Rotti’s Handle Bar Surprise!
Rotti is our 2002 K1200RS we bought used from Cochise Motorsports with about 62,000 miles on her 6 years ago in 2012. We were the bike’s sixth owner and knew four of the previous five owners. When we got her she was a mess with major oil leaks and needed attention everywhere. Once all the repairs and patches were done, we’ve added another 30,000 miles to the odometer. She’s a keeper.
When we got home from Coeur d’Alene, ID the end of May I went to take Rotti off the lift and ended up with the left handle bar in my hand! Wow! If this would have happened on the road it may have been disastrous. The bolt holding the left handle bar on the mount pulled out, taking four threads with it. Doing some internet research I found out the bolts holding on both handle bars were too short. The right handle bar’s threads were also showing signs of being stressed.
I searched the net for used bars but really didn’t find any that looked good, so I had Iron Horse order up a set of replacement bars. They came in from Germany in about two weeks and a couple of days. Wanda and I rode up to Tucson on Jugs, our ’16 R1200RS, and picked up the bars along with all the stuff needed to do a 126,000 mile service on our 2008 K1200GT, The Grey Ghost.
After struggling a bit getting the heated grips wires to release from their case, both the handle bar mounted master cylinders and electrics came off. It took about the same time to mount everything back up on the clutch side. Looking at the BMW OEM Repair Manual the pinch bolt for the master cylinder is to be torqued to 7 nm. I have a 4 to 15 nm torque wrench and set it to 7.0 nm. Time to move to the right side.
The brake side has the throttle cable(s) as well, and it took a bit more fiddling to get everything back on and ready to torque down. I set my wrench to 7.0 nm again and slowly tightened it down. The wrench clicked and the pinch bolt went snap…the pot metal cracked and broke off! A serious bummer.
The BMW part number for the right master cylinder includes everything: the reservoir, the lever, the switch and wire…everything…and costs accordingly…over $500 delivered. Time to check the internet again. Beemer Bone Yard has always been right on, so I went there first. They had a used reservoir for just shy of $150 delivered. From order to arrival was three days. Can’t beat that.
Everything on the old reservoir had to come off and be moved to the new used one. This also meant removing the brake line from the master cylinder which could have required a bleed of the front brake system. When I pulled the line off, I immediately taped it up with the banjo bolt still in place. Later when I mounted the brake master cylinder and torqued it to 6.2 nm (just to be on the safe side) and connected the brake line back up, I was very careful to lightly work the lever to remove the air. I also held the master cylinder up and tapped the line with a wrench to help any air move up into the master cylinder. Time for a test ride.
I carefully pulled Rotti around to the front of our house and gave each brake a test. Seemed ok. I rode around the block hitting the front and rear brakes a bunch of times. When I pulled back into our back yard shop the brakes were hot, real hot, yet showed no sign of fade or pumping up. Maybe we’ll take Rotti over to the Warren Farmers Market this Saturday while the Grey Ghost awaits her full service. Good to have Rotti road worthy and ready to go!
Attached is a picture of the old handle bars, the damaged master cylinder and the correct sized bolt next to the smaller bolt that was used incorrectly in both handle bars.
Rotti is our 2002 K1200RS we bought used from Cochise Motorsports with about 62,000 miles on her 6 years ago in 2012. We were the bike’s sixth owner and knew four of the previous five owners. When we got her she was a mess with major oil leaks and needed attention everywhere. Once all the repairs and patches were done, we’ve added another 30,000 miles to the odometer. She’s a keeper.
When we got home from Coeur d’Alene, ID the end of May I went to take Rotti off the lift and ended up with the left handle bar in my hand! Wow! If this would have happened on the road it may have been disastrous. The bolt holding the left handle bar on the mount pulled out, taking four threads with it. Doing some internet research I found out the bolts holding on both handle bars were too short. The right handle bar’s threads were also showing signs of being stressed.
I searched the net for used bars but really didn’t find any that looked good, so I had Iron Horse order up a set of replacement bars. They came in from Germany in about two weeks and a couple of days. Wanda and I rode up to Tucson on Jugs, our ’16 R1200RS, and picked up the bars along with all the stuff needed to do a 126,000 mile service on our 2008 K1200GT, The Grey Ghost.
After struggling a bit getting the heated grips wires to release from their case, both the handle bar mounted master cylinders and electrics came off. It took about the same time to mount everything back up on the clutch side. Looking at the BMW OEM Repair Manual the pinch bolt for the master cylinder is to be torqued to 7 nm. I have a 4 to 15 nm torque wrench and set it to 7.0 nm. Time to move to the right side.
The brake side has the throttle cable(s) as well, and it took a bit more fiddling to get everything back on and ready to torque down. I set my wrench to 7.0 nm again and slowly tightened it down. The wrench clicked and the pinch bolt went snap…the pot metal cracked and broke off! A serious bummer.
The BMW part number for the right master cylinder includes everything: the reservoir, the lever, the switch and wire…everything…and costs accordingly…over $500 delivered. Time to check the internet again. Beemer Bone Yard has always been right on, so I went there first. They had a used reservoir for just shy of $150 delivered. From order to arrival was three days. Can’t beat that.
Everything on the old reservoir had to come off and be moved to the new used one. This also meant removing the brake line from the master cylinder which could have required a bleed of the front brake system. When I pulled the line off, I immediately taped it up with the banjo bolt still in place. Later when I mounted the brake master cylinder and torqued it to 6.2 nm (just to be on the safe side) and connected the brake line back up, I was very careful to lightly work the lever to remove the air. I also held the master cylinder up and tapped the line with a wrench to help any air move up into the master cylinder. Time for a test ride.
I carefully pulled Rotti around to the front of our house and gave each brake a test. Seemed ok. I rode around the block hitting the front and rear brakes a bunch of times. When I pulled back into our back yard shop the brakes were hot, real hot, yet showed no sign of fade or pumping up. Maybe we’ll take Rotti over to the Warren Farmers Market this Saturday while the Grey Ghost awaits her full service. Good to have Rotti road worthy and ready to go!
Attached is a picture of the old handle bars, the damaged master cylinder and the correct sized bolt next to the smaller bolt that was used incorrectly in both handle bars.
