1 Converting K100RS to K100RT++ Tue Jun 01, 2010 10:21 pm
robmack
Life time member
I'm in the midst of converting my 1988 K100RS which I've owned for nearly 13 years into a K100RT plus more. Story is that I've always wanted an RT but at the time I was in the market for a motorcycle, there were no RTs available. So, I bought an '88 K100RS instead. It was a compromise in my desires. I was very naive about BMWs at the time. Shortly after buying the bike, I was informed by the service department at the local BMW that my front end was not an RS front end and they weren't sure what it was. Investigating further, I found out that one of the previous owners had really gone over the bike, changing many things including replacing the K100 forks, brakes and wheel with a K1100 front end. Wiring was different as well. I guess this was a Franken-bike.
I lived with the beast but never really loved it like I should have since it wasn't an RT. Fastforward to this year. I met a local chap through this forum who was looking for an RS fairing to convert his RT into an RS. I wanted an RT and had an RS I wan't so in love with. Match made in heaven ... we traded fairing parts. So, now I'm sitting with a garage full of RT parts and a very naked bike.
A little side story now. The rotors on my K1100 front end were aftermarket and needed BADLY to be replaced. They were worn past the factory recommended minimum thickness and the floating disk was very loose. So, I bought new K1100 rotors. This lead me down the path to see what was involved in replacing the K!00 calipers with K1100 calipers. I acquired all the parts for the swap-over from 2-piston to 4-piston. So, they have been sitting in the workshop for several months in anticipation of a changeover.
Now is the opportune time to do everythnig and I thought I'd keep a small diary of my progress in this thread.
Status as of 1 June 2010: I disassembled the bike and removed all of the parts of the RS fairing that I planned to trade. I received in return all the equivalent parts of the doner RT. I have cleaned and degreased all the RT parts, removed all hardware, and gave all the parts to a local painter for painting. The remainder of the bike parts are lying on the garage floor in a heap (suitably marked for reinstallation). The Bowden cables for the RS are shorter than the RT ones so I ordered the RT cables so that the controls can be mounted on the longer RT bars. I'm waiting on parts delivery and completion of the paint job at the moment. Estimated wait time is 2 more weeks. In the mean time, I'm cleaning up the bike after 22 years of grime accumulation.
Stay tuned.
- Robert