MN246
Member
So today I decided to install the luggage rack that came with my bike. I bought my R18 used and it already had the Road Styler backrest installed. It had the luggage rack, but it was uninstalled. I'm thinking this is maybe a 15 minute exercise, after all, its only four bolts in and out. Or so I thought.
My first indication that something was wrong was that all four of the Allen bolts were slightly wallowed out and the nuts were very difficult to loosen. I was able to get one of the nuts off only to find that the previous owner had liberally applied red loctite to the nut. With the nut off, I tried to back out the Allen bolt and it was stuck solidly in place. It appeared that the bolt got a pretty generous application of red loctite where it threaded through the upright for the backrest.
About two hours later, with the assistance of a torch, I have everything disassembled. I had to heat the remaining nuts to get them off with a wrench. The bolts could not be removed with an Allen wrench, so I had to grind off the bolt head with an angle grinder and a flap wheel. Once the head was off the bolt, the remaining stud could be removed with heat and a pipe wrench.
The torch destroyed the powder coat, so I had to sand down and feather the powder coat to get it ready to be painted. I had to order an M8 x 1.25 tap so the threads in the back rest frame could be re-tapped. That won't be here until tomorrow. In the mean time, I've repainted the parts and they will be ready for reassembly tomorrow when the tap gets here. Also, a trip to the hardware store set me back $64 to get the necessary chrome and stainless hardware to reassemble everything.
The moral of the story, don't use red loctite on anything that you ever plan to disassemble. Blue loctite holds great and it can be disassembled with hand tools. As a side note, the bags had to come off to get this work done. In order to get the bags off, the seat had to be removed and multiple zip ties cut. BMW needs to spend some time looking at how Harley Davidson and Indian attach backrests and tour packs. As much as I love my R18, this is a glaring missed opportunity for BMW. It would be very nice if they would design and offer a docking solution.
My first indication that something was wrong was that all four of the Allen bolts were slightly wallowed out and the nuts were very difficult to loosen. I was able to get one of the nuts off only to find that the previous owner had liberally applied red loctite to the nut. With the nut off, I tried to back out the Allen bolt and it was stuck solidly in place. It appeared that the bolt got a pretty generous application of red loctite where it threaded through the upright for the backrest.
About two hours later, with the assistance of a torch, I have everything disassembled. I had to heat the remaining nuts to get them off with a wrench. The bolts could not be removed with an Allen wrench, so I had to grind off the bolt head with an angle grinder and a flap wheel. Once the head was off the bolt, the remaining stud could be removed with heat and a pipe wrench.
The torch destroyed the powder coat, so I had to sand down and feather the powder coat to get it ready to be painted. I had to order an M8 x 1.25 tap so the threads in the back rest frame could be re-tapped. That won't be here until tomorrow. In the mean time, I've repainted the parts and they will be ready for reassembly tomorrow when the tap gets here. Also, a trip to the hardware store set me back $64 to get the necessary chrome and stainless hardware to reassemble everything.
The moral of the story, don't use red loctite on anything that you ever plan to disassemble. Blue loctite holds great and it can be disassembled with hand tools. As a side note, the bags had to come off to get this work done. In order to get the bags off, the seat had to be removed and multiple zip ties cut. BMW needs to spend some time looking at how Harley Davidson and Indian attach backrests and tour packs. As much as I love my R18, this is a glaring missed opportunity for BMW. It would be very nice if they would design and offer a docking solution.
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