This is a 1991 K100. It was an LT but it is naked now. I love riding it. Without all that extra weight, it is a true joy to drive around the city. But I'll be damned if I can figure out what to do about the side covers. When I stripped the LT stuff off, I changed the seat from the big comfy dual wide touring seat to the narrow, 2-person seat. The new seat did not fit the LT tail section so I swapped out tail sections with one that fit my seat. Now the side covers don't mount right. The side covers have 3 mount points, a pin that fits into a grommet, a hooked pin that hooks on a post and then at very tail end of the cover, it has a rod sticking out that I assume was supposed to engage the tail section. But this new tail section has no mating hole or groove to accomodate that rod and so the tail end of the side covers flaps loose. Any ideas? Specifically, are there different model side covers I can buy that have the front two mount points the same and some other way to attach at the rear? I am fishing for some solution. Otherwise I have to invent something to hold these covers on.

Are the pillion grab handles on the seat instead of the tail section? If so you have fitted a pre 86 seat and tail. The pre 86 side panels are different to the later type.

aye.... spot on there avenger .

i guess you could get inventive and drill a hole to mount those rear pins don ??
in many earlier models those pins break off ...and the fix is to get a long thin bolt through the side covers about 3mm thick (in about the same place ) and reattach them that way ..

Yes, the side handles are on the seat, not the tail. Maybe I should be asking a different question....I still have the original tail section. What model of the K100 seat from what years would fit my K100LT tail and be the thin, one or two-person type (not the touring seat)? I don't get the K100 model designation differences. And things seemed to have changed a lot every few years. If I had a seat that fit my original tail section, I could just use the original side-covers as-is.

You need an 86 on standard seat.

As Avenger says, 86 on. As long as the seat itself has no handles on the sides.
My '89 LT had the thinner narrow seat originally, painful after 100 miles, and changed to a Comfort seat, bliss! Can now go more than 400 miles a day without any problem.

Thanks for your help. I have to decide this winter whether to make a seat change or not.

donsmerz wrote:Thanks for your help. I have to decide this winter whether to make a seat change or not.

If you do go for another seat get a comfort or a corbin or something like that. The standard RT/RS seat is the top side of the brick and for me only good for keeping the garage door open.

I have the Corbin comfort seat. That is what came on the bike. It needs recovered to be used. But on a naked K, that fat-ass seat looks like you bolted a recliner to the bike. And it is designed for two when I will never ride anyone on the back. So the whole back of the seat is just in my way when I sit on it. Heck, if you think the BMW standard seat is uncomfiortable, don't ever ride an old 4-cyl Honda 750 or 900 or 1100. Now THAT is an uncomfortable seat.

Totaly agree with the older Jap bikes and for that matter most bikes from the 60s 70s and 80s had terrible seats. In 45 years of riding road bikes the BMW comfort seat is the only seat that doesn't make my arse go numb and the worse seat was the 1985 R80RT it was like it was made of concrete.

My wife rides the K75 low seat which is bad on me and has no problem at all so more than anything I think it's all in the rump of the rider.



If I get a seat that is good for me it doesn't matter what it looks like.

The first bike I had was a 1959 T120 Triumph Bonneville and it wasn't too bad but then I got a T500 Suzuki and my poor rear end thought the end of the world had come and the next was a CB 750 Honda and it was just as bad. I toured round Oz for about 4 years with another guy that also had a CB 750 and he could ride for hours without stopping so who knows.

so it seems you did the same thing i wanted to do with my LT - how did you solve the lamp issue and stuff? did you get a random lamp and attached it to the bike? what about the meters? weren't they different in the uncovered version? maybe you could post a pic - i am highly interested in that subject;)

I'll start a new thread wit my experience. But i sure am no expert!