General topics » Corrosion elimination

I collected the new 1250RS from Park Lane in London at the end of September. Same evening I rode it down to Newhaven for a ferry to France. Next morning I rode it 800+ kilometres to my house here in the south of France.
I had carried out loads of research on the bike before buying it, and being an engineer, soaked most of it up. I had the BMW app on my phone weeks before collecting the bike, but had it linked to my local French dealers demo bike. There was no problem using the phone GPS and hearing the instructions on my Sena during the journey down here.
One thing that I had read over the preparation time was that the centre stand and the pannier rails were prone to looking tatty due to poor paint or corrosion. It is probably a very minor thing, but my bike has all the extras so has both of these items.
First things to do when it was in my nice warm garage was to take off the centre stand, pannier rails and ugly GPS mount. While they were off I rubbed down the metal items and treated them to a new paint job, 2 coats of primer and 8 coats of gloss black. The new phone mount is in the design stage and the Daneli Soundbomb is fitted as is the charger lead for the battery. The last item will go when I fit the Lithium battery as a Lithium requires no top up charging. The only other item was the new end can for the exhaust, a dominator from Poland, very nice finish, 5 kgs less than standard and not much more expensive than a rear tyre.

Prompted by you (Thank you!) I shall take a much more minimalist approach - ACF50 on the centre stand in situ and a bit of polish on the pannier rails also in situ. If either deteriorates significantly I will have them off and paint with Hammerite. Neither is structural or likely to impact on safety even if slightly rusty.

P.S. I would be interested in further info on your choice of Lithium battery when you get round to that. When my existing battery shows signs of failing I shall certainly want to explore that option.

Chris

I don't think that the make of Lithium is that important now. All of the ones sold in Europe will have the necessary safety standards built in. There are obviously claims out there that this one is better than that one, but some of those claims come from the US Lithium battery manufacturers, and I am wary of stuff from a market that has different standards.
The one in my Ducati, another big high compression twin, was bought about 5 years ago. It is made by Magneti Marelli in Italy and is the one that Ducati use on some of their very expensive sports models. Back to mine, I fitted it onto my Ducati 848. It weighed in at 600 grams as opposed to the Yuasa standard battery at 3.6 kgs. It had more cranking amps, than the original too. After a year of use I took it out and sold the bike. The Lithium then sat on a shelf for a year or so, without any charge, and was then fitted to my Ducati 939 Supersport when I bought that bike new. It started the bike first time. It is still on the 939 and still cranks that engine very fast.
Never had a trickle charger as Lithiums do not lose charge over time as normal batteries do, it was sat on a shelf for a year! A lithium also has a lifespan of about 3 times a gel/agm battery but only costs around 60% more.
People who have never tried one will tell you about them catching fire and not working in the cold, but they are talking about a friend of a friend and have no idea themselves. The Lithium in my tablet, laptop, phone, electric toothbrush, and more seems to be happy and has never caught fire.
Now wait because someone will be along, who has never tried one, and will tell you about his friends brothers girlfriends dad who blew his house up because of a battery.

My pannier rails at 5 years and nearly 30,000 miles are pretty okay. I squirted ACF50 in them from new and wipe them over with the same occasionally.

Centre stands get grit blasted from road debris thrown up from the wheels. I bought a 2nd hand spare and had it plastic coated. It's holding up better than the original but the centre spar is still suffering. I'll probably get the original plastic coated next winter.