Modifications

Iīve made some changes to he bike both before and after I left home. Nothing very drastic - I didnīt change the shocks or do anything to the fuel system - but I added on some things to help make the basic 650GS more ridable for long distances.

The main thing that improved my comfort was a custom seat, which I had done in Seattle at Richīs custom seats. This was a little pricy, at $550 for custom fitting for the driver and passenger parts of the seat, but since Iīve been much more comfortable on days of 300 miles or more. Rich did a great job - he had me in and out in one day just before I left for Alaska, and Cathy is also a lot happier. The only thing is, Rich really likes leather... he showed me a variety of skins from aligator to manatee to elephant, and then dead panned "and Iīve never made a seat out of human skin, but I will before I die..."

Another needlessly expensive part was the center stand. For some strange reason, the folks at BMW decided not to put a center stand on the Dakar, though it does come with the standard GS. You need a center stand to do many basic maintenance tasks like changing the oil (and even checking the level of it if you listen to the manual). Also, the side stand was created for the standard GS, which is lower (because of a smaller standard front wheel) and when loaded, the Dakar can tip over, so having a center stand is handy when you need to strap lots of stuff on and not knock it over. I ended up buying an aftermarket center stand with a bash plate for $275 - I think I got ripped off a bit, but I needed it before I left, and the guy rushed it to me. I also ended up fixing the tipping problem by adding a rubber foot to the side stand - improvised with rubber from a sanding block and a few hose clamps (love those hose clamps...) An inch and a half made a gigantic difference. If I had to do it over again, I might have bought the standard GS and bought a new front wheel. The 21 inch front wheel is great for bad terrain, and also handy if you have to ride up the steps into a hotel lobby...

I added a front windscreen, not much bigger than the one that came with the bike, but two inches more width on the sides and the top made a lot of difference. It was a crappy plexiglass job, but it has served pretty well.

The boxes I got are Touratech 40 liters on both sides. The rack did not fit perfectly when I got it - I actually had to bend some metal, and nearly stripped the holes for the mounting bracket right above the muffler trying to get it together. The directions are in German, with a page of really poor translations - I ended up throwing them away and looking at the parts to figure out how to assemble the rack. Itīs also just a bad design - both crashes Iīve had, at probably less than 30 mph both times, have ripped out the expansion bolt that goes behind the passenger footpeg and bent the back brace of the rack the same way. I guess thatīs better than totally destroying the boxes, but Iīve since seen better designs for strength, and wish Iīd picked another one. The boxes themselves are great, especially with the bags that drop into them (this protects your clothes from the oxidizin aluminum). They unmount in seconds, and are totally secure when mounted to the rack.

The back rack I have is a T-rest from Best Rest, and the back rest for a passenger. After I put this on in the parking lot of Tacotime in downtown Seattle in less than an hour, I really appreciated how bad the engineering and instructions were on the Touratech stuff. This guy designed his parts to fit perfectly on the 650 GS, and even had an errata with his original instructions to clarify a point that I donīt think anyone could have really misunderstood. It worked well, and the back rest is comfortable for Cathy - the only cautionary point here is it really moves weight far back on the bike, and if you load it up it will assist you in doing a really cool wheelie when you gun the bike out of first, say when you are trying to pass a truck on a steep, windy mountain road... theoretically speaking, of course. Thatīs not a fault of the rack - just part of understanding the weight distribution of the bike.

I also made a tool carrier for underneath the front bashplate on the bike, so that I could take the tools that are the heaviest part of my gear and put them forwards and low on the bike, to help keep the front down. I got the idea from Dave Wissen, who I was riding with in Alaska. When I was looking at his bike at the ferry terminal in Bellingham, Washington, before we loaded onto the ferry, I was comparing his KLR with my GS, and I was puzzled by the tube on the front, between the wheel and the engine, mounted to the frame. I thought it was part of the engine, and many people have thought that about mine, which is nice, since I can leave it on the bike, and my tools probably wonīt be stolen. To do this I needed to put engine protection bars on (which I needed anyway) and I used some hose clamps to put a 5 inch wide, 14 inch long piece of black PVC tubing on the front part of the bars. I used rubber caps for the ends - all parts I was able to find at a Home Depot in LA.

I got heated grips when I bought the bike, and the BMW accessory outlet. The grips really helped in Alaska - Iīve ridden in subfreezing temperatures on my old bike without them, and it is a much more pleasant experience with the heated grips, in the sense that I am no longer cursing the day I was born. When we rode through a blizzard in Alaska, Daveīs hands were starting to lock up after a few hours of rain and snow, even with two layers of gloves. I was only uncomfortable, and this because my gloves werenīt waterproof. The accessory outlet is useful for a heated vest - I like it, but I think I could live without it - and I also got an adapter so that I can use a tire inflator for a car that plugs into a cigarette lighter socket to reinflate my tires.

I had a Throttle Rocker for a while, and it was really nice... it fell off my bike in California somewhere (or someone grabbed it) and I couldnīt find another one since then, but I would if I could. It really lessens the strain on your right wrist when you are cruising for a few hours at a time.

A part that is a must for Alaska, that I never thought of before getting up there, was a headlight cover. I ended up making one out of a small piece of plexiglass that I heated to bend into shape and then cut to size, and a few adhesive furniture glides as spacers. Looks almost as good as one from the store, and stops pebbles and rocks thrown by 18 wheelers from smashing your light.

One modification I should have made before going to Alaska or down here, but didnīt get to yet, is gators for the front forks. We actually had fork seals go bad on 2 of the 4 bikes that went to Prudhoe Bay, from dirt that hit the front fork in the shock travel area, and penetrated the seals. Dirt can also pit this surface, making you lose more fork oil. I havenīt had this problem yet, but before I do any more serious dirt riding Iīll probably cover them with 1 liter bottles, at least temporarily.