RSL Fairing Melt

[mkrouse]

The plastic pieces, between the upper and lower fairing on our 96 R1100RSL, show heat damage. The bike was purchased used and rather than buy new pieces, we repaired them with body putty and painted them with high temperature red paint.

They are showing signs of damage again and I was wondering if I now replaced them with OEM or after market pieces [if available] would they just melt away again anyway?

We checked out several RSL bikes at AMA Vintage Days and it appeared them some showed damage and some did not, but I was not able to talk to any owners.

We have not let the bike overheat at idle during our 1 year ownership.

[MCMXCIVRS]

That is a common problem on the R11xxRSL models. It does not have to be left idling to do it either, mine blistered on a slow trip through 15 miles of construction in Montana a couple of years ago. Up until then it had been fine for nearly 8 years. I choose to just live with the blistered paint/plastic since it hardly shows unless you get down close to look. There is no guarantee that a replacement won't end up the same, but it could very well last several years too. Your discretion on how to deal with it. Someone on the RS forum was thinking about having a replacement part cast from metal, but I haven't heard any more on that project. As far as I know the only available part is the BMW plastic one.