Installing Wilbers Shocks on the R1200GS

In early November, 2004, I mounted Wilbers shocks on my R1200GS. Wilbers is a German company that builds fully rebuildable custom motorcycle shocks with a 5-year warranty. I ordered a part number #630 for the front, with a blue spring. For the rear, I ordered part number #642, also with a blue spring, and 1/2" shorter than stock. I also ordered p/n #629 (infinite variable adjustable ride height for the rear shock), and p/n #625 (hydraulic preload adjuster for the rear shock).

I bought these from MotoFanatic, a small performance tuning business in Northern Illinois. They have great prices on Wilbers.

The Wilbers compared to the stock (WP) R1200GS rear shock. The stock shock has a large plastic shield to protect it from the rear wheel spray.

The old and new front shocks. WP vs: Wilbers.

I tackled the rear shock first. Removing the old shock turned out to be a bit of a pain. The lower mount bolt bumps into the exhaust as you can see from the photo above. I removed the heat shield, and the clamp for the rear of the exhaust, but couldn't get the exhaust to come off. I tried pretty hard, but stopped short of beating it off with a drift and a hammer. You'll need a 15mm socket for the exhaust pipe clamp, and a 15mm open end wrench for the upper shock mount. [15mm? Come on, BMW, give us a break -- everybody else standardizes on a small set of sizes (8/10/12/14/17) to keep the toolkit simple!]

My friend Steve installed Wilbers on his R1200GS too, and he wrote about installing the rear shock: "Because I had the Staintune exhaust, I simply removed the exhaust slip-on. I also removed the rear wheel though I probably didn't need to. Overall, it was a 15 minute job."

Next, I removed the bolt on the upper rear shock mount. Then I put a jack under the rear differential and raised the rear wheel as much as possible. This pushed the rear shock up as far as it would go, giving me more room at the bottom of the shock.

There still wasn't room to remove the lower shock mount bolt, so I removed the clamp on the catalytic converter (see arrow above) and pushed the exhaust downwards a bit. Then I was just barely able to get the bolt out. It would be much easier if you could just remove the rear section of the exhaust. Maybe if I had a torch I could have heated the joint and gotten it to free up.

I wasn't done yet, though, as the OEM shock wouldn't come out until I removed the rear wheel. It probably would have slipped right out if I'd been able to remove the exhaust.

The next crisis was discovering that the Wilbers shock wouldn't fit as it the charcoal cannister was in the way of the shock's fluid reservoir. So I had to remove the canister. The photo above shows the canister gone, and the Wilbers mounted. The arrow points to a piece of bicycle innertube I hose-clamped to the shock to prevent it from stuff thrown off the rear wheel. I think I'll add a "hugger" to the rear wheel, so I can remove the unsightly rubber shield.

The shock's high and low speed compression damping adjustments are hidden behind the wire coming from my "control box" just outside the photo frame to the right.

The rear shock install is completed by mounting the remote hydraulic preload adjuster on the right passenger peg frame member. You can also see the rubber shield I added to the shock.

The front shock install was also not without drama. To remove it, you need to block up the front of the bike (under the skidplate, as shown in the photo above) so as to get maximum extension of the front suspension. You'll also need the rear wheel to be off otherwise it will prevent you from lifting the engine as high as you need to.

The next issue is removing the gastank, or at least moving it backwards about 3" so you can get access to the upper OEM shock mount bolt. You'd hope you could just snake a 15mm socket down in there but no, that won't work. You see, the threaded shaft that the nut attaches to is free to turn, so if you turn the nut, the shaft just follows it and you get nowhere. If you look carefully, the threaded shaft has a 5mm allen socket in it.

So you need to hold the shaft in place with a 5mm allen wrench, then you use a 15mm open end wrench to loosen the nut. Fortunately, once the nut is a bit loose, you can spin it the rest of the way off with your fingers.

My friend Steve, who also mounted Wilbers on his R12GS, said:

"Got the front shock on today. It's more difficult with crash bars - you cannot remove the belt cover with them in place. Fortunately, the BMW crash bar is sectional - allowing me to remove just the front cross piece. After that, I could remove the cover and then the shock.

Another hint on the front shock top bolt. Insert the short end of an L-shaped allen key into the stud. Use a 15mm crow's foot with 6" extension and 3/8" ratchet to spin the shock shaft. The allen key will slowly turn counterclockwise until it rests solidly against the frame. Once it is there you can reef on the 15mm with near impunity.

The bottom bolt on the front shock comes right out. You will need to remove the alternator belt cover to install the Wilbers shock, so you might as well do it now before you remove the stock shock. You'll have to pull the rear wheel down a bit to get the stock shock to come free. That's another reason why you need the jack under the skidplate.

