Finally had a nice day on the weekend - perfect for a short blast on my old/new K100RS. She put a big smile on my face!
My question: the tacho face has a small window that shows which gear the bike is in. The silver face is all but disappeared on mine, making it impossible to read. I know that as a competent rider I should be able to work out what gear I'm in. But I suffer from a compulsion to set things right. It's an illness, I know....
I'm certain BMW would sell me a new rev counter for a very reasonable price
but are there other options? Can that silver stuff be replaced? What is it anyhow?

62 11 1 459 238 is the part number for the gear indicator LCD. They're not cheap when new but if Motorworks, Beemer Boneyard of your friendly neighbourhood Beemer spare parts hoarder has a busted up instrument cluster you can replace that bit alone. There are a few posts about how to easily get into the cluster and if you've never done it it's a fun thing to do of an evening with a few tools and something to sip on. Perhaps there's even a globe (bulb) that's burnt out and needs replacing too. It's a perfect time to fit LEDs to the idiot lights also.

It's number 3 in this picture.

You can try the guy at Passpeedo in Pasadeena I had a few emails with him a while ago and he didnt have any left but was trying to source some more. Also remove the LCD dohicky from the circuit board and clean under the unit where the contacts are, use a pencil eraser and also the contact area on the unit itself . It is truely amazing how often that will work, I have fixed several clocks like that.

As always with bad connections DeoxIT is your friend I have used that on a bunch of LCD displays where segments were missing or faint, the voltage and current flow into the display is so little that it really does not take much corrosion to cause problems.
Regards,
K-BIKE