different sizes required to remove the bash plate.

Lucky for me I was touring with the Carlsberg of travelling companions and within about an hour and a half I was back on the road after he procured an oversize oil filter and some oil from local garage..... no mean feat at 18:00 on a Saturday evening in Italy. No idea what grade the oil was but the bike ran beautifully on it :D:D:aidan

As it happens that front cross bar is still bent on mine and I can only get 3 of the 4 bash plate fixings in.
 
lol good story.

I took my GS up the Stella a few years ago and loved it but being the off road noob that I am I cooked the clutch due to over feathering going round those wicked bends. I made it a fair way up the mountain but had to stop to let the clutch cool down. I carried on after a while and got up a little higher but my lack of talent and experience and sheer tiredness from picking up the bloody thing after dropping if four or five times meant I had to cut the ride short that point. No idea how far up I went but my mate said it was higher than he had managed the year before so that was quite pleasing.

Update on the bash plate if anyone is interested. No need to tap out any holes. I found a couple of flange head bolts with 10mm hex heads that fit. Just make sure the thread pitch is the same as the bracket.

So now I only need two sockets/spanners, a 10mm one for the front two bolts and 13mm for the two rear nuts.
 
sheer tiredness from picking up the bloody thing after dropping if four or five times meant I had to cut the ride short that point.

It's not an easy jaunt. I was two up and had to get push help to get restarted on a steep section after stopping to let riders down. For my Carlsberg companion, who is 67, the Stella was on his bucket list. He had a rough time picking up his 1150 on a couple of those corners, pulled muscles and all sorts...... but then he did have about 40KG of tools in each pannier :D:D:bow:aidan
 
but then he did have about 40KG of tools in each pannier :D:D:bow:aidan

lol that's just insane. We left our stuff in a hotel in Bardonecchia and rode up the mountain without luggage.

It was a bit embarrassing on one of the bike drops on a steeper curve where I needed help from some very pretty girls driving up in a 4x4 who stopped to help. Hmmm that might even have been the highlight of the day thinking about it.:bounce1
 


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