Protect Your Oil Cooler

My suggestion for 1200 GS owners is to buy or make a cover for your oil cooler. You should do this even if you only ride on the highway. This past summer while riding my 2007 gs from Alaska to "America" I was going merrily down the pavement in Canada (after going through miles of hit and miss construction) when a car going in the opposite direction kicked up a small rock which hit a tube in my oil cooler. Within seconds oil was all over the bike and myself. By the time I figured out what was going on, got off the road, and shut it down no oil was showing in the window. I was about 50 miles out of the nearest city. I was riding with a friend who went for help. After waiting all day to get a tow company to haul me to town I discovered there was no BMW dealer there. The tow guys then took me another 500 miles to a dealer. The upshot..new oil cooler $450, new front brake pads $200 plus, labor about half a day's worth, oil cooler cover $80, a small amount of dollars to dry clean my riding suit, ruined gloves, and a loss of two days riding time. I was lucky that I had insurance that covered the towing and I had no engine damage. All this would likely would have been avoided if I had known that this bike could be shut down so easily. Otherwise, it was a great ride with a great bike.

PS -- While waiting by the side of the road for help (with my oily gear stacked all around) I watched numerous motorcycles zip right by, going both directions. Only two bikes stopped all day (both BMW riders). Only one auto stopped. I managed just fine; but will never pass by a broken down rider.

I've been thinking about an oil cooler protector on and off. I've had some close calls with my older Honda, my new (to me) GS and my work service truck (not mine but the regular rocks to the windshield are a reminder for sure - could have been my bike!). Nothing catastrophic to date, but BC's backroads are not kind and I figure something is bound to happen one day. For what it's worth this thread has sparked me to buy / make something in time for Spring.

As for stopping for broken down motorcycles - ABSOLUTELY! Unless my spidey senses go off (something isn't right - you get a good sense working by yourself in the field all the time) I always stop. I was very fortunate to have many people stop and offer help this summer during a breakdown. I immediately returned the favour after the trip, and back to work, in my service truck (FULL of tools) when I saw a guy stopped on the highway. Turns out he was just taking a break but the way he had stuff pulled off the bike it looked like a breakdown. He appreciated it though. Keep the karma going right? I've found that even if you don't have time to stop right away on your bike, a simple thumbs up/down will trigger a response from the guy and you can decide whether or not to flip around and offer help.

+1 on sticking together, on or off your bike! I'm lucky that I can offer tools when in my work truck, this might take a two hour roadside fix and turn it into a ten minute job. I also have orange blinky lights / traffic director which could help if someone was broken down in a scary spot.

My $0.02 worth, it just seems like the right thing to do.

Anyway, definitely going to get going on this little project for my bike.

Over and out.
Longer

Also,

Protect yer nuts.

This is maybe the second or third ever tale of this happening.:huh

While I think an oil cooler screen is not a bad idea, I would not call it essential. hundreds of millions of miles without this ever happening to 99.9% of people.

If you are going to get one, make sure it flows air well, and is tight enough to block small stones and sticks. Many of them merely look good, but are inefective, or block air flow.

Jim

I hit a bird at >100kmh earlier this year on a mate's 1150GS. It smashed the headlight. Could've quite easily hit the oil cooler instead. My 1100 came with an oil cooler protector so I'm all good

You've punctured your oil cooler.

You're in Bum Fuck Egypt.

You can't bypass your oil cooler using the lines or what you have available.

The oil cooler is most likely toast anyway.

Here's what you do...

1. Grab some needle nose pliers.
2. Remove all the fins surrounding the punctured tube in the oil cooler by yanking them out with the pliers.
3. Crimp the tube around the puncture to prevent oil leaking out.
4. Top off the oil. (You're just trying to get out of there, any oil will do. Find a farmer or a trucker)
5. Get thine bike to a suitable repair location or facility.

