• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

  • Beginning April 1st, and running through April 30th, there is a new 2024 BMW MOA Election discussion area within The Club section of the forum. Within this forum area is also a sticky post that provides the ground rules for participating in the Election forum area. Also, the candidates statements are provided. Please read before joining the conversation, because the rules are very specific to maintain civility.

    The Election forum is here: Election Forum

17 R1200RT Ilium crash bars contact rear swing arm

ilium bars

HWYHOUND said:
I have a similar mark on my swingarm, although not as drastic, on my 2018. The bike has never been tipped over, or scraped the bar while cornering. I have never ridden two up and always have my preload set at "with luggage" or "with passenger" when loaded and the top box attached. My weight is under 200lbs with gear. I have sent photos to Ilumi and received notification that " they're working on it".
Click to expand...

I too have the Ilium bars, front and back with their aux light mounts and hwy pegs. Bearing in mind that this is a touring machine I will/have never even come close to a lean angle that would even remotely come as close as to contact the ground, which these pictures clearly show. The contact could have been a concrete wall from the height of the scrape marks. Same physics about bending either the mounting bracket or the frame apply. Keep us posted. I'm curious what John at Ilium has to say. We discussed throwing over his red rt1250 while stopped with nary a mark on the bars, on Utube.:)
 
Update

I sent Ilium a message asking for an update and got a message from John that a "revised" version was in production and three weeks away. Woohoo!
 
This intrigues me. I have essentially the same bike ('16 RT) and bars, ride 2 up all the time, I'm 245 lbs and she's 150, with every square cm of luggage space crammed full on every kind of surface and no such problem. I wonder if there were different specs for the Ilium mounts, or some were made differently for other reasons? Hope this gets solved for you.
 
Received my new replacement bracket today

New bracket came via UPS, just delivered. It appears to be identical to the old one which I no longer have, having sent it to Ilium. I won't be mounting this until someone can tell me if its different or not.
 
I got mine also today

They look the same.
According to a post on the BMWLT forum, there is supposed to be a 2 degree curve added to the original design which clears the swingarm.
 

Attachments

  • New ilium Works rear bracket.jpg
    New ilium Works rear bracket.jpg
    234.4 KB · Views: 206
I also received a new bracket and installed it. The modification is hard to notice when the brackets were viewed side to side on my bench. However, according to my primitive measuring technique, the lateral extent of the bar was moved outboard about 1/4" after installation. I'll watch for signs of further contact with the drive shaft housing. Thanks to Ilium for addressing the problem so quickly.
 
New bracket

I got my new bracket yesterday, and installed it. It fits perfectly, like the earlier one. Thanks to Ilium Works for their great customer service.

I was curious to see what was different, so I took some pictures. The differences are subtle. I am holding the original up against the new piece, and pointing to the slight abrasion in the original piece with my finger. You can see that there was a portion of the edge of the original bracket that was rubbing on the swingarm. The best view of the difference is with the next picture -- the profile of the curve is slightly different.

Cap

ilium1.jpg

ilium4.jpg
 
Dann said:
I got mine also today

OK, so I no longer have my old bracket so I cannot compare the new one to it and make certain it is modified. I do have my right side bracket however and when I put the new left side and old right side next to each other I don’t see anything different at all on the left side. Moreover the angle of the right side old bracket is slightly greater than that of the new left side. I’m not very keen on mounting these on my bike again unless Ilium or someone with both brackets can show me what has changed, because I can’t see it. A 2 degree change is admittedly small but should be visible. When I put the left and right back to back they are identical, so I can't see any difference in the cutout or curve between the two.
Capture1.JPGCapture2.JPG
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
I finally got around to installing my replacement LH rear guard bar bracket I received so promptly from Ilium Works.

I took some pictures with references of OLD vs NEW and have some observations.
Firstly, the flat section of the attachment area where the frame mounting bolts go is not only bent about 2deg more, but it's also bent on a line that is closer to the edge of the bracket.
Both of these contribute to a measurable "cast off" away from any contact with the Paralever/swing arm.

I clamped them tight to my workbench with the edge of the brackets flush with the edge of the workbench…this allowed me to really see the way that this bracket will afford better clearance.
Using a paint stirrer stick it was obvious that the bolt hole flat is bent at a different point from the edge, so starts the effective clearance earlier to assist the 2deg additional bend.

There is a line drawn on the foam board picture (last one) that is parallel to its edge on the workbench that shows the displacement of the attachment rods for the removable curved loop.

I don't see any difference in the arc or position of the cutout along the curved edge of the OLD vs NEW…that doesn't mean there isn't a difference, just that I can perceive anything different there.

All in all, a wonderful solution.
Many thanks to Ron and John at Ilium Works for responding to their customers in such a timely fashion, with a gratis fix for this issue…I'm going to remain a loyal customer!

