Rear Suspension Protection

[Lee]

If anyone buys Clearwater lights there's a option for the Machinne Art Moto mount that only costs $80 more than the fender mount.
It's a little confusing because Clearwater refers to it as the BMW Brackets.
$80 is better than the one piece BMW mount which costs $212.

https://www.clearwaterlights.com/product...7718757061

   

[MrVvrroomm]

We bought a used Clearwater kit from a rider on the other RS board. He had them on R1250RS. He included MAM light mounts. I mounted them on Dawn's R1250GS with zero modifications.

[runnerhiker]

We always stay with the stock exhaust.
We noticed the 1250 has a little deeper sound than the 1200. Not sure why there's a difference.

I noticed the deeper sound on my 1250 also. And here is an unusual observation: I was leisurely riding Wyoming gentle mountain roads about a month ago, leisurely enough that I was using the cruise control at around 45 mph, just enjoying the ride. On gentle uphills, I could hear the sound of the exhaust change from a less deep sound to a much more deep sound, and back to a less deep sound. It seemed like under the right load, it just kept swapping from one sound to the other about every 15 seconds or so. It seemed to me it was the shift cam shifting. And due to subtle changes in engine load, I am guessing the "performance" mode of the shift cam has the deeper sound.

I thought it was pretty neat.

[ESquared]

Thanks for all this feedback, everyone! Mudsling it will be. Congrats, Lee, on two great looking steeds. Will sneak in a test ride on Saturday and finalize my deal with Peter. The panniers look great, too!

[Ray]

I'm assuming the sliders are on your front fork? If so, did you observe them making contact when your bike went down? On previous RSes of mine it was a 3-point contact of cylinder head + front/rear tire, and occasionally a bar end depending on where the handlebars were positioned when it went down.

A little off thread topic, but not clear the sliders deserve a thread of their own.

Good question. The 3-point contact makes sense, but I'm usually travelling with panniers, and I'm not clear whether they are wide enough to put the fork on the pavement in a low side.

I bought the sliders primarily to give a disposable point on which the big swing arm could slide when I'm without panniers.

As regards my "test," I high-sided without panniers off a tight left-hand turn with close to 600 miles on the bike. thus taking the term, "breaking in the bike" to it's logical extreme..., so I wasn't able to see the bike and observe anything making contact, I mean other than the gravel, mud, and grass making contact with me. I had to clean out both cylinder protectors (which worked well), replace both mirrors (which are break-aways), and the right bar and bar end. (Another reason I prefer bikes with clip-ons.) If one looks carefully, one can still see the scratches on the edges of the fairing, which handled the contact better than metal parts (and a lot better than 1980s era fiberglass)y . (I usually leave a little cosmetic damage to remind me to stay a little further away from the edge.) And, yes, I found some damage to the left front fork slider, so it can contact the road in a high side - but if one ever slides an RS without panniers through a low side - for which the sliders are designed, I suspect the front fork sliders will emerge unscathed.

Also, unlike the swingarm slider, the fork sliders are a pain in the ass, because I have to carry two 13 mm wrenches to pull them when I need to remove the front wheel. If the mechanics confirm your theory, they might come off after next weeks trip to California....

[Duccrazydave]

I low sided on the left side of the my RS, without panniers. Only protection installed was the MaMoto covers. To my surprise, the left cover and the round black plastic ring, on the axle, were the only thing that made contact.

[Ray]

I low sided on the left side of the my RS, without panniers. Only protection installed was the MaMoto covers. To my surprise, the left cover and the round black plastic ring, on the axle, were the only thing that made contact.

Thanks Dave. We stand corrected, and I feel better about my investment in R&G.