RS Front Turn Signal Alternatives? I'm at a loss.

[TypeRated]

My desperate search for front turn signal lenses for my K1100RS hasn't yielded anything.
Please help! I need some ideas as to what I should do... or someone sell me some lenses.

[bocutter Ed]

Are you looking for these:

06    LENS LEFT       1          46631453001    $17.25       
06    LENS RIGHT       1          46631453002    $17.25       

??

[TypeRated]

Are you looking for these:

06    LENS LEFT       1          46631453001    $17.25       
06    LENS RIGHT       1          46631453002    $17.25       

??

Yes, those are the ones. I tried going through my nearest dealer, but they're on back order indefinitely from BMW.

[bocutter Ed]

... they're on back order indefinitely from BMW.

Ahh

[technostructural]

There's gotta be custom 3D printing services available. If there isn't there will be soon!

[Martin]

There are lens molding kits but you need a lens to make the mold. Laitch posted the link.
Regards Martin.

[TypeRated]

greetings...

i gotts a pair butt they aints for sale to any iconic22less bricker...

j o

You're killin me johnny

[Elipten]

We need to get a Chinese supplier making these parts.  Or a 3-D printer.


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[frozenoak]

Or a 3-D printer.

I could make this happen, if there's a 3D model of one.  It'd even be clear, for the most part.

[Elipten]

I know almost nothing about 3-D printers.

Could one be 3-D scanned?


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[frozenoak]

Could one be 3-D scanned?

The short answer is, yes.  However, not by me.  When a part is 3D scanned the result is a "point cloud" that then has to be stitched together, much like a 3D version of a "connect the dots" with no numbers on any of the dots.  Also, I do not have a 3D scanner.

[Elipten]

But I will bet there is a company that can do it for a fee.

Sooner or later spares will run out, so a plan is needed


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[Chaos]

Bikebandit.com lists them for $22 each, does not say anything about being NLA but who knows.  Might be worth a shot....
http://www.bikebandit.com/oem-parts/1995-bmw-k1100rs/o/m62#sch354176

[Laitch]

My desperate search . . .Please help! I need some ideas as to what I should do...

You should consider doing what many of us do. Bookmark as many Kbike parts suppliers in the USA and UK on eBay and the rest of the Internet, bookmark sales sections of forums like IBMWR's site then visit them every day. When you find what you're looking for—even if it's only one of a pair that you need—you buy it and keep looking.

There's not much else you can do except offer yourself in bondage as trade for parts then wait patiently for a generous master. How desperate are you, really?

[Martin]

As a temporary solution get some amber acrylic sheet. Use a hot air gun too bend it into shape, cut to size. You might even be able to get the sheet with the reflective cross hatch molded into it. Alternatively go to a car wrecker find a car lens that is bigger and has a curve close to what you require mold it with a heat gun cut it to shape.
Regards Martin.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

Another solution I have seen is to ditch the mirror/turn signal assembly and fair the mounting area into the fairing with Bondo filler. 

Get bar mounted mirrors and either mount them on the ends of the handlebars or through the holes on the clutch and throttle grip assemblies.  That's how the K1(and most modern sport bikes) does it.

Then get a pair of turn signals from eBay and mount them where the mirrors used to be.  Picking them out will be the hard part because there seems to be hundreds of designs to choose from.

This route requires a repaint of the fairing where you covered up the old mirror mounting locations, but it frees you forever from trying to locate the mirrors and lenses that BMW doesn't want to supply anymore, and judging from the bike I saw it doesn't look too bad either.

[Martin]

A couple of years ago I had some replacement instrument glasses made up by a local Perspex shop and 15 years earlier I had him bend some Perspex for me. If you have a local shop that does this sort of work it might be worth a look.
Regards Martin.

[Filmcamera]

I have one lens with the hole where the screw goes in damaged but it is otherwise ok, certainly good enough to be used for making  a mould, off hand I do not remember if it is for the left or right side.


Let me know if you are interested.

