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Crash bar / engine guard for an R1200RT?

alexol

New member
Thanks to some excessively high wind at the weekend, my RT, which was parked on its side stand, was blown over and damaged an extraordinarily expensive & extensive list of parts. Roughly $3600 replacement cost before adding labor, which seems a bit steep for a zero-mph event. Anyway, as they say, it is what it is, and insurance will cover most of it.

Despite having an Ilium engine guard, the cylinder head cover was still damaged. The Ilium guard itself was scraped and will need to be either powder coated or replaced, and this time I'll add some form of head cover, either BMW's or MachineArt or similar, in case of another "experience".

Replacing the single Ilium guard is $195 plus shipping and any form of head cover is an additional $200-300, so somewhere between $400 to $500 to be spent there.

For that same money, I could buy a new & entirely different engine guard, perhaps one that offered better protection for the head, which is, afterall, why I bought it in the first place.

Looks like the Touratech one would do that, although it looks a bit industrial.

A side benefit of the stainless steel TT guard is that if the bike does decide to take gentle nap for any reason, a few minutes with a wire brush on a drill bring it back to looking new, as it did on my GSA. Any painted one needs repair.

Any other suggestions?
 
I'm thinking mine are from Z-Technik, the front ones anyway, rear are Ilium. At any rate, it's tipped over at 0 speed in the parking lot with no damage at all. '16 RT.
 
I'm thinking mine are from Z-Technik, the front ones anyway, rear are Ilium. At any rate, it's tipped over at 0 speed in the parking lot with no damage at all. '16 RT.

I wonder what surface the bike fell on, if it was gravel or alike that could cause the damage described.
 
Thanks to some excessively high wind at the weekend, my RT, which was parked on its side stand, was blown over and damaged an extraordinarily expensive & extensive list of parts. Roughly $3600 replacement cost before adding labor, which seems a bit steep for a zero-mph event. Anyway, as they say, it is what it is, and insurance will cover most of it.

Just curious, which side did the bike fall over to, left or right? And did you have a top box on at the time?
 
I have the front and rear crash guards on my 2018 R1200RT. My purchase was strongly influenced by the videos of the Illium owner dropping his own bike equipped with these engine guards.

At the MOA rally in 2019 in Tn, I took some of the training courses. One of these was taught by NC Motor Cops working part time for BMW. The course was an easier and shorter version of that necessary to master in order to become a Motor Officer. It was suggested that saddle bags and hard luggage be removed before taking this training. I removed my hard side cases. During the training several folks fell over, usually from too slow a speed. I was one of those that fell from going too slow and not watching where I was going. There was no damage to my bike. I think that even had I left the hard bags on, there would have been no damage.

It is unfortunate that the OP's bike suffered such damage from being blown over by wind. I would not have expected that. I do know that BMW stands for "bring my wallet" or "bring more wampum".
 
I had a 0mph tip with Ilium front and rear with absolutely no damage...not a scratch. In fact it was near a sign and we (several people came running when I tipped- embarassing!) had to drag the bike a few feet to get it away from the signpost. Both side cases wer on at the time too.
 
I wonder what surface the bike fell on, if it was gravel or alike that could cause the damage described.

It was a rough-ish cement driveway in front of a condo where I was staying for the weekend.

Originally on the side stand, the bike went over hard enough on its right side that the replacement parts list includes - and this isn't exhaustive - mirror and GS mirror ( stock fairing mounted one doesn't work well with my glasses), handlebar bar end weight, cylinder head cover & muffler, & 29L top box. And, of course, a right side engine guard.

The small top box was empty; the severe thunderstorm induced squalls must have slammed it over quite hard.

I didn't have the rear Ilium bars on as I wasn't riding with panniers - I've always thought the bars without panniers looked horrible. Better protection perhaps, but still fugly.

Other than the broken mirror, all damage is cosmetic and from a functional perspective nothing needs replacement, but that is why we have insurance.
 
I dropped my RT in a rough gravel parking lot. I think I ran over the edge a large'ish rock and pretty much zero MPH and it got the motorcycle off balance and tossed it to the ground. A bit of a scratch on the Ilium engine guard and that was all. I don't have the panier bars. I figure it was going to be worse!
 
I wish I had had that luck.

The bike has to go down pretty hard to break a GS mirror, and make a mark on the edge of the windshield!

this was one of those occasions when I wished it had been my old GSA, which was as close to bullet-proof as it's possible to get. I have no idea times that machine was on its side, and I think the only thing broke on it were a lever (which I replaced with hinged ones) and a mirror. Pretty much everything else was easily polished out - even deep scratches on the TT crash guards just required a stainless steel brush on an electric drill for a moment or two.
 
Having posted the same question on several forums are not received any useful answers I decided to go ahead with the Touratech bars. I was VERY impressed with them on the GS & GSA.

Expensive here in the US, but if you order from someone like Hornig in Germany, the delivered cost is nearly $150 less than here.
 
I decided on Touratech bars. I bought them on eBay from Germany. I like the finish and they're easy to remove for a valve check (Coincidentally, I did a 30,000 today, and the cam lobes are fine). In case you're interested, here's how they look on a 2016. Taken about a month ago, pretty much the last decent autumn day in the Seattle area.

_B024645_Hood_Canal_sm.jpg


_B024588_Hood_Canal_2_sm.jpg
 
I decided on Touratech bars. I bought them on eBay from Germany. I like the finish and they're easy to remove for a valve check (Coincidentally, I did a 30,000 today, and the cam lobes are fine). In case you're interested, here's how they look on a 2016. Taken about a month ago, pretty much the last decent autumn day in the Seattle area.

Great - thanks, that will do it. Search over.
 
It was a rough-ish cement driveway in front of a condo where I was staying for the weekend.

Originally on the side stand, the bike went over hard enough on its right side that the replacement parts list includes - and this isn't exhaustive - mirror and GS mirror ( stock fairing mounted one doesn't work well with my glasses), handlebar bar end weight, cylinder head cover & muffler, & 29L top box. And, of course, a right side engine guard.

The small top box was empty; the severe thunderstorm induced squalls must have slammed it over quite hard.

I didn't have the rear Ilium bars on as I wasn't riding with panniers - I've always thought the bars without panniers looked horrible. Better protection perhaps, but still fugly.

Other than the broken mirror, all damage is cosmetic and from a functional perspective nothing needs replacement, but that is why we have insurance.

It's strange the valve covers and bikes mirror were impacted. The bar ends should of been protected too. The rest is understandable given no protection bar in the rear. I'd reach out to Illium.
 
It's strange the valve covers and bikes mirror were impacted. The bar ends should of been protected too. The rest is understandable given no protection bar in the rear. I'd reach out to Illium.

I think the extremely high wind just slammed it over - blew some shutters off the building too, and it rolled over far enough to damage the high-up items.

I emailed Ilium a few days ago explaining what happened and asking about a replacement. They said yes I can buy one side only, here's the PN and it is $195 plus shipping. I can't see any reason for them to replace the damaged bar FOC as their guard prevented major damage, but equally I can't see any reason to buy another one and risk a repeat.

I don't think the TT guards are the prettiest in the world, but I have confidence in their product so have ordered a set.
 
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