The ‘Sertao’ is the last of the line of the BMW 650GS singles

Author Ken Smale

I’ve had this bike for a few years now and decided to make a few changes. The large Givi boxes would be great for longer touring, but I use my trusty RT for that, and this bike is used for local ‘fun riding’ a bit of commuting and it’s also within the weight restrictions to load onto the motorhome.

So, the mods have been:

• Respray to a non-standard colour (If you do this, don’t forget to tell your insurance company and DVLA…)
• A set of LED spots and LED headlight bulb.
• ‘Scottoiler’ to keep the chain in good order.
• Front engine bars.
• Givi Frame and bespoke ‘homemade’ Panniers and Top Box.
• ‘Fuel Friend’ and ‘Zen’ mounting bracket.
• Top Box ‘rack’ made from 15mm plumbing joints.

Scott Oiler

This is the ‘basic version’ operated via a small pipe which is supplied which fits into a ‘Spigot’ which is screwed into the plastic air intake pipe feeding the carb from the air filter. So the Scottoiler’s internals use a part of the vacuum to actuate a pump which then forces oil down the pipe and on to the chain. It sends a droplet every minute that the engine is running. You can alter this amount by simply turning a dial on the top of the reservoir. Has been working faultlessly for well over two years and users on the Facebook 650gs owners site reckon they get 4 x the use from the chain and sprockets by using one of these. I’ve found the oil supplied (I use the ‘Blue summer oil’, ‘Winter’ is available as well), wipes off both the rear wheel and spokes easily. The ‘posh version’ is controlled from a small device that you place on the bars, much more expensive, but you can adjust whilst riding and it shows the ambient temperature. This also doesn’t require fitting the spigot into the manifold. The complete fitting only takes a couple of hours are probably one of the best ‘mods’ that I have fitted.

Side box and Tool sleeve

Photo shows the ‘Tool sleeve’ and how the side box is held on securely with ‘Hook bolts’, which are tightened from inside the locked box with ‘butterfly nuts’ so can be taken off quite quickly. You may also notice the white 15mm plumbing pipe clips which push straight onto this Givi Rack. The ‘Clasp locks’ purchased from either Screwfix or eBay.

The top box connected to the original Givi baseplate. Again, quite quick to swap over to the larger Givi top box, if required. The rack made from some spare 15mm plumbing joints, then spray painted. I used ‘plastic pipe inserts’ which came with M8 inner thread predrilled. So just drilled through the top of the box and attached from underneath. Sealed with normal waterproof sealant.

Fuel Friend and Zen Rack

This gives an approx. additional range of 22-25 miles with this purpose made 1.5-liter container.

An ideal mounting point, just using a small bracket across the inside of a part of the frame. The ‘Zen’ frame purchased from a different supplier. Both protected by the front engine bars and the rear box. Well away from the chain, and still allows the rear foot peg to be used as normal. Also in this photo you can see the end feed pipe from the Scottoiler drips onto the bottom of the chain, just before entering the sprocket.

Easylifter

If anyone’s interested in the ‘easylifter’, I can let you have the details, a great device, as the ‘caster wheels’ rotate when you start to reverse, and these take most of the loading. These casters are removed to allow the deck to be lowered to the ground to load the bike. Then an adapted ‘bottle jack’ is used to raise the bike on the ground and up to a point where the caster are ‘loaded and locked’. The bottle jack then released so the caster wheels take up the weight. You must have a ‘drawbar’ fitted to take this additional weight. I took the motorhome, lifter and bike onto the Ducklington / Smiths weighbridge to check the calculations. Because this fits directly onto the drawbar and not a towball (Adapter plate comes with the lift), then technically it’s not a trailer and so doesn’t have the same towing speed restrictions. It also has a very clever ‘system which allows the complete lift and bike loaded to ‘travel’ vertically to cope with ‘speed bumps’ etc. The connector also allows the lift to tilt horizontally as well to cope with pot holes or uneven ground etc.

 

Originally posted 2020-11-23 20:25:15.