I m trying to Prep my R1150GS (2003/10000 miles on clock) for an overland trip to Asia. Can anyone tell me some of the common problems/faults they have found, or things that have broke while riding this bike. I know on the whole they are generally reliable, trying to find out some of the more specific issues people have encountered. Maybe I can then avoid these beforehand with some good prep work, if at all possible.
I m changing & replacing the normal stuff, brakes, fluids, lights, battery, shock so on. I’m interested in any electrical problems encountered. Also in people’s thoughts on if? and how do I reinforce the frame, (without blowing out the ABS LWR style).
Otherwise just any general and random thought on bike prep for this kind of trip would be appreciated.
Cheers
Paul

There is a good thread on here about reinforcing sub-frames. Whether or not you need to probably depends on how heavy you travel.

Stock shocks don’t seem to be up to the task of really bad roads so as you mention, you might want to upgrade to Öhlins or similar.

I would definitely use a dry cell battery; much more reliable and if you drop the bike with an acid battery, the acid can run over the bike in inaccessible places. (happened to me on a test ride)

Stephan

Not an owner of 1150 myself, but 1100, which is very similar, with just a minor differences.

Rear suframe is the same on the R850/1100/1150GSes, how to reinforce it, see here how it's welded: HERE.

Note that for solo you don't need it - just bin the solid top box (use an elastic luggage roll instead), heavy and vibrating solid top boxes are of the causes of rear subframes breaking on most of bikes. Go as light as you can, and it'll never break even in the tough conditions.

As on ANY bike, there are thousands of places it can break due to your own maintenance faults, crashes, wear, etc. Maybe keep an eye on the UKGSer 1100/1150 technical section, to see what probs people have encountered and fixes. It also educates you from real-life incidents, that may become very handy.

Route the fuel filter outside the tank, cylinder head protection, proper handguards, decent luggage (soft or hard is up to you), proper aftermarket shocks (Öhlins, Wilbers, WP etc) would be a nice buy, more powerful lights. Buy Haynes or Clymer manual, read it occasionally to get "the feel" of the bike's mechanics and electrics (if you aren't mech-minded person yourself). It may be useful on the road diagnosing the occuring problems.

But if you aren't perfectionist then I'd say 1150 is pretty much ready to RTW today, even in stock: jump on and ride on.

Although ordering parts with nowadays logistics (DHL/Fedex etc) is possible everywhere, maybe still consider carrying some spare parts discussed here. It may help you keep going on some annoying moments on the road.

Happy travels, Margus

EDIT:

Uh, Stephano was faster with subby part

Cheers, Margus

Hall sensor's (ignition sensor) have been known to fail.

One part that is worth carrying, I'm told, is a rear bevel bearing and seal for the final drive. You're up the creek if it fails, and its not expensive or big to carry. We carried one for our GS. It never had any problems though. Other stuff er carried and didn't need were a few spokes and an alternator belt.

As Margus stated earlier items we also fitted included engine bars, and auxillary lights. The latter do help with the 1150s beam. The 1100 is said to have a healthy beam, so not such an issue there. I also fitted front suspension wishbone protectors so that a fall would not cause the swinging of the barrs to damage the wishbone or steering stop.

Ours was heavy but did very well.

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If you have a spoked wheel BuMWuh then either replace with cast wheels or take along at least 50 spare spokes. This is the real weak point once you start to ride them off road.

The rear subframe has ALWAYS been a problem on BuMWuhs. Why they haven't gotten around to fixing it when it's been causing problems since the 5 series is beyond me. Personally I thonk it's a sad indictment of the whole BumWuh manufacturing organisation, and just skimming the surface of the real problems of the company.

Garry from Oz.

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