Installing Ricardo Kuhn's Pro Tapers

11-16-02

Ricardo Kuhn's Pro Taper kit for the BMW R1150GS definately lives up to all the good press it's been getting in the Adventure Rider forums. Go to his website and get in contact with him. He will apply his ergonomics expertice and custom tailor the set up you get to your riding style and characteristics.

Here's the installation process I went through. It took me just over 3 hours to do the whole project and I'm not particularly quick. Click on any of the attached images for a larger picture.

The kit from Ricardo includes the following pieces:

  • Handle Bars
  • Bar Mounts
  • 4 large mounting bolts
  • 8 smaller mounting bolts
  • Modified handguard clamps (if ordered)
  • Safety wire
  • Lots of Zipties

A note about the handguard clamps: these are stock BMW parts that Ricardo has modified to fit the Pro Tapers. You should send back your stock ones to Ricardo(or send him a check to cover the extra cost if you want to keep your stock ones).

 

 

Here are some before pictures of the bike with the stock bars.

The first step is to remove the handguards and mirrors, then the instrument pods.

You need to move the tank back (or remove it) to get at the wiring harness for the heated grips. The heated grip connector must be detached and the leads must be carefully pulled from the plastic harness box so they can be pulled through the bars. They aren't polarized so the wire orientation isn't important to remember

Remove the screws that hold the left grip in place, then pull the grip off along with the heater wires.

To remove the clutch lever and the throttle/ rigth grip assembly, get a second set of hands to help. The various lines and cables that hold them won't allow you to slide them off with the bars in place, so you need to remove the bars and move them over to allow for enough slack to remove one side, then the other. Be careful to keep the reservioirs upright. (Sorry, no pics of this)

The next step is to mount the new clamps and bars.

Secure the mounting bracket to the triple-clamp then place the bars in the clamp and adust their position.

Mount the clutch assembly, then the handgrip. Ricardo supplies a safety with for running the heater wires through the bars. Since I had an assistant, I pushed the heater wires directly through and used the tire reaming tool to pull the wire (see pic). Check the positioning of the wires carefully so they don't pinch. Then install the throttle assembly and right handgrip using a small amount of light grease on the bars for the throttle. Temporarily attach the bar ends to correctly position the grips. Reassemble the plastic grip heater connector and plug it in.

Sit on the bike and adjust the position of the bars and levers. See Ricardo's note or talk to him about the best way to do this. Note that the image does not indicate the final positioning I used.

Once a decent setup is found, use the tie wraps to loosely hold the cables in place. Finish reconnecting everything.

Ricardo recommends making a test run before attaching the mirrors and handgrips so that its easier to make final adjustments. Once a final setup is achieved, then attach the mirrors and handgrips. Note that the handgrips will require a little finessing to get set. Ricardo notes that the hydraulic hoses may have to be rerun, but I found it wasn't necessary. Here's some pics of my final setup (actually, I've tweaked it a bit since these pictures were taken)

The new bars have made a world of difference and I highly recommend this modification. The GS is a whole new machine. And I found a use for the nerf pad that was on the stcok crossbar. It's now a backrest for my Givi trunk.