[Motorhobo]

Depending on how desperate you are:

http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_odkw=BMW+K1100+blinker&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XBMW+K1100+rs+blinker.TRS0&_nkw=BMW+K1100+rs+blinker&_sacat=0

There are some other pretty strange looking options in that list -- but the beat-up ones are the only OEM ones.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/BMW-K1100-K1-K100-RS-Spiegel-Blinker-links-704/112399343502?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D43785%26meid%3Decca83325b0145b6927839a5e08e9e7a%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D3%26sd%3D201852050624

I did some digging on the German FlyingBrick site and they're in the same boat you are -- production discontinued, backstock exhausted. There are a couple of threads where people agonized and traded off ideas, lots of theorizing about 3D printing, finding the mold from the original manufacturer etc. One guy says he's an insider and knows there will be an OEM run of this part somewhere sometime in 2017...in the meantime, maybe you can get the right one off ebay at the link above and make a mirror copy of it. According to the Germans, it's the left one that is nearly impossible to find unless someone starts making them again.

[Motorhobo]

Also you might try cutting some out of plexiglas. See the dog's goggles in my avatar? They're crap and scratch if you look at them funny, and replacement lenses costs $20 -- I'm much too much of a cheapskate to pay that. So I did this:


Got a sheet of 1/8 plexiglas and a jeweler's saw.
Got a piece of curved glass, a vase or something like that, that approximated the curvature of the lens.
Got an oven mitt, a heat gun and some felt and a Dremel with a fine grit sanding cylinder.
Cut a jig out of 1/2 in plywood to help cut the plexiglas -- using the jeweler's saw takes some practice and the jig helps.


Then I used the jeweler's saw to approximately cut out the piece to size. I laid it on the curved glass piece and heated it up till it was soft enough to bend, then put the felt over it and pressed it to the desired curvature with the oven mitt to protect my hand from the heat. Then I used the Dremel to sand and round down the edges.


What I got was Doggles lenses that don't scratch and that I can replace any time for about 20 minutes work.
 


Plexiglas comes in all colors and is cheap. It's worth a try. If you want to give it a shot let me know and I'll send you a picture of the jig.

[TypeRated]

Thanks for the advice guys. I still have the majority of the left lens. If I have the time, I'll get it to some of my engineering friends with a 3D printer. Hopefully they can replicate them both based off the one I have. I'm still going to continue looking for new ones, but in the meantime, I'm going to give the plexi method a shot. If it doesn't work, I'm not at a big loss.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

I am not familiar with 3D printing so allow me a few questions.

First, can the process make transparent parts?  I was under the impression that the resins used were opaque.

Second, is a UV resistant dye available to color the resin?  I suppose an amber bulb can be used with a clear lens as an alternative.

Third, can the printer work in acrylic.  This material has the optical properties the OEM lens was designed for.  Light dispersion properties will be degraded if a different resin is used.  In fact, even if acrylic is used, the molding process also has an impact on optical properties.

I have wondered how many lenses are needed to supply demand.  If indeed it is possible to create a digital file of the lens(needed to make a 3D copy) it would be possible to make an injection mold and produce a "prototype" run of a couple thousand parts for a price lower than what BMW charges. 

These parts would be identical to the OEM parts, depending on how accurate the digital "scan" of the OEM part was.  The problem I see is that who ever produced them would be out of pocket $5-10K and would have to sell a lot of lenses to recoup the original investment.

It would be great if someone in Europe could get their hands on the original tooling and do a production run.  They are close to the original, and some detective work should be able to find the tool that made these parts.  I know it can be done because I have dealt with businesses that make parts for the auto restoration market that do just that.   Someplace in the BMW organization is a person who disposes of old tooling.  If I knew who that person was, I could start a very nice little business. 

[Martin]

There may be hope in the form of China they are already doing identical fuel pumps, temperature sender unit and a good alternative rear master cylinder . All we need now is a Chinese inmate to start making them or an inmate who speaks Chinese.  :clap:
Regards Martin.

[Motorhobo]

The Flying Brickers have been waiting for the Chinese to jump on that ship for years -- no dice. Then one of them crunched the numbers and it was clear there weren't enough RS's sold to justify the setup costs to mass-produce and sell this particular part for an affordable price. They, too, are waiting for 3D printing ... Still waiting...


So -- no solution in sight. If you want the RS lens you're going to have to fabricate some facsimile yourself. Plexiglas seems like a reasonable way to go. Fortunately, there's no stringent inspection here, so that's not an issue. I'm told if they tried to get a plexiglas lens past German inspection, they'd be laughed down the block.

[Martin]

If you can find someone willing to make a mold of a good set of lenses that looks like the best immediate solution. Home made lenses in OZ would have to  be good enough to pass inspection especially in NSW where they have annual roadworthy inspections.
Regards Martin.