RS mirrors - do you remount them or leave them?

[ezwicky]

The PO of my barn-find 1980 R100RS removed the stock mirrors and mounted some aftermarket ones lower down. I have to do some fiberglass repair before I get the tank, seat-cowls and fairing parts painted, and I am wondering whether or not to go back to the stock location, since there needs to be holes there anyway for the mounting to the fairing / headlight bracket.

I understand that the stock mirror location is thought to be less than optimal for rear visibility. Is that the consensus here? Has anybody gone with bar-end mirrors?

Thanks in advance,

Eric

 

[20774]

I found this thread through the Tag Cloud:

https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?95068-R100RS-mirror-question

Also try using Google with this in the search box - site:forums.bmwmoa.org r100rs mirror

 

[stevenrankin]

RS fairing

The main fairing mounting bracket on the RS uses the mirror mounts and such as the top fairing mount, I am not sure what you mean by lower mounting points for mirrors? Take a look at the pictures to see what I mean buy the mounting of the fairing bracket and fairing.

As for the stock mirrors, they are fine if you are very small and narrow shouldered or don't care what is behind or about to come up behind you. I kept the stock mirror mounts in order to keep the fairing mounted properly but switched the mirrors with Emglo units.

Sorry, I don't remember the exact model emglo mirrors. They mounted to the stock base or stock mounts and extend the mirrors out to where they are useful now. Plus, they didn't cost a lot of money and there were no modifications needed to make the change.

Good luck, hope the pictures and such help. St.

 

[20774]

The thread I linked to has several mentions of the Emgo mirrors. Brook Reams also has a picture of them on his Flickr account:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/brook-reams/albums/72157672832664657/

 

[robsryder]

Here are links to the Emgo mirrors often used for the airhead R100RS.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000N5S9VO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000N5VTUC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

These are Emgo 20-35222 Matte Black Left Side Replacement Mirror for Honda CBR600RR-AC/A/CBR1000RR-A and Emgo 20-35221 Matte Black Right Side Replacement Mirror for Honda CBR600RR-AC/A/CBR1000RR-A. Currently less than $20 each from the 'Zon.

 

[stevenrankin]

Those are the ones

OKAY, LOL, Emgo mirrors not emglo, I knew someone would know which ones I used on my RS.

Best thing I did to the RS now that I have to worry about soccer moms in SUVs and macho men in 4x4s driving faster because they are late and I am in the way. It was not like that forty years ago, back then, I rarely needed to know what was overtaking me. St.

 

[ezwicky]

Thanks everybody for the great tips (and links to other discussions). I understand the issues and the possible resolutions now.

Eric

 

[lkchris]

The RS and RT from the 1990s had larger, better mirrors. They bolt right on earlier bikes and look fine, maybe better.

I rode my R100RS for 25 years and never found it inconvenient to move a bit to get the best view in the mirror.

 

[stevenrankin]

move the mirrors

On the early RT and RS bikes, the mirrors were the same with the difference being the mounting base and location of the mirrors. The RT with the wider fairing and mounting system has far better rearward view than the RS. On my RT, I have never had a problem seeing what is behind me and hadn't changed the mirrors until last year. One of the mirrors cracked, and I replaced both with the mirrors from the 1985 and newer bikes. The difference being the 85 and newer mirrors are slightly larger than the mirrors on my 84 but, not large enough to do the same switch on my 78 RS.

Like I said, if you are small, and narrow, perhaps the mirrors on the RS are fine as they are, perhaps switching to the 85 and newer ones will help a lot, in my case, no. For a long time, the only thing I could see in my mirrors was my shoulders. Never was a problem in the 90's until 2000, when the bike was wrecked and went into storage.

In 2017 when I started riding the RS again, I found the mirrors were useless. Like I said in an earlier post, back then, I was usually riding a bit faster than the flow of traffic and it was rare to have someone overtake me or tailgate me. NOW, it seems in both my car and on the bike despite my still riding briskly and over the limits, I am constantly finding monster pickup trucks, SUV and little college girl cars trying to run me down. It is VERY nice now on the RS to be able to see these jerks and get out of their way before I end up on their grills.

Short and sweet, for the little bit of cost, change the mirrors to the Emgo units. St.

 

[22600]

Stick with the stock mirrors they look better.

HI there, I've been riding a rs since 1980 and never had a problem with the stock mirrors and never worry about what's behind me; I've only wrecked with things in front of me, but only a couple of times.