wspollack
Active member
To hopefuly help the community, I've written a few posts regarding the mods I've made to my new C 400 GT, and I have a few more in the works.
In the meantime, I thought I'd also possibly help out by letting folks know about two recent farkle failures, too.
Fail 1: Bum-Stop Removal
The other day, I removed the bum-stop, butt-rest, whatever you want to call it -- the thing directly behind your, um, behind, on the seat. I wanted to see how much more room I could get if I scootched back a bit, and see whether the reach to the bars was still in my comfort zone, etc. This is easily accomplished by removing three screws (T25) from the underside of the seat.
The removal did indeed provide a ton of additional room.
The problem, however, is that the slanting portion of the seat that's now visible -- the area that the bum-stop covered up -- is covered by a very thin vinyl. It's not at all suitable, IMO, to full exposure to the elements, nor to the wear and tear of rubbing against it. Further, there are plastic ridges and suchlike that almost poke through that vinyl. That is, some of the form work of the seat pan consists of parts that do NOT form a smooth backing for that slanted part.
Sorry I didn't take a pic of this; it's completely unlike me, but if you're really curious it's not a major project for you to check for yourself (although putting the three screws back in is a little finicky).
The 650 Burgman, for instance -- I've owned two of those -- has a bum-stop that is held in place by two rods, and is easy to remove. And once you do so, the newly exposed area is finished just like the rest of the seat. So you can accomplish on the Big Burger what I was curious about with C 400 GT.
(Possibly Partial) Fail 2: Inside-Windscreen Mounting Bracket
I bought the "Bestbuymoto Easygo Motorcycle GPS Smart Phone Navigation Mount Bracket Adapter Mounting Holder support for BMW C400GT 2019-2021" on Amazon:
Yep, it says "2019-2021," but for $25 I thought I'd give it a shot on my '22. I can't find a parts fiche for model-year 2022 C 400 GT scoots anywhere, so I don't know whether the stock windscreen and its mounting holes have changed.
In any event, this bracket might actually work ... on the stock windscreen.
As I noted in an earlier post, prior to my picking up the bike, I had the dealer install a Wunderlich Marathon Windscreen with vent (see my gallery, in the signature block, if you want more details on that). I took off the windscreen and did some pretend fitting of the new bracket, and discovered that it not fit on this windscreen, because the top of the brackets would hit the vent surround. And I think they would hit the windscreen itself, too, if I tried to complete the install.
However, if you have the stock C 400 GT windscreen, I think it would work. (I have the stocker, boxed up by the dealer and put away on a shelf by me, but I didn't feel like doing a separate test. I like the Wunderlich replacement, and I'm not about to ride without it, so another test was sort of moot.)
It's a nice enough bracket, by the way, so if you want another mounting point for something, I think you ought to try it.
In case the Amazon page becomes obsolete, here's a screen grab:
There are two crossbars supplied with it, each about 110mm long. One is c. 12.5mm in diameter, and the other is c. 22mm. I have no idea why they settled on those sizes. In fact, I think a much better size for the smaller shaft would have been 15mm. If you were unaware, note that 15mm is a sort of de facto standard for support rods used in photography. Hence, there are a lot of clamps and doodads for attaching things to 15mm shafts.
The product comes with four longer screws, four rubber-like washers (spacers, really), and four small washers, presumably for putting directly underneath the screwheads; a certain lack of quality control was in evidence, as one of the four washers was smaller than the other three. And the description on Amazon includes this line: "Simple appearance, Easy to install.No instructions." It's almost as if they are proud of not having any instructions; in any case, there was certainly none included, no paper of any kind.
Unless you add additional rubber spacers of some sort, adding the bracket will tilt the windscreen forward a bit, at the top. That's because the metal of the bracket is about 2.0mm thick. So if you want the exact same tilt as before, you'll have to add an additional rubber washer or two to the bottom two screws.
Moving along to the next part of this experiment, I needed a RAM ball.
I'm aware that RAM itself and many other manufacturers sell various clamping devices for adding RAM balls -- I have a bunch of these myself. However, in this case, for light weight and in order not to take up a lot of room, I went looking for the smallest gizmo that I could find that would add a RAM ball to the bracket's 12.5mm crossbar. I came up with a "BRCOVAN Aluminum Alloy 1'' Ball Mount Base for Rails 0.39'' to 0.63'' in Diameter, Compatible with RAM Mounts B Size 1 Inch Ball Socket Arm & Bike Motorcycle Phone Mount Holder" from Amazon:
This seems to me to be a nicely made device, and with its thinnest plastic insert (you get three sizes) will clamp tightly on the 12.5mm crossbar.
But, alas, I won't be using any of this, as I mentioned earlier, because I'm sticking with my larger, vented, Wunderlich windscreen. For now, I'll have to be content with the one RAM ball I added to my left handlebar (see pics and captions in my gallery, if you're interested in the specifics on that).
That's it. I hope someone may find this info useful.
In the meantime, I thought I'd also possibly help out by letting folks know about two recent farkle failures, too.
