DOES ANYONE CONVERT HIS R1150GS IN R1150R

[rman]

Hi i read your forum about a year and the true is that i learned a lot of thinks from you

Please forgive my bad english i am from Greece my name is Andreas.I am an active member of bmwbikers in my country and it will be my pleasure if anyone want to visit Greece to help him.

My question is if i can "transformer" my r1150gs 99 model in r1150r. I dont mean only the wheels, i mean all the front suspension system and the REAR-AXLE-DRIVE. My intention is to have the geometry of R1150R but with the confort of gs(I also wear a Touratech 41 liter fuel tank and before a few weaks i install anti-spin.

My best regards

[CRazyCam]

Hi Andreas, and welcome.

I am sure your English is better than my Greek!

About your thoughts on transforming your GS into an R, I do not understand what you are trying to achieve.

I have visited Greece a number of times, and, each time, I have wished that I had a GS to tour about on.

It seems to be the ideal motorcycle for Greek conditions.

My only problem with Gs bikes is that they are too tall for me to be comfortable on.

Can you perhaps explain what you want to improve by exchanging R parts for GS parts?

regards,CrazyCam

[rman]

Hi thanks for the quick response
The reason is that I am a street driver and also I am going for track day at least two times per month.
for me, the perfect bike is a gs with r1150r geometry.
I can keep my touratech fuel tank and the confortable seat.please considarate that I use my bike every day.monthly I drive about 2000-2500 miles on streets
So I need the bike for street use strictly and I like the turns so I want the maximum handling r1150r has a maisin handling. . .

I think that if i succed to build thos concept it will be a perfect bike for me

How ever i dont know if this is possible.......

[boxermania]

Andreas,

I haven't checked the fitment of the R1150R 17" wheels, but that would be all that you will have to do. Keep the GS FD locator bar as it wil raise the back end ~ 1/2" and improve the bike's turn in and fit a good set of tires.

[rman]

in the near past i use to have a bike as you report but on 110-120 miles i had a stability problem in the front part of r1150gs. So i want to make all the "transformation " regarding stability reasons....

[CRazyCam]

Hi again, Andreas.

I'd agree with boxermania's comments.

The front end stability problems that you found, does the GS have a steering damper?

I know that the R's do have a steering damper fitted as standard.

That is the trouble with making a bike turn in quicker, you are, essentially, sacrificing stability.

regards,CrazyCam

[NoRRmad]

Huh? My R doesn't have a steering damper.

[jcridge]

I would think it would be better in the long run to get an R1150R or R1200R and put a Sargent seat and Ohlin shocks on it, then to substantially modify a 99 GS for street / track riding.

+1 on the Huh...Steering Damper on an R1150R? Not in my neighborhood.

John

[boxermania]

The weights of the GS and the R are fairly close, wihtin 30 kilos. The GS has a slight weight bias to the back, due to the large dameter front wheel, while the R has a slight weight bias to the front.

The solution: Set the static ride height on the GS to that of the R (Can use the spring pre-load on the rear shock, but might have to change the spring depending on the total load). Still keep the GS, final drive locator link (it is 20 mm shorter on the GS)

[CRazyCam]

Oops, sorry folks...... was thinking of my R850R and the R1100Rs, which did come with a steering damper.

regards,CrazyCam

[rman]

Thanks for the advice i will try to answer one by one.

The solution to buy r1150r can not be for two reasons,First the r1150r have a servo assisstant brakes which i am not fun(in the past on my k1200s this system was big problem)
Second i like the engine which i have now he gives 83.2 hp to the back rear and he dont need even 100ml oil between the changes(i change oils every 4000 miles).

No i was in this site http://www.maxbmwmotorcycles.com/fiche/ ... d=03192010

and i observe that the r1150r and r1150gs has the same engine the same transmition system, the same swing arm the same front frame,but different rear axle drive and ofcourse shocks.(the length to the front shock is the same to the rear shock they have 1,5 cm taller its obviously that the stroke is different, because of the on-off character of gs)

Ho ever i dont have any problem if the shocks has 2cm bigger stroke ours streets its not like in USA


So i am thonking to keep the gs shocks(i have WP and just to adapt the front one) as you know the WP can give with regulator 1,5 cm bigger length

here you can read the length and the strokes for every bike http://www.dulaveris.com/ohlins_rt1.html#h


have a nice day(or night?) here in Greece is now 07:51

[sweatmark]

My question is if i can "transformer" my r1150gs 99 model in r1150r. I dont mean only the wheels, i mean all the front suspension system and the REAR-AXLE-DRIVE. My intention is to have the geometry of R1150R but with the confort of gs(I also wear a Touratech 41 liter fuel tank and before a few weaks i install anti-spin.

The solution to buy r1150r can not be for two reasons,First the r1150r have a servo assisstant brakes which i am not fun(in the past on my k1200s this system was big problem)

Second i like the engine which i have now he gives 83.2 hp to the back rear and he dont need even 100ml oil between the changes(i change oils every 4000 miles).

