Product Review - L74 Quick Change Rear Kit on a BMW S1000 RR (K67)
Changing it up, fast!
A couple of years ago I installed the L74 quick change kit onto my 2020 Daytona 765. The instructions weren’t particularly well documented and I had to have a couple of custom wheel spacers made to finish the project. I also bypassed the ABS on the rear at that point.
Late 2024 I picked up the well-prepped BMW K67 S1000 RR and have done a couple of rear tire changes, this is a bike that’s really not well engineered for quick wheel swaps. I looked into doing an M1000RR rear brake conversion (those come standard with an underslung caliper) but the full L74 kit was about the same price and adds the ledges that the wheel rests on while you put the chain and axle on so I pulled the trigger. It’s not an inexpensive project but the eventual convenience of it is worth it to me.
L74 is a UK firm that produces quick change kits for a variety of more modern bikes. The fit and finish is very good and considering the shipping distance, it arrives fairly quickly. Some kits include the Lightech chain adjusters (which are always nice) and may have a HEL or Brembo caliper option. I have not received any discounts or compensation for this article, I’m a full retail customer. Fast Frank Racing (now a part of Ione) also makes quick change kits. Quick change kits are not inexpensive so if you’re not switching out rear wheels/tires frequently, it’s probably not worth it.
I started and finished the installation of the kit in most of an afternoon (2-3 hours in total, being cautious and methodical). Doing another one would probably be just over an hour now that I’ve figured out how to do it. It worked better out of the box than the one for the Daytona. This particular kit includes the underslung captive rear brake caliper bracket, a HEL rear caliper, the brake line (be sure to specify if you want a line long enough to reach the ABS pump), the bolt-on ‘ledge’ for the left side, modified Lightech chain adjusters, and the necessary bolts. The kit includes some fairly basic written instructions but there’s not much for pictures or illustrations. It also includes mention of needing to have a BMW dealership do the bleed on the rear brake (since that’s completely removed and the line replaced) but I used a pneumatic bleeder from Harbor Freight and some manual bleeding and it worked fine. The kit includes new wheel spacers since that’s a key component of the wheel lining up at the correct height once the wheel is dropped into the swingarm. I’d also ordered an extra right-side spacer for my spare wheel. The single left side spacer is fine for me since I transfer my sprocket from one wheel to the other.
Honestly, the installation was completely straight forward and went without issue. The original ABS to caliper line was easy to extract and replace, though the new line is a bit long and doesn’t have the bend at the ABS pump side that the original had so I needed to rotate the line to take up the extra slack.
Like the Daytona kit, this one includes a reverse thread axle. The reverse thread is so that the wheel’s rotational direction is the same as tightening the axle to virtually eliminate the risk of the axle loosening—just be sure you have a torque wrench that works in both directions. The new axle is solid as opposed to the original hollow axle so it weighs a bit more.
After bleeding the rear and putting Loctite thread locker on everything that stays attached, I did a couple of practice wheel changes and as expected, it’s super quick, I should be able to do them in well under 5 minutes (including time to bust out and set the torque wrench) while wearing my riding gear. This is the magic for me. I want to be able to switch rear tires/wheels in the middle of a track day so that I don’t burn a lot of time or energy fiddling with getting a wheel in since I still don’t have a pit crew.
Because the kit includes a new caliper bracket that reuses the OEM wheel speed sensor, the last test was to start the bike while on the stand and put it in gear to make sure the speedometer was registering speed and it was. After that was confirmed, I reattached the rear hugger and put away the tools.
In sum, it’s a pretty comprehensive kit, though it did not include an M8 bolt to affix the provided clamp to fasten the rear brake line to the right inside of the swingarm. It does what it’s supposed to do which is speeding up the rear wheel change and simplifying it. Everything is nicely made and it’s always a treat to have Lightech chain adjusters. The biggest shortcoming, in my opinion, is that the instructions should include illustrations or photos—I had to think through a few bits of the installation, including which side each of the two new captive spacers go onto the wheel. This also gave me a good excuse to flush the brake fluid which was getting a bit cloudy—it was likely the original stuff. All said and done, the price of the kit is well worth it to me.
There are a few videos of quick change rears in use on YouTube but here’s one of L74’s:
CanyonChasers did a full installation video on a previous generation Aprilia RSV4: