Self Install of Akrapovic Headers????

[TXSailor]

Has anybody installed the Akrpovic Headers themselves?   I have a set and the installation document from Akrapovic makes it  look pretty straight forward.
 
There is a catch however as for the life of me I can't see how you can get the stock Flange nuts loose w/o pulling the radiator etc off the front end.  You can get to several of the nuts but some of them are buried in the middle behind radiator stuff and cross flow pipes etc....
 
There's not much room to get tools of any kind in there and the Flange nuts are 10 mm multi point jobs .  I got three of them loose ( the "easier" ones ) but the remainder are eating my lunch.
 
Thanks,  D

[bazzer]

Can you not just remove the rad mountings and pull it away without taking hoses off ?

[TXSailor]

I checked the repair manual and they have you remove the plastics et al.  I took the right side off and pulled the mounts off the radiator and with the overflow tank removed you can get to the flanges from the right side.    Still a pain in the neck but the stock exhaust is off.  It will not come off if the bike is on the center stand however. I started the new header install but decided to knock off for the evening.  Will finish it up today.  If you do this, figure 4 to 7 hours.

[Gilly76]

You can disconnect the radiator and move it forwards out of the way without having to drain things down and remove the hoses.

there are a few videos on Youtube of lads with S1000RR's doing the same.

[RichS1000XR]

Originally Posted by TXSailor

I checked the repair manual and they have you remove the plastics et al.  I took the right side off and pulled the mounts off the radiator and with the overflow tank removed you can get to the flanges from the right side.    Still a pain in the neck but the stock exhaust is off.  It will not come off if the bike is on the center stand however. I started the new header install but decided to knock off for the evening.  Will finish it up today.  If you do this, figure 4 to 7 hours.

My dealer charged me for 2 hours to fit them, and they don't give time away for nothing.

[TXSailor]

Given the dealer is in the business of supporting BMW's, has the lifts, a very wide selection of tools and undoubtedly has done an install before,  2 hours might be right for them.   I've never done an Akrapovic install on a BMW , in fact never worked on an XR at all.   I do not have a lift and you can't get the old exhaust off if the bike is on  the center stand.   My tool box is fairly complete but I do not have a specialized set of tools including all the Torx sockets in 1/4, 3/8 & 1/2 in ( US you know) so I felt pretty good about the progress.   The install took less than two hours  and went quick.  It's the removal of all the old stuff that took the time.   Figure $125 US an hour for Dealer labor ( some places are higher)  and since I was "working" at the time on my regular job, I made that $250 plus some....  Here's the result:

[bazzer]

and don't forget some of us enjoy working on our own bikes.

Good work mate :-)

I would really like the Akra system but telling myself I really should leave this bike standard and just ride it. I have a track bike to fiddle with and spend money on :-)