PS - This works on radiators too. DAMHIK

I'm one of those over-prepared, anal, ocd types that tries to protect against everything. In addition to oil cooler protection, I have headlight protection (PIAA's come with at least some half-ass attempt at protection), headguards and engine/side guards come with the GS Adv's, <groan> maybe I should protect the guards with something. Ah me, the eternal preparer! BTW, I am NOT being sarcastic!

Do you have a recommendation? e.g. to me the Touratech looks like it'll block debris but also the air flow.

Not really. Most of the ones I have seen either look good, or are attached directly to the cooler with no room to move if hit hard, and/or holes too big to block stones.

Were I to make one I would make sure it was at least 1/4" away from the cooler, and has a largish metal mesh like screen door mesh, with slightly wider spacing on the metal strands.

Anyone know of such a design?

Jim

I designed one and posted pix in the 'penny-mod' thread, but sadly, deleted those pix out of my SmugMug acct.

HERE GOES:
Home Depot and Lowes sells some white, brown, and black polymer/plastic 'gutter guards' for preventing leaves from clogging gutters. They are I believe about $2.00 and are about 1.5-2.0 mm thick with good tight diamond-shaped apertures. They 'cut' easily with heavy-duty shears, tin-snips, airplane shears (carpet scissors work best) and can be shaped to easily fit in the slot/beak with no fasteners. Just bend, and slip in. Also, they do not rest directly on the 'radiator' but are about 1/2 inch away. They are NOT going to stop a baseball-sized rock, but ought to do a decent job spreading normal stones, etc across a wider surface area and protecting the oil cooler.

That is why I always carry JB Weld with me, never know when you need it. It would have fixed the oil cooler in about 15 minutes permanently, no need to buy a $450 new one.

+1 on JB Weld. Also good for when that slight mistake grinds a hole in your valve cover.

-jeff

Yeah, the TT non mesh one. It has creases or bends in it to hold it about a 1/4" off the oil cooler and uses louvers (sp?) to channel air flow to the cooler. Looking at the design, I would say that more air will get to the cooler with it than without it. http://www.touratech-usa.com/shop/s...ession=touratech:D0F969DD1dc3311375yhn216EB26

I've used the TT cover for a bit over 90k miles on 3 12 GS's. Works well and the bikes stayed cool (3 bars) 95% of the time. Hot day/stop and go-goes to 4 bars.

Bar napkins and liberal amounts of duct tape work equally as well

I had two 1150 GS's at the same time.

I had the Touratech Oil cooler guard. Its good, a little closer than i would like to the cooler. Maybe a slight air blockadge on cooling but not noticeable.

I have the kaoko Headlight & oil cooler combo on my current 1150. Further away from oil cooler for some buffer on a heavy impact i.e. bird. More air flow i think.

Kaoka makes them for the 1200 too. Adventure Workshop source.

I had one oil cooler puncture. I don't know if a protector would have helped. With my R1100RT at around 60 mph I hit a deer that jumped out of the creek. I saw that I hit directly it's head. It was a buck. It's antler did big damage to the oil cooler. The body tore up my right fairing panel and tore off the right saddle bag. Happy I did not go down.

for the pennytech people, i used two layers of stainless steel 5mm gutter guard mesh. Over the top rail above the oil cooler and below the headlight down behind the beak and around the light bar. Plenty of spacing between the guard and the cooler, and you can make the holes down to 2.5mm if you get the spacing right, or leave it at 5mm. Lots of airflow, even at walking pace in 40celcius aussie summers.

I am toying with the idea of making my own...but what I wanted to offer is that on race cars if you add a radiator in front of a radiator the optimal position is literally to have them touching..no gap between...I believe the logic is to promote laminal air flow through the two radiators....sooooo, all though I doubt it would make a significant difference on my bike...having the screen touching the front of the oil radiator might provide the best air flow...but I do agree a stout hit could deform the grill into the radiator...and contact could mean wear from movement of grill on radiator fins..hey, nothing is 100%! I too am looking at plastic gutter guards or very stout SS wire mesh..