While the K100RS has lots of great qualities, its not perfect. Like most bikes, there is a section of the power band where the bike will tend to vibrate or buzz a bit. For perspective, I used to ride a single cylinder bike, commonly called a thumper and those bikes are like sitting on a paint shaker. The BMW is nothing at all like that. It's more like the sensation you get from holding a pair of electric hair clippers for a while. At a certain rev range, maybe 4100 to 4200 rpms, this little buzzing sensation starts. Most of the time the bike is smooth as silk.
The buzzing is not a big issue but I figured I'd try something I used with my old thumper. I bought a pair of "grip puppies" from California Sport Touring. Grip puppies are simply closed cell foam sleeves that slip over your existing grips and provide additional vibration absorption. They also make your grips larger, which works well for guys like me with larger hands.
It was a struggle to get them over the existing grips.This was probably because the BMW grips are not perfectly flat and smooth and so the grip puppies did not slide right over. I soaked the grip puppies in a mild soapy car wash solution and also put soapy water over the grips. After 20 minutes I finally worked them over the old grips.
Immediately I liked the new grips much better. The extra diameter felt right, the cushioning was much better and it did seem to deaden the buzzing. I'll see how it all works out once I go for a longer ride next weekend. So far so good.
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