ADVrider Project / BMW G310GS Build: Wunderlich Armor

In addition to the windshield, foot and tank bag we looked at a while back, Wunderlich sent along a bunch of armor for the 310GS. So I got to work, and bolted upper and lower crash bars and axle sliders to the bike, along with some nice upgraded tank pads.

The bike has not, thus far, sported crash bars. I had to remove my recently-installed aux light brackets to fit the bars, but that’s OK; the light mounts grabbed the crash bars just as well as the brackets. More on the lights in a different installment.

I had so far been quite impressed with the quality of Wunderlich parts; these were no exception. When it comes to this German brand, you definitely get what you pay for. They are not an inexpensive solution. Compare the price, however, to the parts you don’t have to replace when you drop your bike.

The upper and lower crash bars are both a two-piece set. The hardware supplied with the lower bars includes a small plastic “plug” that fits inside the bars in the front, where they meet. Each bar attaches to the side of the bike with a three-bolt mount pattern. The top bolt replaces an engine mount bolt through the frame. The lower two mount to unused, threaded holes along the bottom of the engine. You must remove the stock (plastic) bash plate to access them, but that is easily done by pulling its four 12 mm nuts.

Wunderlich lower (engine) crash bar fitted with stock bash plate removed Photo: Kate Murphy

On the starboard side, the engine mount bolt hides behind the water pump’s coolant hose. That bolt was the only real struggle on this install. Wunderlich’s directions warn you: do not remove both engine mount bolts at once. Install one lower crash bar, and at least thread the replacement bolt into the engine, before removing the bolt on the opposite side. Even though I followed those instructions, I still popped a scissor jack under the engine, just in case.

That bolt threads directly into the engine case, demanding care not to cross-thread. Push that hose away to get a straight shot. Photo: Kate Murphy

Once you pull the original bolt out from behind the coolant hose and fit the crash bars you will notice that when the instructions suggest you will need to “push the coolant hose to one side” they really mean it. A large bolt that threads directly into the engine block and is pushed hard to one side seems to beg to be cross-threaded on installation.

I will admit: I contemplated draining the coolant and removing that hose for this install. But, with enough finesse (and force), I was in fact able to displace the hose enough to give the bolt a straight shot into the engine. Whew! I left it loose-ish, and threaded the lower two bolts into their respective mount holes. Then I tightened up that top bolt in preparation for removing its counterpart on the other side.

The port side, with no coolant hose in the way, went a whole lot smoother. The plastic joining plug needed only a little bit of persuasion with a small dead-blow hammer, and then the two halves were one, everything lined up, and I torqued all the fasteners to spec.

A much cleaner approach for the install on this side (Photo: Kate Murphy)

The upper crash bars joined the lower ones with something like a clamp fastener. The lowers have no holes to accept the upper bars; the uppers have two holes and two half-circle hard rubber mounts. This is a very clever system that allows for a little “jiggle” in the system. We’ve all fit aftermarket parts to our motorcycles that needed a BF Hammer, or a drill, or a bench grinder, or more extreme measures. These, to my great relief, did not require any of those measures. All of the bolts and spacers lined up pretty perfectly. The upper bars only needed a little bit of pressure to thread into the mount points under the nose of the bike (into the notoriously terrible threaded clips BMW used on this bike)

A clever way to attach the top (tank) crash bar to the lower (engine) crash bar. Photo: Kate Murphy

The upper crash bar set nested, one bar into the other, where they met in the middle. I applied white lithium grease there before mating them, because I am used to parts rubbing together, losing their finish, and rusting out. Even without the grease, I don’t think these bars would do that. I didn’t even need a dead-blow to get them mated.

I might, some day, wipe off the grease. Photo: Kate Murphy

After torquing everything to spec, I took a break and noted that the entire process, including photography, took me less than an hour.

The fit and finish of these crash bars is superior to any other bars I’ve fitted: SW-Motech, AltRider, Givi, and a bunch of others I don’t remember.

The Wunderlich axle sliders, front and back, installed just as easily as the crash bars did. The sliders themselves are hard plastic pucks. Each set has a threaded rod that feeds through the BMW’s hollow axle.

Threaded rod, washers, bolts, pucks. An easy install. (Photo: Kate Murphy)

For the front wheel, Wunderlich supplies a replacement axle bolt with a hole through it to accommodate the axle slider’s rod. Simply remove the stock axle bolt, replace it with the supplied bolt, and torque it to spec.

Pull the old one out, pop the new one in.. (Photo: Kate Murphy)

I put some blue Loctite on the threads of the rod, threaded the end cap on one end finger tight, and ran it through the slider, the axle bolt and the rest of the axle. Blue Loctite on the other end, tighten both end caps down and Robert is your mother’s brother.

The little nuts in the center gets torqued with a wrench on both sides, and you’re done. Photo: Kate Murphy

The rear is slightly easier, since there is no axle bolt to replace: the axle is open-ended on both sides.

The threaded rod requires blue Loctite on the threads, to keep the cap-nut in place. It is easier to Loctite and thread the “downhill” side of the rod, slide it up through, and then Loctite the threads on the “uphill” side, drop the slider, washer, and nut onto the threads, and then torque everything to spec. This way you’re not fighting gravity and dropping parts.

The barest of taps gets the rear slider into the axle hole, then torque to spec again. Photo: Kate Murphy

The tank pads I had on the bike were “Nightcat” brand off Amazon and were, truth be told, just fine. Reviews said the material would break down after too much UV exposure and get sticky. Since Wunderlich sent along new ones I nipped that particular problem in the bud.

To their credit, the old ones peeled right off. They might be re-usable. (Photo: Kate Murphy)

The old pads had one solid coating of adhesive. Wunderlich’s are simply outlined with adhesive. Time will tell if these hold up any better. They look great, though, and are thicker, so offer more give and grip.

Instead of one backing, there’s an outline of adhesive strips. (Photo: Kate Murphy)

Placing and centering the pads just meant pilling the backing off the adhesive at the corners, then sneaking it out from behind the placed pad. Easy! And they look great.

Easy install, great looking. Photo: Kate Murphy

Truly, generally speaking, all of the Wunderlich installs I have done so far have been the easiest, most straightforward installations I’ve done on motorcycles. I’ve installed a lot of aftermarket parts, and Wunderlich’s reach the tastiest intersection of clear instructions, beefy pieces, quality fasteners, and good engineering. Everything lines up. While I still followed the traditional practice of leaving all fasteners loose until everything was in the correct position, I never had to jiggle, whack, pound, bend, lever, file, grind, or otherwise manhandle Wunderlich pieces to get them to fit my motorcycle. To be clear, they sent me these parts gratis for review, but working with them has made me a dedicated customer.

Crash bars and axle sliders mounted; the bike is now protected from falls. Photo: Kate Murphy

Also, the BMW US Rider Academy in South Carolina uses Wunderlich crash bars on their bikes. They wouldn’t talk to me about it on the record, but think about it this way: BMW makes crash bars. Their own academy, where people drop those motorcycles a lot, uses Wunderlich. ‘Nuff said?

Here lies the “good quality, easy to install, inexpensive — pick two” part of the game. Wunderlich is good, and easy to install, but not inexpensive. They continue to fall under getting what you pay for. The tank pads retail for $80. The lower “engine protection bars” retail for $302. The upper tank protection bars retail for $310. The front sliders and rear sliders retail for $90 each set. All told, not totally out of bounds for solid protection like this.