We used our R100GS for our trans Africa trip 2 up with 90kg of luggage. The only mods were a white power rear shock (dealer advised that the original equipment wouldn't make it to Dover!) and a bypassed oil cooler (recommended by Braken BMW and proved to be a bad idea). The shaft did fail eventually in Rouen on the return journey. The WP leaked a bit and was replaced by BMW. The only other fault was alternator failure in Namibia and we had problems getting a 17" tyre in Malawi.
Both the shock and driveshaft failures in our case were down to the bike being overloaded, although we had no subframe or rack problems. Interesting comments about fitting the R100R shock which reduces the angle on the UJ but in our case it was the rear UJ that failed andI find the bike a little low in standard form so it probably wouldn't suit me.
There are a lot of mods available for these bikes mostly rallye inspired bling but some useful improvements for overlanders have come from rallye bike development.
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