I know that people have trouble getting the nice and shiny protection off their RT’s while KEEPING it nice and shiny.
When doing it for the first time, it CAN be puzzle. I know…. I tried.
So I took this part out of the other article (the one on installing a Zumo). Maybe you only need this (for example to replace a battery or to do other work on your RT).
Disassembling the bike
Well, getting the plastic cover off to be precise. This should be easy….. and it is….. eventually.
Claims of doing it within 7 minutes may well be true, average seems to be 15 minutes….. I won’t tell you how long it took ME ! If this is going to be YOUR first time (like it was mine), you may want to read this part. If not, please skip…..
I used my manual and printed drawing to locate all the bolts. Or so I thought. I put a nice white sheet on the ground and placed every bolt I took out on it, in its proper place. There are TWO different sizes – of course – and you have to keep track of which goes where.
Needless to say a sudden gust of wind lifted the sheet while I was working on the bike, messing up my carefully placed lay-out system. NOTE: make sure your ‘lay-out system’ is wind-proof, wife-proof and self-proof.
fig. 14. My brilliant ‘bolt lay-out system’. Just one thing missing: something to prevent the wind from taking it all away! Also note the ‘tool’ I used to undo the bolts.
First, take off the mirror. It is just being held in place by three ‘clamps’ on three retaining knobs. Hold it with one hand at the forward part. Then whack it with the other on the outside, just next to the actual mirror. It should pop off the two retaining knobs at the back and the one knob at the front (where your holding hand is).
The turn signal lamp is hidden in the mirror housing. Just turn it a little to get it out and store it as shown on the picture below. Before re-assembling things you COULD attach a safety wire between the bike frame and the mirror housing as some people do. It will prevent the mirror from accidentally coming off and breaking in the fall (or losing it altogether).
fig. 15. Showing the three retainer knobs (greased) that hold the mirror housing. And the hole of the hidden screw underneath them. Hit the plastic mirror housing from the rightmost two points towards the one at the bottom forward, and it will pop off .
Take off the mirror housing
There are indeed NINETEEN bolts (on the 1150RT, not sure on the 1100).
I started with the ones along the tank, on the top.
Then went down to take out those three (over the foot rest).
Took out the FOUR bolts holding the bottom bit of plastic (on TWO sides!). And took that part down (It connects the two bits of tupperware on either side of the bike).
‘Found’ the one in the nose (see fig. 16.) and the one at the base of the tank, covered by the saddle.
Finally I took out the screw behind the mirror.
fig. 16. A sneaky bolt is found inside the air scoop in the nose. This one takes the longest to get out, and back in.
So with all the bolts removed……. *cough*, I didn’t count them of course. Shazba !………..
I started to rock the plastic cover gently to try and take it off. NOTHING moved. It was stuck somewhere. It took me quite a while, I must shamefully admit, to discover the two LAST bolts placed just above the cylinder head UNDERNEATH the plastic. Sneaky !! Doh!
fig. 17. Showing the two last – sneaky – bolts just forward and above the cylinder. Also showing the interchangeable screwdriver I used that made loosening and tightening the bolts much quicker.
With those last two offending bolts removed the plastic indeed started to move. But you CANNOT ‘just’ lift it off. No Sirree….. !
I lifted it on one side….. it got stuck underneath the dashboard. Tried on the other end…… it was still stuck underneath the front cover (there’s a hidden bit of plastic there). Tried yet another move and it was stuck somewhere else.
Aaaarrghhh.
I even took yet another bolt out of the bottom of the dashboard to allow for more room there, but that wasn’t necessary (as it turned out in the end).
The ‘trick’ is shown in figure 18. You have to LIFT and then TURN the entire part gently forward a little, and it will come off ! There are many places where it can get stuck, see pictures.
fig. 18. Gently LIFT and then TURN the entire plastic cover in the direction of the arrows. That should free the forward notch and lift it over the glove/radio compartment.
BEFORE I figured that out, I had problems in the places shown below:
fig. 19. You have to LIFT it to get it out of the ledge along the tank cover.
fig. 20. I took out an extra bolt to ‘free’ the dashboard a little, but that wasn’t really necessary in the end.
fig. 21. There’s a stub, notch, whatever you call it THERE.
fig. 22. And I got things stuck on top of the radio compartment and underneath the dashboard plastic. Just pulling is not an option!
fig. 23. You KNOW you have successfully removed the tupperware when things look like this…… and you are properly sweating! Phew !
Take out ALL tupperware bolts Mark bolts and their respective place for re-assembling Take down the bottom (engine) cover Remove the plastic side cover
and here are some useful links:
Some of the manuals and illustrations I used when working on my bike came from the source listed below. I donwloaded them but am not going to host them here, so you’ll have to get them yourself.
http://www.blackbears.ru/manual/files/BMW_R1150RT_Service_Manual.zip
