A little here, a little there… (Red)

Sometimes things don’t quite go to plan. On a rebuild project, I am learning that “sometimes” can mean quite a bit more than I would hope. I am at the point in the project where I am systematically cleaning parts, inspecting them, and planning for reassembly. One part I had not expected to replace, was the steering head top plate. I had imagined that it would be good enough to clean and reuse the old one. 

As this plate is part of the front-end geometry, it is pretty important for it to be as close to dead-flat as possible. That should have been an obvious need that a reasonable person would assume BMW would also know at the time. Looking at this part, it’s just a 4mm thick sheet of stamped steel. Nothing really present to help it maintain its shape over time. 

In taking a look at mine, it is clearly not flat. I can see where all the miles have forced it out of shape, causing it to be arched. It’s a head-scratcher that BMW never changed this part in the run of most Airheads. They did give the R100 GS, R, and Mystic a proper top clamp, but I don’t think other airheads got them. 

Thankfully, there are a fair number of aftermarket options that will work. I have ordered one from ToasterTan that will work for this.

While I am at it, I have to start thinking about the fact that I am going to use a dash pad from a K75S, rather than the R80RT dash. This is a downstream decision from choosing to use lower bars. Since I opted for the bars from a K75, the dash seemed a logical choice. The challenge is in the difference in how these two dash pads are mounted. The RT dash mounts with a bracket system on the top of the bar clamps. Conversely, the K75 dash mounts to the front of the K75 top brace. After a good bit of modeling, I think I have a good solution in a custom bracket I designed. I’ve ordered one from SendCutSend to test out. 

Generally speaking, this path will end with one or two revisions before I am done.