OK. First, I'm with you regarding the Integral ABS (iABS 1) servo brakes... no way I'd ever take an iABS bike to the track. Your comment "i am not fun" is exactly why I removed my Rockster's iABS system.

Second, you're correct about the R1150R and R1150GS sharing identical drivetrain. You've already got a solid motor in your GS with >80hp at the wheel (seems a reasonable dyno pull), so now you want stable handling at speed, like any good trackday rider should. My solution to the problem (and general recommendation) is a 2nd trackday-only bike, but the quest for a hot-handling GS is an honorable adventure.

Your original post here reminded me of some pics I grabbed a few years back... I'm traveling this week and can't access the files, but I think I found an online reference to the bike and its owner:
http://www.imgbox.de/show/up/Larsi/Moto ... 40955.JPG/

Yes, this bike is/was a GS. And the owner (at least in the pics I downloaded long ago) was an avid club racer using this bike... so you know he was very familiar with high speed stability and handling.

Here's a page in which he shows the bike's transformation stages (scroll to bottom):
http://www.gs-forum.eu/showthread.php?t=50309

Note that I had not seen the finished product - with R1150R fuel tank - before tonight. Perhaps beauty is in the eye of the beholder (should coin the 'net acronym "BIITEOTB"), but I think this machine is 100% Grade A bada$$.

As the above link and post by the bike builder is less than 2 months old, perhaps you can contact "Larsi" to get some build specs.

As for R1150GS supermoto conversions, there's some info out there - example:
http://www.roesnerundrose.de/category/p ... supermoto/

And you can certainly find LOTS of information in ADV:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=386723

There are examples out there of GS-to-R and R-to-GS conversion using combination of Telelever and Paralever parts, plus suspension/wheel/brake swaps. If I was in your shoes, a GS supermoto setup be my simplest, least expensive, and best choice.

Good luck. Show us some pics when you finish the project... especially your trackday pics.

[rman]

I would like to thanks all of you for the answers, as I see allready sobody else try the same project:-)and that's good for me
the reason that i don't choose a second bike as a track bike is that by my oppinion if you want the track days to effect positive to your daily riding capabilities you must to use one bike in all conditions you can not traon your brain to react with defferent way on differemts bikes

I promise that I will put photos when the project finish and why not some track-days videos

Best regards from Greece of course i will folow the forum.....

[rman]

Hi again, Andreas.

I'd agree with boxermania's comments.

The front end stability problems that you found, does the GS have a steering damper?

I know that the R's do have a steering damper fitted as standard.

That is the trouble with making a bike turn in quicker, you are, essentially, sacrificing stability.

regards,CrazyCam

But the r1150r has no problem with stability even in the top speed!!

[omg1010]

Hi rman,

it is doable but it would cost big time. In Germany a couple of people have done so (like Larsi whose bike picture was posted earlier). The cheapest way would be taking the suspension of the R and a fairing replacing the front fender and covering your instrument cluster. You could also replace the back of your bike with the one of the K1200RS (the old flying brick!).

If you want to shell out more money go for the headlight unit of the new 1200 models and the instrument cluster of the R models (or replace the instruments completely). You may want to get some inspiration from a fellow rider (Sigi) in Bavaria http://picasaweb.google.com/ruperticycles/UmbauRodster#

Best regards
Oliver

[rman]

Thanks for the advices I had in my mide to bye a used r1150r and replacing all the parts from the one bike to the other the reson is that i would like to come to the geometry of r1150r.

In the past i bought a r1150gs with street wheels but the handling was not as r1150r i suppose because of geometry(the bike did not kepp the line as gs or r1150r) of course the angle during the turn was much much better.....

As far i know from differents sourch the modification can be, so i will inform you with photos how the project will be

[Xdot]

http://picasaweb.google.com/ruperticycles/UmbauRodster#

[bikermeow]

rman ....

Please try to change to a R1150R telelever which I think is one of the most beautiful things manufactured by BMW

[sweatmark]

On vacation with some time to search - was sure we had discussed the R1150GS<-->R1150R conversions sometime in the past:

http://r1150r.net/board/viewtopic.php?f ... 93&start=0

And here's the ADV topic as mentioned in our R1150R.org thread:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44075

Contact jas to find out more about his research into the R/GS conversion!

[jas]

Regarding the conversion of my Rockster to a more GS oriented machine, bad idea, or at least for me.

I replaced the front end and shock with that from an 1150GS, GS torque arm and rear shock, and GS wheels. How did it turn out you ask? Horrible. Okay, maybe not too horrible but the drivability on the road was not so good. It no longer tracked right. Off road was not that much better than before either, especially with the linked brakes.

In the end, I sold all the GS bits, put it back as it was prior to the transformation and installed a pair of Ohlins as my way of telling the bike “I am sorry.” Now she’s back to normal (better than normal with the new tires, exhaust, shocks, manifold intakes, stick coils, etc.).

To fulfill my off tarmac riding needs, I purchased an NX650 and NX250 for a couple hundred dollars and am in the process of mutilating them.