News

DIY upgrades on my BMW F850GS; Barkbusters & tyre hugger installation

13th October 2024, 10:33 by Rahul Nagaraj

Bike does not come with a tyre hugger, lots of mud and slush on the rear of the bike in rains, top box gets completely filthy.

BHPian Rahulkool recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Finally got around to installing the barkbusters. I have these from long time, cousin gifted me these when i bought the bike. I was planning to get the plastic guard as well and install but didnt ordered till now. Couple of riders warned me that levers could be expensive to replace, so thought of installing these. Now i feel that these might save the levers but end up bending the handlebar, which could be even bigger expense

I like the stock plastic guards better.

To remove the stock plastic guards, you will have to remove the rear view mirrors and the bar end weights.

Right - stock bolt, Left - new longer bolt for barkbuster.

Bar end mount, barkbusters come with 2 big spacers, both needs to be used for 850GSA, one of them is inside the bar end weight in the below image.

On full turn the metal guards are too close to tank as well as front fairing, so there was not much scope for adjusting the barkbusters. I had to adjust both levers to make sure that those stay inside the metal bars and impact is on the metal bars incase of a fall.

You can see how close it is to the front fairing on full turn.

Both sides installed, didnt like how these looks, need to get the plastic covers or will switch back to the stock plastic guards.

Bike does not come with a tyre hugger, lots of mud and slush on the rear of the bike in rains, top box gets completely filthy. So much so that after last ride the no plate was not visible.

I could not find any other decent rear tyre hugger locally for 850GSA, most of the stuff available is generic ones and i was not sure of fitting as it mounts on the axle bolts.

So ordered this mudguard from ebay. Had to use a shop and ship service as this listing was not shipping to India. With shipping, custom duty and GST it ended up costing almost double

https://www.ebay.com/itm/335122579232

This is specially designed for 850GSA and comes with following parts.

This is a single pc aluminium fitting, it replaces the chain adjustment mechanism on the right side swing arm.

Removed the axle slider for installation.

Only to realise that axle bolt on the BMW is 34mm and i dont have any socket bigger than 28mm.

So went and bought 34mm socket. Placed some wood below the tyre so it does not move when i remove the axle.

Top is the stock chain adjustment part on the right swing arm, below is the replacement part. you can see the replacement part is more protruding around the center hole. More on this later.

This is how it slots in and there is a screw on the back to adjust the chain.

Cleaned and added some grease on the axle before pushing it in.

Now the wunderlich axle sliders wont install, because the chain adjustment part was much bigger and protruding more. So needed to take off little bit of plastic from the axle slider. I tried doing it myself but it was hard plastic and will need a drill + vice at least. I had a drill but no vice, this being a small part would be difficult to handle.

Asked one friend and he took me to one of his known places which does metal work and have a lathe.

Upon reaching we took measurement with a vernier caliper and this guy used a huge CNC machine, way too overkill for the job, but result was perfect fit.