Let Iain take you through the steps to awesome protection for your F850GS or F750GS. Installation of the Touratech Expedition Skid Plate!
For off-road capable adventure touring motorcycles like the BMW F850GS or F750GS, a robust skid plate is critical. Like most bikes in it’s class, the BMW F850GS does not have a full tubular frame under the motor to protect from impact, meaning investing in a well-engineered guard should be your top priority with this off-road oriented ADV bike.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Hello, this is Iain with Touratech USA. Today, we’re going to be installing the Expedition Skid Plate for the BMW F850GS. It’ll also fit the BMW F750GS. I like to start by laying out all the parts that come in the kit. So on this side here, we’ve got the bracket that mounts underneath the oil pan of the motorcycle. Here, we have the sliders for the bottom of the skid plate. Here, we have Expedition skid plate itself. For hardware, we have M6x16mm flangehead bolts. Here, we have the shouldered plastic spacers that go on the sliders at the bottom. These are the coarse thread bolts that go through those plastic spacers. We have two very short, these are M6x8mm button head bolts. These are clip nuts, there’s six of them. And over here, we have two M6x20mm bolts. This kit contains two different types of rubber bumpers. These ones are thread-in style and these ones are pull-through style. You should have four of the pull-through, two of the thread-ins.
I like to print out the instructions ahead of time. Go on the Touratech website, look at the part description and we’ll have the instructions listed on the bottom right hand side. Print these out. You got to have them to install it. The first step to installing the Touratech skid plate is removing the factory skid plate if your bike is equipped with one. This F850GS has its original skid plate and it’s held on with four bolts. You need a Torx T30 wrench to remove these four bolts.
Now, we need to remove the bracket for the front mount of the stock skid plate. This is held on with two bolts. You need a Torx T30 wrench to remove them.
Next, we need to install these two rubber bumpers at the front of the skid plate using the two small M6 button head bolts. I’m going to put a little bit of Blue Loctite on these bolts just to keep them from coming loose. I’m going to use a 4mm Allen wrench to install these screws and just make them hand tight. Now, we’re going to set up the bracket that bolts underneath the engine. We’re going to do that with the six clip nuts being installed into the square holes, and we’re going to use the four rubber bumpers, and those pull through from the top to the bottom here and here.
Now, we’re going to install the black plastic shouldered spacers onto the skid plate sliders. We’re going to use the coarse thread countersunk screws. Pay close attention to the instructions because there’s six positions where these can fit onto the sliders, but you’re only installing three per side, so you need to make sure you get them in the right spot. To do this, you’re going to use a Torx bit, it’s a Torx T20 size. So now, we have all these pieces installed in the correct positions. One tip here is leave these loose enough that you can still turn the shouldered spacer. That makes it a little bit easier to install them into skid plate when the time comes.
Now, we’re going to install the bracket underneath the engine of the motorcycle. For the front two bolts, we’re going to be using a Torx T30 wrench, and for the rear two bolts, we’re going to be using a 4mm Allen wrench. I’m going to put Loctite on all four of these bolts because this bracket is going to stay in place permanently on the motorcycle. You don’t have to remove it to change the oil. You reuse the two stock bolts for the front mounting position that you removed when you took off the mounting bracket on the front of the stock skid plate. And at the rear position, you use two of the M6x16mm flangehead bolts.
Now, we’re going to install the skid plate onto this mounting bracket using the six remaining M6x16mm flangehead bolts. I’m going to put a small amount of Loctite on each one of these bolts because they don’t have any mechanical locking agent into the nuts. To install these bolts, you’re going to use a 4mm Allen tool. The last step is to install these two plastic sliders for the bottom of the skid plate. These sliders engage in the holes at the bottom side of the skid plate using the shouldered spacers that you installed earlier. So make sure that they engage fully, slide them backwards so they lock into place, and then put the bolt in the front to get them locked into position.
Okay, the skid plate is installed. Now, your F850 or F750GS is ready to ride off-road without risking damage to the underside of the motorcycle. Be sure to visit the Touratech-USA.com website for more products for your bike. If you want to, take a picture of your skid plate out doing work in the outdoors, and share it with us on Facebook or Instagram. Sounds good. We’ll see you again.