Looking for R1200R performance mods

Hey all,
Spent some time looking through the search engine and wasn't really finding what I was looking for. I have a 2009 R1200R and I am looking for some performance upgrades I can do to it that would allow me to also keep my warranty and that people have had good luck with. Specifically I am looking for a new exhaust. If anyone has some recommendations please let me know.

The best you can expect from a simple exhaust change is a very few hp at the very upper end of the rev range.
There will be no impact at mid ranges where you normally operate. Not exactly cost effective. The factory motor is already very high compression and pretty good flow internall.y It takes lot more than something you bolt on the pipe to make more power.

If you want a different sound thats another matter entirely but don't be deluded that substantially more power can be had from a pipe on a motor that has high specific output in stock form- it can't.

Excellent reply Racer.

460

A different perspective...

Autocrossing in the SCCA stock class means competing with very limited modifications allowed to the vehicle. I saw drivers spending $1,000s of dollars to fine tune their cars, only to be beaten by 4-5 seconds on a 1.5 minute course by a much lesser prepared car. So, what was the difference? The driver.

Instead of spending $$$ on hardware, consider going to a track school to wring-out the existing potential in your stock bike BEFORE making performance mods. Then you can assess its strong and weak points and know that your money is well spent.

Just my tuppence...

Theo-
A classic answer! As a regular track instructor (and street safety as well) for 4 wheels, I couldn't agree more. True speed starts with the driver andd after that one should do chassis before motor anyway IF speed is the target.
Spending $ on the driver has another advantage. Its permanent, unlike parts that come and go.

As long as it's under warranty, keep it stock. At the most maybe an aftermarket slip-on muffler.
But once it's out of warranty, one fairly inexpensive, yet seat of the pants boosters is to change the cam sprockets. A guy named Lenny over at the R11S / R12S site sells them. Advances the cam timing 9 degrees. Really gives the hexheads a needed midrange punch.

THEO said:

A different perspective...
.................Instead of spending $$$ on hardware, consider going to a track school to wring-out the existing potential in your stock bike BEFORE making performance mods. Then you can assess its strong and weak points and know that your money is well spent.

Just my tuppence...

Click to expand...

100% agree

If you wanted to spend the time squeezing more performance out of the motor, it can be done. The issue is not BMW engineers. The issue is EPA nonsense. While I've not done this on a boxer motor, I've done it on my Aprilia and everyone in the sport bike world does it to everything from every manufactured. This bike will be no different.

You need to take a base run on a dyno. You will find the air fuel mixture is tuned to passing EPA and not tuned for an optimal burn. Tweak the map to get your air fuel mixture correct for all points on the map. You actually don't need any hard parts to do this. Lot's of people do it with stock pipes and get reasonable gain. Most use a power commander. Some bikes allow the ECU to be tuned directly. And there are other products out there that allow the same to occur.

Letting 'er breath by adding less restrictive exhaust and letting in more air on the front end, will result in even greater results. Done properly, by a trained dyno man, there will be no negative aspect of doing this. Of course, it's time and money. And it won't be cheap.

On my Aprilia, EPA forced them to shrink a 4 inch intake hole down to 2 inches because too much noise was coming out of the intake track. That piece of plastic was one single screw. I also threw the cat into the trash and added a free breathing pipe. A quick 14 bhp and 7 ft/lbs of torque, at the rear wheel, was not difficult to achieve. Costly yes. Difficult, no. AND it was across the entire power band. Huge gains in the low and mid range. And even bigger gains with on/off throttle twitchiness. At red line, the bike became silky smooth.

I've not looked into what criminal acts EPA has committed on this has fine motor. But I wouldn't be shocked to find similar issues. Nor have I looked into whether a power commander is available or if our ECU maps can be modified directly. Since I've got my track day toy, I promised my wife I wouldn't mess with the RT, especially keeping it quiet. But from a conceptual level, there's no reason the same work can't be accomplished on this motor.

Given the intended purpose of the RT and most of the R bikes, after market people probably haven't invested in that sort of bling. So you might have to engineer your own solutions.

What you shouldn't do is, install a slip on, ignore the map and think it's going to run right. Doubtful. If you end up too lean, valves do melt. If you find something that works, let us know please.

14 and 7 is a pretty decent gain for typical tuning, more than many, less than a few. Most of it is likely due to the improved airflow in the intake and ditching the cat. And becasue hp is a function of rpm and the RT motor is a much slower revving engine, even if an equivalent were possible on the RT the numberds would be lower at peak aqnd way lower at normal operating ranges of 3500-4500 rpm.

Fine thing for a track day toy even though its now smoggy and probably a lot noisier- not a problem at the track.

Be interesting to see what a similar approach might add on an RT but I'm not volunteering mine. It runs OK in stock form and I'm not desperate for the couple hp and lb-ft I might gain at highway rpm. As you note, its a pricey way to gain a little. Besides, my version of the ideal machine turns thought to velocity, is invisible on command and makes no sound whatever......

