BMW F800 GS- Acerbis handguard install

[]I)Money]

Pissed off by the fact that everything for this bike is on backorder, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Gateway had a set of Acerbis Rally pros laying there that had been ordered for a customer, but didn't work. I took them home, and:


Drilled and tapped the end of the bar-end weight bolt to fit the M8 1.25 mounting bolt for the guards, and cut the bolts down to like 1.5" or so (I used the highly technical calibrated thumb measurement method).
Here's the finished product, from the end. The inside was a pretty direct bolt-in, except that I had to bend the left guard a little for it to fit.

[TheCowboy]

Originally Posted by ]I)Money

Pissed off by the fact that everything for this bike is on backorder, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Gateway had a set of Acerbis Rally pros laying there that had been ordered for a customer, but didn't work. I took them home, and:


Drilled and tapped the end of the bar-end weight bolt to fit the M8 1.25 mounting bolt for the guards, and cut the bolts down to like 1.5" or so (I used the highly technical calibrated thumb measurement method).
Here's the finished product, from the end. The inside was a pretty direct bolt-in, except that I had to bend the left guard a little for it to fit.

Did you have any problems with the handlebar clamps? They looked to me to be too small radius to fit the "fat bars".

Cowboy

[Ditch]

Could you post a pic. of the inner handlebar mount? Is there plenty of room on the handlebar for this or is it a tight fit?
TIA, Wendell

[]I)Money]

Originally Posted by Cowboy2

Did you have any problems with the handlebar clamps? They looked to me to be too small radius to fit the "fat bars".

Cowboy

You have to get the ones designed for the protaper bars, then they fit.
I'll snap a picture later of the inside mounts. It is pretty tight.

[]I)Money]

If you do this mod, shorten your levers. Had a getoff two days ago, caused when a friend dropped the bike in a parking lot. It apparently bent the right guard in just enough to put a slight amount of pressure on the brake lever (Note, I did not get an ABS fault!). Front brake pumped itself full, and locked up on me.

[Keystone]

Originally Posted by ]I)Money

If you do this mod, shorten your levers. Had a getoff two days ago, caused when a friend dropped the bike in a parking lot. It apparently bent the right guard in just enough to put a slight amount of pressure on the brake lever (Note, I did not get an ABS fault!). Front brake pumped itself full, and locked up on me.

Good to know! I'll definitely be careful of that -- my Acerbis Rally Pro's arrive tomorrow.

I don't know what sort of hardware is included, but I assume there is no way to modify the guards or braces or anything to use the original bolt or otherwise avoid tapping the bar ends? The existing bolt LOOKS (from the outside) a bit bigger than M8 1.25...

[]I)Money]

the stock bar end bolt is about a 20mm or so. The machine work would be super cheap to have a local shop do. If you were around here, I'd just do it for you...

[Keystone]

Originally Posted by ]I)Money

the stock bar end bolt is about a 20mm or so. The machine work would be super cheap to have a local shop do. If you were around here, I'd just do it for you...

I see what you mean, 8mm is just perfect to snug between the torx teeth. I guess I'd be SLIGHTLY concerned about damaging those teeth when snugging the bolt down, but it's a big socket so it shouldn't matter much.

Why did you cut the Acerbis bolt? Why didn't you just drill all the way through the BMW bolt? I'm going to stop by a machine shop with the hardware tomorrow and have them drill through and tap the threads.

I'm having a hard time figuring how to orient the handguards around the controls. (oops, I've been playing with the left guard which you mentioned you had to bend -- let me see the right one)

Anyway, if you have any additional pictures of where you placed the inner mounts and where the guards sit in relation to the control levers that would probably shorten my fiddling time.

Thanks for pioneering this! I'll post pics when I'm done.

[DirtyBiker]

Nice job. I fiddled with a set of Acerbis Pro Rally's for my R1200GS so good to see others doing the same on their Bmr.

[Keystone]

Originally Posted by DirtyBiker

Nice job. I fiddled with a set of Acerbis Pro Rally's for my R1200GS so good to see others doing the same on their Bmr.

I'll tell you, I really like the feel of these things. VERY solid.