Installing the Wilbers in place of the OEM shock is pretty straightforward. The top of the Wilbers shock has a 17mm nut, which you can reach with a standard open end wrench while you replace the 15mm nut on top of the frame. None of that user-unfriendly 5mm allen stuff for Wilbers.

After you've buttoned everything back up, the front shock should look kinda like the photo above. Like they say, "Measure twice, Cut once". That means double check all the nuts and fasteners before you pronounce the job done. In particular, pay attention to getting the big plastic side-panels fastened properly. If the bottom leading edge comes loose from the weird only-holds-in-the-horizontal-position plastic fastener, the whole thing can come adrift and scratch the crap out of the silver piece behind it. And triple check the rear wheel bolts after you remount it. Be safe!

Torque Values

Tools Required

These are the tools I used to do the job (minus the torque wrench, which I forgot to include).

<SOAPBOX>
Be careful with the Torx drivers. They may be friendly to the robots that assemble the bikes, but in my humble opinion they aren't very human friendly. Too often, one or even two smaller sizes will "fit" (with some degree of looseness) a given Torx bolt. For example, a T-27 will fit (not all that loosely) a T-30 bolt, and you might even think it was correct. Then you could strip it. Best is to keep trying progressively larger sizes until you get one that fits with no slop at all.
</SOAPBOX>

My friend Steve offers this tip: "Years ago, I marked my 27mm Torx bit with a yellow paint marker, vowing to remove the dot if I ever found a use for it." Steve's T-27 still has the yellow dot...

Initial Shock Setup

As delivered, these were the settings I received. I described myself as an agressive but smooth rider who never carries a passenger and never drags a footpeg on the street. My weight I gave as 175 lbs -- ready to ride.

Two of my friends, Steve and Ron, also put Wilbers on their R1200GS'es. Their riding weights were listed as 240 lbs and 250 lbs, ready to ride. They ordered the same shocks I ordered, and strangely received the same springs and settings except for the preload. Steve is investigating this now and we will post the results here Real Soon Now. We expected the springs and settings would differ due to our weight differences.

Initial Riding Impressions

BASELINE DATA: Bike had 13k miles on the original stock suspension, rider is 5'7" and weighs 175 pounds ready to ride, riding style is fairly agressive but smooth. Bike is currently shod with Bridgestone BT020s, front and rear.

I took it for a quick ride today with the personalized settings as delivered by the factory, and it is a definite improvement. Not as huge as was putting the Ohlins on my old R11GS, but very noticable. And a much more postive change than putting an Ohlins on the back of my FJR1300. Should be even better after I get a couple friends over to help me set the static sag, and tweak the compression/rebound settings a bit.

With the stock front shock dialed to no preload at all, the front forks never sagged, just the rear. When I sit on it now, with the Wilbers, both ends sag about the same amount, just like they should.

As I left the driveway and rode over the curb to the street, it felt more plush and more firm at the same time. The front end felt a bit "higher", but maybe that's an illusion. The rear shock is only about 1-2mm shorter, and the front shock only about the same amount longer than stock, so I wouldn't think that little a difference would be noticable. It feels more taut, but at the same time plusher, if that makes sense.

Riding down the hill and around the first S-curve, the front end feels much more stable and planted than before. Cornering performance is definitely improved. Can't wait to take it on the track and push it a little bit. I'll bet the stability in a cross-wind is also improved, but I have yet to verify that.

The overall ride is more comfortable and it now semi-glides over the little bumps and pavement irregularities whereas the stock suspension resulted in me feeling every little irregularity. The big potholes and stuff are still kinda harsh, but not quite as harsh as stock. Plus I expect that I can tweak the rebound and high-speed compression on the rear to smooth that out.

With the stock suspension, for me and my weight and riding style, I always felt the ride was more "harsh" than it should be, given what I know about suspension. Now, with the Wilbers, I don't get that "harsh" feeling when I ride it.

Overall I'm pleased, so far. It's a lot of money, but the stock suspension really wasn't very good. When I rode a Suzuki DL650 on a trackday side-by-side with my R12GS and found the little Suzuki to have better suspension, I knew I had to do something.

I'm thinking I might buy a carbon-fiber inner rear-hugger from http://www.ilmberger-carbon.de/ -- that way I can leave the shock unobscured out in the open where folks can see it. It's such a pretty piece of hardware!

So far, I see no reason to need to lower the rear shock height.

Secondary Riding Impression

I did some dirt roads the other day, and I must say that even with the sport-touring tires I'm currently running (BT020s) the bike is considerably more stable on dirt/gravel than it was with the stock suspension. By that I mean that where I could ride a given section of road at 45mph, comfortably, now I can ride at 65mph with the same degree of stability and confidence. Quite a positive change from stock.

Copyright © 2004, by H. Marc Lewis. All rights reserved.