A mate of mine has bought a sertao for another trip in to Central / southern Africa ( he took a tenere the last time) He loves the little BMW - but has had problems with starting, (eletrical gremlins), Decompression valve wrongly shimmed from new in factory, decompression valve spring faulty, and a few other minor niggles including the service from BMW. These bikes are built in China not Germany - I assume the quality control should be good but such errors on a new built and delivered bike maybe put a question to that. The bike has spent quite a bit of time off the road ( by that I mean not working correctly) - that is not good for an new £7000 bike designed for travel. I am not sure but wonder if it also has the can bus electrics rather than a traditional wiring harness - can bus is something personally i would want to avoid.

Very well said.....


This is my major gripe with BMW... Faults like that are simply UNACCEPTABLE in this day and age for a MAJOR manufacturer.

BMW lovers just seem to live with this and get on with it. There must be some strange chemical built into the handgrips that chemically alters their brain to keep forking out ££££££££££££££££ and $$$$$$$$$$$ on something which should be reliable from day one to day infinite.

You just don't get that with the Japanese bikes... Which at times are actually significantly cheaper.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

I think BMWs attitude towards their clients of late absolutely stinks.

BMW, whilst successful, used to be a bit off the mainstream and didn't sell the volume of bikes that Jap and even some Italian makes did but after the launch of the 'adventure' (wanabee Ewan and Charley) market and their sucess with the 1200GS across Europe and elsewhere they seem to spend more money maintaining their image than they do on quality control.

There are widely reported significant issues with both the 1200 and 800/650GS yet they still run full page 'renowned for their reliability' ads in all the magazines - still, I suppose it's the customers who are the mugs!

The one post provides the answer to the other; it's all in the heart


As for pricing, it may have been the case that the UJM were significantly cheaper than European manufacturers, including BMW, but that is certainly no longer the case.
There are too many examples to bother quoting here but they have come up in a few posts recently.
Ah well, OK just one - the UK list price of the XT660Z is close enough to £7000.

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Dave

The difference is, the list price of the BMW is probably what you're going to pay. The list price of the Yamaha is irrelevant. Two minutes on eBay/Autotrader finds you brand new bikes under £6500.

In some social strata, riding a BMW adventure bike is acceptable. However, riding an old TTR is not.

In some cases, people do not really have other choice (you've got only 1 bike to commute -wearing costume and tie-), in other cases people just choose to narrow the equation bike=bmw (Ewan&Charly wanabee) and in others they are not enough self-confident not to mind what others think (load her with Touratech and load you with BMW gear and you still may be an eccentric adventurer posh guy).

Right after on the hierarchy, you've got Italian & American bikes, then Japanese, later Korean and finally Indian/Chinese.

Just how I see it and any of the reasons to go for a BMW is acceptable for me, as well as I understand you may not be willing to ride a Kymko bike, for whatever reason. But if your BMW is unreliable, please, be honest and share that info, do not be an "BM integrist", since others (who may not be restricted to that only brand) may be falsely induced to buy one unreliable bike based on your faked opinions.

Esteban

PS: I strongly considered buying a 650 Dakar in the past, being the contenders the Transalp and XT 600 (which I finally got), so nothing wrong with BMW. And find the X-Country and X-Challenge amazing bikes, as well as the old BMs. But cannot undestand narrowing a choice between 1200, 800 and 650, but only as long as it is (and has to be) a BMW. To me, it just feels like fitting your 7 members family in a Mercedes class-A before than getting a massive Ssanyong Rodius.
[edit: because you are ashamed of driving a Korean car and worry about what others think, same for motorcycles]

Well I don't totally agree with you guys. I rod the pamir highway with an GMW R100GS, which is as heavy as the 1200gs without any problems. It's dirt road, but no technical parts. And I suppose the 1200GSis way better than my old R100Gs.

Then, I rod Mongolia 2 up on the R100GS, and I met a couple on a GSA, they crossed mongolia from east to west, without problems.

It all comes down to your riding skills as well, and If I could have afford it, I would have go for a new GSA, but the bike alone was more than my total budget for my 6 month trip...

I believe that everything is possible, with some bike it's gonna be easier and with some other harder.

I met some people that did the mistake of take a proper enduro bike for a trip like mine, and if you really count, on my 34'000km journey... I had maximum 15-20% of dirt roads... So if you have a comfortable bike it's a big plus.

Been there and done that. If the OP believes the badge in any way relates to reliability or the ability to do the job I hope he finds out it isn't by reading here rather than the hard way. You pick the bike that fits you best and learn to live with the bits that don't work well. It doesn't matter if it's a Harley, an F800 or an Enfield the rider is key not advertising slogans, press pictures and what old riders thought about bikes they could never buy.

The G650 was 2nd place in my recent search for the Bonneville replacement, ticked all the boxes for me. The dealer, although less snotty and obvously useless than Triumph one lost it though. Suzuki really wanted to play so I got a Wee-strom. It seems to do everything quite well.

Andy

Andy,
Why would you want to replace the Bonny ?

Paul (who rides a BMW as well ) LOL

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