There are three options for mounting to the bar end:

1. Drill the hole in the handguards bigger
2. Tap the BMW bolt to fit an 8mm inside it
3. Use the Acerbis mounting kit, which expands a knurled surface inside the bar

I didn't like 3 much because it would munge up the threads if for some reason I ever wanted to return to stock.

I like option 1, but the BMW bolt is just such a PERFECT fit for the Acerbis bolt that I appreciate the elegance of ]I)Money's solution I want to try that first.

[]I)Money]

Originally Posted by hyperiate

I see what you mean, 8mm is just perfect to snug between the torx teeth. I guess I'd be SLIGHTLY concerned about damaging those teeth when snugging the bolt down, but it's a big socket so it shouldn't matter much.

Why did you cut the Acerbis bolt? Why didn't you just drill all the way through the BMW bolt? I'm going to stop by a machine shop with the hardware tomorrow and have them drill through and tap the threads.

I'm having a hard time figuring how to orient the handguards around the controls. (oops, I've been playing with the left guard which you mentioned you had to bend -- let me see the right one)

Anyway, if you have any additional pictures of where you placed the inner mounts and where the guards sit in relation to the control levers that would probably shorten my fiddling time.

Thanks for pioneering this! I'll post pics when I'm done.

I didn't drill all the way through, so that the bolts would be weatherproof, if fir some reason I remove the Acerbis. Doesn't affect strength any; the stress load for the mounting bolts is all shear, so length doesn't matter past a very short distance.
I'll snap some pictures tomorrow of the guards. Been meaning to, but got lazy about it.

[]I)Money]

Originally Posted by hyperiate

I'll tell you, I really like the feel of these things. VERY solid.

There are three options for mounting to the bar end:

1. Drill the hole in the handguards bigger
2. Tap the BMW bolt to fit an 8mm inside it
3. Use the Acerbis mounting kit, which expands a knurled surface inside the bar

I didn't like 3 much because it would munge up the threads if for some reason I ever wanted to return to stock.

I like option 1, but the BMW bolt is just such a PERFECT fit for the Acerbis bolt that I appreciate the elegance of ]I)Money's solution I want to try that first.

Thanks.
The problem with 1. is that the BMW bolt is so big that it will take up nearly all of the countersunk portion of the handguard. Also, the BMW bolt is also tapered, and the handguard isn't wide enough to accommodate a countersink for the head, which would leave the bolt sticking out oddly...

[Keystone]

Originally Posted by ]I)Money

I didn't drill all the way through, so that the bolts would be weatherproof, if fir some reason I remove the Acerbis. Doesn't affect strength any; the stress load for the mounting bolts is all shear, so length doesn't matter past a very short distance.
I'll snap some pictures tomorrow of the guards. Been meaning to, but got lazy about it.

So far I ended up test fitting it and it looks pretty good. There was NO way the guards were going to get around the clutch lever housing, so I rotated that down (been wanting to do that anyway) and the guard passes over it level with the bars. Only problem is the end of the lever isn't covered.

The right side was a pain. I needed to get the inner mount as far outside as I could, and mounted it a mm or so away from the brake parts. I (think) I bent the guard a bit in order to make it longer, and had to take a bit of the inner bend out with a vise. Then I trimmed a little plastic to allow for clearance of the brake switch and it finally fit pretty well. On this side the lever is fully covered by the hand guards.

I didn't get the idea that this mirrored your experience, so I'm interested to see what you came up with as well.

[]I)Money]

here's a couple from the top that show how the inner bracket is placed. Clearance pictures don't show the newly shortened levers...


BTW, that cheap-ass wal-mart pannier bag saved me a ton of damage






They're not quite in the same spot on either side, but you have to be looking hard to tell.


Hope that helps.

[PackMule]

Make sure you check your lever freeplay on a regular basis, especially after any biff. Had these guards on my KTM 620, and the lever fitment was similar (until I cut the levers down). I find these guards bend without too much (IMO) provocation, and at one point, it was putting enough pressure on the brake lever to heat things up before I noticed it.


I also found that if you positioned the guard to protect the levers, they were rotated down and didn't really cover your hands all that well (and vice versa).