The crash bars on the R100GS would make great mounting locations for some driving lights except that the right side hosts the oil cooler, and there just isn't room for both. A German company, Touratech, markets a kit, presumably designed for all GSs, to move the oil cooler to the frame, just in front of the fender. Touratech sells to the rest of the world through a web site, but those of us fortunate enough to live in the US must purchase through Touratech USA located in Seattle, WA. In years past, when Ride West BMW handled distribution for Touratech, a discrepancy of as much as 150% existed between prices on the German Touratech web site and those available through Ride West. Today, CycoActive, another Seattle based company, handles distribution, and prices have come down, but are still higher. For example, as of this writing, the German price for the oil cooler kit I'm about to describe is 64.00 Euros, or about $76.09. The price on the Touratech USA web site is $83.80, an increase of about 10%. That's not so bad, though, as a quick peek at the Touratech site for Great Britain will show that they pay the equivalent of $89.90 for the same kit for a 15% surcharge.

So for your $83.80, what do you get?

The contents of the kit are shown above. It consists of a pair of oil lines, a bracket and clamp, two bits of wire, some connectors, a couple of zip ties, and four oil sealing washers. The bracket is mild steel painted flat black and the associated fasteners are cad plated steel. The oil lines feature cad plated steel fittings crimped onto stainless or nickel plated (I can't tell) braid covered lines. No fancy stainless fittings or paint saving nylon hose covers here, just solid workmanship. What you don't get is a way to use the BMW grille that covers the front of the oil cooler in the factory location. Guess Touratech figures the high fender (if you use one) will keep the rocks away. Otherwise, it looks like you're on your own for protection, and I managed to alter the grille to work with the new cooler bracket. More on that later.

It's a good idea to combine this install with an oil change, because you'll need to remove the oil lines from the oil filter cover and the oil cooler, and that's a lot less messy after the oil is drained. The oil cooler is held to the crash guard by a pair of brackets and rubber buffers, and you'll need to remove both from the bike. Take the whole thing over to the bench, and with some paper towel under the fittings, remove the factory oil lines and let the cooler drain. That avoids a mess later.

The Touratech bracket attaches to the same location as the factory used, but doesn't include any provision for soft mounting. It also doesn't allow for use of the grille. I solved the latter shortcoming by cutting off the mounts from the grille and brazing on some new ones I made up from 1/8" welding wire. They pick up on the bracket mounts, so I flattened the side of the wires to provide more friction in the mount to keep the grille from moving. A little Rustoleum satin black finished things off, and it looks like it came out of the factory.

The bracket mounts between the down tubes on the lower of the two cross braces at the front of the frame, at the location of the anemic factory horn. In case you already haven't replaced it with a pair of Fiamme or Hella hooters, the kit includes wire and crimp fittings to make a jumper so the existing wires will reach the new horn location, which Touratech suggests be one of the crash bar bolts (photo below). Touratech USA has published a web page with some photos, which is a big help since the only instructions you'll get from Touratech AG are in German (you vill sprech in ze mutter tongue, von't you?). The bike used in their example is an earlier GS however, and besides featuring a huge Touratech fuel tank that almost completely obscures the oil cooler and its attachment details, the bike doesn't have a 'roo bar, the metal tubing that extends up around the headlight and attaches to the lower frame on Paris/Dakar and later GS models. That, in combination with the installation of an Acerbis high fender and the afore mentioned grille, made this procedure a royal PITA. It seems that the lower frame connections of the 'roo bar fall directly under the oil cooler line attachment points, which is no problem on the left side since it features a fitting with a 90° bend. Unfortunately, the right fitting is straight, and when the cooler is centered in the frame, the oil line hits the 'roo bar. The line is too stiff to bend outward without rubbing on the 'roo bar, a situation guaranteed to damage the paint on the 'roo bar, and eventually, the line itself. Swapping the lines doesn't help, as then the left line would hit the 'roo bar. A call to Touratech USA put me in touch with Dominic Groves, who was very concerned, but confessed he'd had no one else express this problem. His follow up with Touratech AG didn't turn up any help, either. Seeking guidance from the BMW-GS mailing list, I posted an account (essentially what you're reading here) of the problem, and got several replies from folks that had made up their own kit precisely because of the issues I'd run into. Unfortunately, instead of providing insight, one list member took it upon himself to defend the honor of Touratech, since he apparently maintains close personal friendships with several of the owners. The resulting flame fest didn't accomplish much except embarrass Dominic and cause several list members to unsubscribe.

The only solution I could come up with was to slide the oil cooler to the left by about 3/4 of an inch so that the fitting passes by the inboard end of the 'roo bar (see lead photo above). This asymmetrical mounting is unsightly, but doesn't cause any other interference problems.

With the cooler safely tucked out of the way, we can proceed to the other end of the oil lines and attach them to the oil filter cover. No clearance problems here, but you'll probably want to pay attention to how the lines are routed. As shown in the photo at right, the right line seems to want to use the upper oil port.

If you wrap the new oil lines in some electrical tape, the BMW clamp from the old cooler can be used to keep the new lines from rubbing on each other. Don't forget to use new sealing washers on the oil lines! These are use-once-and-throw-away items, so plan accordingly.

After all the hassle you might be wondering if it was worth it. All I can say is that the crash guard is now free to use for auxiliary lights, the installation of which is coming along nicely (the bracket for mounting the HID ballast has been the biggest challenge). Since I don't have an oil temperature gauge, I haven't noticed any difference in engine cooling. There don't seem to be any new marks on the oil cooler or the grille in front of it, so the new location doesn't look to be any more hazardous than the old one. One mailing list member did confess to having problems with mud accumulating on the oil cooler, a problem that the deserts of the Western US probably won't present. But if I had it to do over again, I'd probably make my own bracket and head down to the local Aeroquip dealer for a set of lines with two 90° fittings at the oil cooler. That route would probably take longer and cost more, but the end result would fit better.