Fail 1: Bum-Stop Removal
The other day, I removed the bum-stop, butt-rest, whatever you want to call it -- the thing directly behind your, um, behind, on the seat. I wanted to see how much more room I could get if I scootched back a bit, and see whether the reach to the bars was still in my comfort zone, etc. This is easily accomplished by removing three screws (T25) from the underside of the seat.
The removal did indeed provide a ton of additional room.
The problem, however, is that the slanting portion of the seat that's now visible -- the area that the bum-stop covered up -- is covered by a very thin vinyl. It's not at all suitable, IMO, to full exposure to the elements, nor to the wear and tear of rubbing against it. Further, there are plastic ridges and suchlike that almost poke through that vinyl. That is, some of the form work of the seat pan consists of parts that do NOT form a smooth backing for that slanted part.
Sorry I didn't take a pic of this; it's completely unlike me, but if you're really curious it's not a major project for you to check for yourself (although putting the three screws back in is a little finicky).
The 650 Burgman, for instance -- I've owned two of those -- has a bum-stop that is held in place by two rods, and is easy to remove. And once you do so, the newly exposed area is finished just like the rest of the seat. So you can accomplish on the Big Burger what I was curious about with C 400 GT.
(Possibly Partial) Fail 2: Inside-Windscreen Mounting Bracket
I bought the "Bestbuymoto Easygo Motorcycle GPS Smart Phone Navigation Mount Bracket Adapter Mounting Holder support for BMW C400GT 2019-2021" on Amazon:
Amazon.com: Bestbuymoto Easygo Motorcycle GPS Smart Phone Navigation Mount Bracket Adapter Mounting Holder support for BMW C400GT 2019-2021 : Automotive
Buy Bestbuymoto Easygo Motorcycle GPS Smart Phone Navigation Mount Bracket Adapter Mounting Holder support for BMW C400GT 2019-2021: Navigation Systems - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
www.amazon.com
Yep, it says "2019-2021," but for $25 I thought I'd give it a shot on my '22. I can't find a parts fiche for model-year 2022 C 400 GT scoots anywhere, so I don't know whether the stock windscreen and its mounting holes have changed.
In any event, this bracket might actually work ... on the stock windscreen.
As I noted in an earlier post, prior to my picking up the bike, I had the dealer install a Wunderlich Marathon Windscreen with vent (see my gallery, in the signature block, if you want more details on that). I took off the windscreen and did some pretend fitting of the new bracket, and discovered that it not fit on this windscreen, because the top of the brackets would hit the vent surround. And I think they would hit the windscreen itself, too, if I tried to complete the install.
However, if you have the stock C 400 GT windscreen, I think it would work. (I have the stocker, boxed up by the dealer and put away on a shelf by me, but I didn't feel like doing a separate test. I like the Wunderlich replacement, and I'm not about to ride without it, so another test was sort of moot.)
It's a nice enough bracket, by the way, so if you want another mounting point for something, I think you ought to try it.
In case the Amazon page becomes obsolete, here's a screen grab:
There are two crossbars supplied with it, each about 110mm long. One is c. 12.5mm in diameter, and the other is c. 22mm. I have no idea why they settled on those sizes. In fact, I think a much better size for the smaller shaft would have been 15mm. If you were unaware, note that 15mm is a sort of de facto standard for support rods used in photography. Hence, there are a lot of clamps and doodads for attaching things to 15mm shafts.
The product comes with four longer screws, four rubber-like washers (spacers, really), and four small washers, presumably for putting directly underneath the screwheads; a certain lack of quality control was in evidence, as one of the four washers was smaller than the other three. And the description on Amazon includes this line: "Simple appearance, Easy to install.No instructions." It's almost as if they are proud of not having any instructions; in any case, there was certainly none included, no paper of any kind.
Unless you add additional rubber spacers of some sort, adding the bracket will tilt the windscreen forward a bit, at the top. That's because the metal of the bracket is about 2.0mm thick. So if you want the exact same tilt as before, you'll have to add an additional rubber washer or two to the bottom two screws.
Moving along to the next part of this experiment, I needed a RAM ball.
I'm aware that RAM itself and many other manufacturers sell various clamping devices for adding RAM balls -- I have a bunch of these myself. However, in this case, for light weight and in order not to take up a lot of room, I went looking for the smallest gizmo that I could find that would add a RAM ball to the bracket's 12.5mm crossbar. I came up with a "BRCOVAN Aluminum Alloy 1'' Ball Mount Base for Rails 0.39'' to 0.63'' in Diameter, Compatible with RAM Mounts B Size 1 Inch Ball Socket Arm & Bike Motorcycle Phone Mount Holder" from Amazon:
This seems to me to be a nicely made device, and with its thinnest plastic insert (you get three sizes) will clamp tightly on the 12.5mm crossbar.
But, alas, I won't be using any of this, as I mentioned earlier, because I'm sticking with my larger, vented, Wunderlich windscreen. For now, I'll have to be content with the one RAM ball I added to my left handlebar (see pics and captions in my gallery, if you're interested in the specifics on that).
That's it. I hope someone may find this info useful.