im a new owner of a 85 k100 rt  im 74 and have a awful time maneuvering it  in and out of the garage  for one there is too much space between me and the ground-shocks are at low setting, its really top heavy , otherwise it drives nice,   How  hard is it to remove the fairing ? , I am a classic triumph restoration  guy , and know nothing about these bikes  the other day the switch  by the start button was  on off and I didn't know it ,it wouldn't start ,I felt completely helpless  so im treading lightly   jim

   PROBLEM SOLVED

Welcome, What kind of seat does your bike have now?  Is it a Russell?  Russells are really comfy on long trips, but can make reaching the ground, even for tall riders, pretty hard. 

Is it a low seat?  That is something you might want to look for.  While they are a bit scarce and pricey, you can recover some of the cost by selling your present seat and battery covers.

There is only so much you can do lowering the bike with a shorter shock and raising the forks in the clamps.  Additionally, for us old guys, shortening the shock can make getting the bike up on the center stand a lot harder if not impossible.

The fairing can be removed and it will reduce the weight about 20-25 pounds, most of which is up high on the bike.  You will need a replacement headlight.  The fairing also covers a rather funky looking radiator.  You may or may not like the way it looks. 

You will also have to add turn signals and replace the mirrors.  Neither of these are a problem, there are lots of aftermarket signals and mirrors on eBay.

Here's step by step how to remove the RT fairing:

http://www.kbikeparts.com/classickbikes.com/ckb.tech/0.ckb.tech.files/k75rt.fairing/k75rt.fairing.htm

thank you for the sugestions , I thought  the weight might be heaveier ,,the seat is  the stock one , I will check out the site for step by step removal ,  and  think all this over ,  I recently rearranged the garage  wich slopes down a bit  so I can drive in and back out with the help of gravity and see how that works  thank you so much  for the help  jim in Rochester ny

get some high heel cowboy style boots ( and learn to go yahoo )  or go with the  lower seat option.....love the old Triumphs ..had a T110 as a teenager and a Speed Twin with the full rear bathtub (didn't go much on the distributor timing set up tho) and bro fitted E3134 cams and twin amal monoblocs to his T110..cheers

lowboyjimmy wrote:... I recently rearranged the garage  which slopes down a bit  so I can drive in and back out with the help of gravity and see how that works...

Jim,

That's exactly what I do. Sitting on the bike while manoeuvring it in/out of the garage makes it much easier to keep upright and both hands on the bars certainly helps avoid inadvertent oversteer and allows the use of the front brake to control speed. I don't have a problem getting my feet on the ground, but have a 90 deg turn into my garage from a slightly sloping gravel drive which certainly doesn't provide a good footing.

The RT/LTs do feel top heavy, especially when getting used to them in the first few months of ownership, and allowing them to get more than a few degrees off upright can quickly turn into an unwanted lie down. If she falls towards you, you might be lucky to be able to brace yourself and force her back upright (risking hernia, slip disc and all other manner of those manual handling injuries). If she falls away from you, there's not much you can do to stop her going over apart from hope that she doesn't do too much damage.

Good luck.

norton71 wrote:get some high heel cowboy style boots ( and learn to go yahoo )  or go with the  lower seat option.....love the old Triumphs ..had a T110 as a teenager and a Speed Twin with the full rear bathtub (didn't go much on the distributor timing set up tho) and bro fitted E3134 cams and twin amal monoblocs to his T110..cheers

If you do get cowboy boots then be sure to have them resoled or they'll be very slippery with leather soles up front. (I have some elephant skin ropers that I wear riding sometimes and they work much better for riding after I had them resoled.)

thanks  for all the help guys  , im glad  to hear that im not the only one with my problem , im used to the smaller triumphs  and  when parking I back them from the front  using the bars   which I cant reach with the fairing on  im gonna leave as is  and get used to it again many thanks  jim