My dual purpose R Nine T build

I thought it might be good to have a little protection as I had one or two slips with my GS1200. Wunderlich engine bars seemed to be a good option and on the bike in black look quite good.




Cheap bit of insurance, a plastic bobbin for the final drive.

Next on the list was a good skid plate. On both the GS 1200 and GS750 the skid plate got a battering from road grit, stones etc. The paint on the BMW engines have had issues over the years.

I like the look of Hepco & Becker as the front does not have any slots or holes drilled in it. Only available in silver, so I got it powder coated locally. I found a place near York, scruffy as hell I was warned. They did a first class job. They even reattached the H&B badge.

Fitting was easy, but I put in spacers at the rear just to give a little more clearance for the cat. I don’t know if it is a little larger on the Euro5. There is not a hole in the skid plate to drain the engine oil though, the oil filter is also enclosed. The ski plate will have to be removed at oil change time.

I liked the look of the Unit Garage little rack. I thought it would be handy to have and attach a little bag on it and it will not spoil the look of the bike that a full size rack would. Locally one came up for sale, so for £50 I could not go wrong.

A necessary evil was the fitment of a fender extender. Rains too much here and the mudguard (misnomer) is pretty but not effective. Some of the prices asked for these bits of plastic are outrageous. I ordered one from China £9.11 postage paid. Ok it will do the job, but it is not exactly heavy gauge plastic. It did come with some screws to attach it to the front mudguard. No way am I going to drill holes in my nice metallic white mudguard. Double sided Gorilla tape seems to have attached it quite firmly. The gap between the fender extender and the top of the skid plate is reasonably small, we will see how much protection they give the engine.

The snorkel end looks unfinished to me and to lots of other owners judging by the number of aftermarket options. None of which appealed to me. In fact the Wunderlich one sticks out too much to look good. Thought I would make my own from an offcut of aluminium grill from another project.
I would not have thought it would restrict air flow much.

A top box was always on the shopping list as in summer I use the bike daily to go the 9 miles to work. As Holan was so unresponsive to my questions, I went for a Unit Garage Atlas 36ltrs top box. Ordered it from a company in Poole in England and they quoted 1 to 2 weeks. After everything going wrong that could, nearly 5 weeks later it arrived.
Fitting was easy enough without any modifications and it looks well designed. I ordered it with a lock adapter so I can use a BMW barrel and key to my ignition key. I have not ordered it yet but Unit Garage advised the BMW part number is 51257696170.