IMG_5651-M.jpg
5654F978-BD6E-4178-9B07-4B31B1DEE937_1_105_c-M.jpg
3DEE7758-F063-4066-8B36-67808724B31C_1_105_c-M.jpg
IMG_5657-M.jpg
 
After installing the replacement bracket, I covered the rub mark on the drive shaft housing with a dab of white paint. I'm happy to report that there in no evidence of further contact after several thousand miles.
 
dlong0609 said:
After installing the replacement bracket, I covered the rub mark on the drive shaft housing with a dab of white paint. I'm happy to report that there in no evidence of further contact after several thousand miles.
Click to expand...

I used a silver Sharpie, AKA an "anodizing pen." :) And I too have several thousand miles on some fairly rough roads while carry heavy loads, and no further marks on the swingarm.

cap
 
It is great when a company admits there screw up and takes care of it with no pressure from the customer. It speaks volumes.

On I side note, where I work we sold a customer some equipment. when he received it all and went to install it there was an issue that they were able to take care of. He called, more to let me know about it than complain, and I told him I would look into it and see what happened. One of the guys I work with quoted the equipment, and messed up and picked something wrong, so it was his fault. I called back my customer and told him what happened and said it wouldn't happen again as we fired the guy. I was silent after that, and the customer was quiet for what seemed like forever, and then he said, "You did?" and then he started laughing, and if you knew this guy he has a full, loud belly laugh, and he said "You didn't, you are just F'ing with me!" I was, and I told him I just wanted to see where things got screwed up so we might learn from it. I will slip him a $25 gift card for his trouble. Cheap lube to keep the wheels turning.
 
Last edited:
All in all, a wonderful solution.
Many thanks to Ron and John at Ilium Works for responding to their customers in such a timely fashion, with a gratis fix for this issue…I'm going to remain a loyal customer!
Click to expand...

For those of you in communication with Illium, send them a link to the thread.
It’s nice to receive positive feedback. :thumb
OM
 
Not bloody likely!

Omega Man said:
For those of you in communication with Illium, send them a link to the thread.
It’s nice to receive positive feedback. :thumb
OM
Click to expand...

So after a couple of months of trying to convince them that there was a problem, being denied, and then shipping my bracket (on my dime) to them for consideration I should sing their praises??? Not likely. I think they should have done more testing in the first place and not assume that using a single bike is representative of all of that model sold for testing. Moreover their testing was not done in a real world setting with luggage and a passenger over a real road miles, it was done by trying to tie the suspension down with straps on a test bed. Not good enough. Listening to the customer would be helpful too, and maybe something in consideration of the fact that I now have a scar on my driveline that was caused by an ill fitting and expensive product they sold me. No cause for celebration here, I got less than what I paid for and a whole lot of trouble to boot.
 
Well I guess you can't please every customer. Honestly this is a SMALL niche business making unique parts for a very small market segment. These guys are not getting rich running that company but making a decent living I hope. It does appear they listened to the customers and made a fix. No ... they did not consider it a major issue with one complaint but once they had numerous complaints it appears they took action and relatively fast action to boot consider THEY ARE A TINY COMPANY.

I have owned BMW's since 2000 and order a LOT of these small company parts and honestly about half do not fit to my anal liking. But most fit OK and some superb. But that is just how it goes owning a BMW motorcycle and buying from a small company. My personal experience with Ilium Works has been very positive. But hey .... YMMV.
 
AjaxTheDog said:
So after a couple of months of trying to convince them that there was a problem, being denied, and then shipping my bracket (on my dime) to them for consideration I should sing their praises??? Not likely. I think they should have done more testing in the first place and not assume that using a single bike is representative of all of that model sold for testing. Moreover their testing was not done in a real world setting with luggage and a passenger over a real road miles, it was done by trying to tie the suspension down with straps on a test bed. Not good enough. Listening to the customer would be helpful too, and maybe something in consideration of the fact that I now have a scar on my driveline that was caused by an ill fitting and expensive product they sold me. No cause for celebration here, I got less than what I paid for and a whole lot of trouble to boot.
Click to expand...

Next time volunteer your bike for a fitment and help them get through the design/build aspects of accessory parts. Get ‘em back on track :thumb
OM
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

tibork
Crash bars and the CHiP flip
Replies
3
Views
709
cajunrider
cajunrider
88bmwjeff
Sealed Swing Arm Bearing Question
Replies
8
Views
1K
stevenrankin
stevenrankin
mneblett
Garmin XT2 in a BMW GPS mount
Replies
4
Views
1K
joeintus
J
R
Is the GS too much for me?
Replies
16
Views
3K
Rick del Monte
R
M
2019 R1250RT with DTC P2614 (3A1B62) - Solved
Replies
10
Views
2K
michigander
M
Back
Top