Have you ever owned a BMW R100RS ? Fairing question.

[arveno]

I was wondering if anyone have or  ever had a BMW R100 RS and could make a comparison between the BMW and the Le Mans fairing.

Impression , pros , cons , protection etc .

 Thank you 

Marco

i am asking because I have never had a 100Rs but always wondered about the fairing protection especially in cold  weather.

I am well aware of the differences between the two motorcycles so no need to go over that.

:-)

[audiomick]

I never had a K 100 myself, but a couple of mates of mine did.

What I have is a Kawasaki 1000 GTR. Rumour has it that Kawasaki bought a K100, looked at it and found the "weak points", and made a motorcycle that didn't have them.

Looking at the photos in the interweb, I can imagine the BMW has a couple of tricks up it's sleeve akin to the GTR that the Le Mans doesn't have.

 

On the GTR, the rider's hands are in the slipstream from the mirrors. Going by the photos, that is likely to be the case on the K 100 as well. That is worth a million in cold wet weather.

The fairing on the GTR is so good that it is unpleasant in hot weather. Too hot. Also, 160 km/h on the German Autobahn is completely relaxed, because the fairing keeps you out of the wind. I have a little bit of turbulence on the top of the helmet, but that is it. When there is a gusty wind and lots of traffic (i.e. turbulence from other vehicles) one starts wondering if the motor has a problem. One doesn't feel the incosistent wind, and it feels like the motor is missing or something.

Going by the photos, at least the K100 RT is going to be very similar. From what my mates told me way back when, the RS is not quite as all-encompassing as far as protection goes, but still very good.

Oh, yeah, when it starts raining, on the GTR the first part of the rider that gets wet is his back, due to blow-back from the turbulence. Front on, barely anything gets through.

 

The fairing on the Le Mans strikes me as being pretty good. I haven't ridden mine in the rain yet, but the wind protection seems quite well sorted for the size of the fairing. The motor takes care of the legs a bit. That is likely to be similar to the RS. The fairing on the GTR and the BMW RT goes down further. I dare say the RT provides heating for the feet through motor heat, as does the GTR.  The RS probably not, but rather similar "performance" around the feet to the Le Mans.

 

Lots of speculation there, but I'm pretty sure most of it must be fairly close to the truth.

[Chuck]

I've had two BMWs, but I'm a slow learner. The R100RT is *quite* a bit more protective than the LeMans, but you have to put up with having a R100RT to have one. The RS is similar to a LeMans, but..

Honestly though, the fly screen on the Mighty Scura was more comfortable (for me) than the Rosso. My helmet was in clean air on the Scura. Rosie was better in rain, however.

There is no perfect motorcycle, no matter what Melissa says.

[Scud]

Had an R100CS and an R1100RT and a K75S (owned in that order). Personally, I've always admired the R100RS models, but never ridden one. The 1000 cc airheads are nice competent bikes, and there are some lovely, well-preserved RS models that pop up from time to time. 

But in general, I'm with Chuck on this. IMO the best windscreen are either tiny things that look cool and keep the airflow under your helmet - or enormous sails that give you a full-body wind pocket that goes over the helmet. FWIW - I'm a big fan of the Stelvio windshield with an extra lip and thinking I should just buy the bigger windscreen for it and admit that it is a touring bike, not a 600 pound dirt bike.

[arveno]

Thanks everyone for the input.

I like the lemans fairing and I would never replace the lemans with a RS 

would love to own them both lol 

I think I should probably buy one and then if I do not like it… re sell it 

unfortunately I don’t know anyone that own one I can borrow , that would be the best . 

 

 

 

[audiomick]

Keep an eye on the internet, and if one turns up for sale near you, go and test ride it.

[Kevin_T]

When I first got my R100 RS it suffered from two common alignments. The fairing is really designed for someone with a 30 inch inseam. I'm a 34 inch inseam. I had to remove the knee armor in my Roadcrafter suit. Other wise it would rub up against the edge of the fairing and slice into my suit. Then there was the windscreen that was made to look cool and super sporty. The Lemans fairing suffers from that as well, as you ride down the road you create a low pressure area where the rider is. The air then tumbles off the lip of the windscreen into the chest of the rider. Added a Parabellum windscreen to mine and it became one of the best fairings of all time. Better than my K1600 GT which is saying a lot.

Charly Perethian designed the Parabellum windscreen. He has one of his bikes in Smithsonian Museum for its aerodynamic achievements. Also he was involved in a few projects like Vetter fairings and Rifle fairings. Any way the man couldn't say enough good things about BMW's R100 RS fairing so take that with a grain of salt.

Buy a BMW R100 RS? A BMW /7 is pretty ancient. I rode mine all over the country it even went to Alaska before me. That was many years ago.

 

[billgreenman1]

Put around 18k mi. on a '91 K100rs; it had a Luftmeister windshield extension on it and I took it off after about 6 months and sold it at a swap meet to a k-bike guy who wanted it more than me. The aerodynamics of the bike would kick in about 85-90 and would be solid and relatively quiet. The mirrors blocked out the wind and rain. I really can't decide if I regret trading in for a '95 GS 1100. If I could have afforded keeping both I would have. The GS ended up getting an Aeroflow and I put 100k on it. I think the ideal scenario would be something akin to the HD Electra glide  removable rig....maybe...to each their own...

[guzzler]

G'day folk's.

I,ve also ridden a few BMW's over the years, mates not mine.

R90S/R100RS early and the gutless Vanilla monoshock version /K100RS and RT.

I'm 5' 11'' and also found that my legs didn't fit inside the RS fairing and had to splay them uncomfortably and the screen dumped the air right in my face!

The bars tend to get to you after a while as well. 

It was a pity as I loved these when I was younger.

The K RT had a bloody great barn door of a fairing and always felt that the leading edge was too close to my face on that, but it was very protective.

If I HAD to own one I reckon I'd go for an R100S or CS but after the personality of my Guzzi that ain't gonna happen....

Cheers

Ps If I were to have a bike for touring with the other half (no chance of that though!) I reckon a sorted T3 would be the go.

But it'll be a cold day in Hades before I part with the V11....