New Brace Helps Prevent Valve Cover Damage on R1200GS/A
Stock crash bars for the Water-Cooled R1200GS lack critical rear bracing.
During a recent Cycle World bike test, the stock crash bar on the BMW R1200GS Adventure flexed into the cylinder head and punched a hole in the valve cover during a hard fall. Damage from the crash tallied $1,245.41 for parts and $470 for labor. The reason? The factory BMW crash bars for the Water-Cooled R1200GS and R1200GS Adventure lack critical rear bracing. This design leaves the motorcycle’s magnesium valve cover vulnerable to serious damage in a hard drop.
Touratech has engineered a factory crash bar reinforcement brace for the Water-Cooled BMW R1200GS and R1200GS Adventure to make the bike even tougher and prevent damage like this from occurring. This simple fix can eliminate a critical failure point that can help you avoid expensive repairs. The reinforcement bars connect the BMW factory crash bars directly to the water-boxer’s frame, instantly increasing the protection of the R1200GS’ exposed valve covers. The Touratech Crash Bar Reinforcement Braces are made of strong, 25mm, electro-polished stainless steel tubing and match perfectly with the stock bars.
Check out this Touratech video to see how quick and easy it is to install the Crash Bar Reinforcement Braces.
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Curious. Tourtech is the the OEM supplier of a lot of BMW protection parts. Did they provide the original crash bar? If so, did they design this purposefully to allow them to sell a reinforcement part, or should they be held accountable for making an inferior part and be required to provide this as a recall item?
The Cycle World crash in question was coming off a 5′ high embankment and landing hard on the side of the bike. With the touratech brace added, the impact would be transferred to the frame for support. Have you tested if the frame will survive a similar impact load as was in the crash. The potential result here is a bent frame and totaled bike instead of a cracked cylinder head. Provided you yourself survive the crash as the Cycle World writer was surprised he did.
I saw this being discussed on a GS forum. Unfortunately, it does seem to happen a lot more than you think. And they were reporting falls much less severe than going down an embankment. I agree with Jason that BMW should seriously look into this.