Nothing against mods- my DD car is heavily modded (but still has original programming and pipes but 15-18 lbs of boost and a piggyback box for the boost range) and I've got a 500 hp rotary powered track toy that barely has a stock body panel on it and melts wastegates if I'm not careful with it....

How does that modded Aprilia do against the BMW equivalent re throttle response, handling ,etc???

race7, make no mistake, I have no intention to hot rod the RT. I was just commenting that any motor can be tweaked and how I've done it on other bikes. I also agree you can't out engineer the actual engineers. But when EPA imposes "stuff", it can easily be reversed for significant improvement. Was 14 bhp and 7 ft/lbs worth the $2000.00 effort on my Aprilia? As I write this, no. Ask me when I'm coming down the front straight at Louden or when scratchin' pegs up in the mountains... in those moments... hell yes!

I'd recommend spending money on suspension and brakes first. Then take any of the riding schools and do track days. Those things will make you go faster than adding horsepower. I did CLASS back in the late 80's and I've done STAR twice. '05 and '06. Worth every penny. Way more valuable than my horse power mods.

By the way, the Aprilia isn't any more smoggy than it was. In fact, I think because the air fuel is spot on, compared to how it came out of the factory, it's actually cleaner. It is loud. Italian V-twin loud. A low nasty quick rev'ing loud. Very intoxicating. No where near straight pipe Harley loud. I get lot's of positive comments on the sound. But given I ride that, I totally enjoy the quiet of the RT when I'm on it. I simply need multiple bikes. Some days I feel like I want to rip around and make a bunch of noise. Some days not so much

Well, I thought that I should chime back in on this topic. Now that the bike has been in my possession for over a year now and I have been able to put some miles on it I have learned some things about my R1200R and myself.

About myself:
I guess I just really get used to things, and when they change I try to force them back into what I expect them to be. Glad I learned this on a motorcycle before I ruined my family with my craziness.

I did wind up buying a aftermarket muffler for it and that it how I figured this out. After I changed the muffler the bike sounded more like what I was used to. It didn't make the bike any noticeably faster for obvious reasons but I was a lot happier with it because it now has a very throaty grunt when I twist the throttle instead of the angry droning sound.

About the R1200R:
This bike is already fast, once you know how to ride it. Coming from the high revving Japanese 4 fours and my English Triple I was wrong to approach riding my new R1200R the same way. Its a little difficult for me to explain, but I had to relearn to ride. Where I applied power, how I would lean, everything had to be taught to me by the R1200R. Once I started listening to what the bike was telling me instead of trying to force it to act like a bike it was not, the bike really started to speed up for me. While I am not a top notch street rider with a stack of worn knee pucks in my garage, I am very pleased with the proficiency I am able to move the R1200R.

Riding 2 up on the R1200R isn't the most pleasant. I had met a few friends for lunch while our wives met up to take the kids to a day at the children museum. Lunch ended and we went our separate ways. One friend was dropped off by his wife who had planned to leave the museum early so he had to wait for her to return. I decided to hang out with him until she arrived. We waited, and waited, and after about 45 minutes he called her. Their car had broken down in the lot and wouldn't start so she took the kids back inside because it was so hot. After a heated phone discussion about why didn't she call him to let him know, he came up with a plan. He would go home and get the other car and bring it to her. He would then wait for the garage that he likes to use to come and pick the car up and take it away. He only lives about 5-10 minute ride away so I offered to give him a lift. Boy was that a bad idea. He must weigh a lot more than he was saying because the front end of the bike would kick like a mule when I would turn.

All in all I am very happy with my bike. I would be interested in taking a track day with it, so if anyone knows of one in the Chicagoland area, drop me a PM.

Laters,
DeFeldermaus

More Horsepower for the R1200R

Best way to get more horsepower out of the bike is to take it to the dealer and trade it for an S1000RR. That will give you a substantial boost and plenty of thrills.

Regards,

"EPA" makes a great scapegoat and sells lots of aftermarket stuff to the uninformed and the dreamers.

The fact of the matter is, your motor in stock form is not "strangled" either by the intake system or the exhaust system. If it were "strangled" it wouldn't pass emissions. This isn't 1968.

You can remove all filters and mufflers and your engine will still inhale the same amount of fuel/air mixture as it always did because you haven't changed ...

displacement
intake and exhaust valve sizes
intake and exhaust valve lifts
intake and exhaust valve timing
ability of motor to withstand higher revs

Without changing these things the motor isn't going to inhale any more fuel/air and make more power unless you supercharge or turbocharge it. You've got almost nowhere to go with the actual fuel/air mixture.

With a driveshaft versus a chain it's pretty expensive to change gearing. More compression is usually good, but that means new pistons mostly, as you'd need to worry about cam chain tensioning if you shave material off the heads.

The best way to achieve a faster bike is to buy a faster bike. You searched and the aftermarket didn't offer much ... because there isn't much and there's little potential. Your dealer has some S1000RRs.

Until yesterday, last post was Aug 2011