1998 F650 Funduro - Opinions ?
 

1998 F650 Funduro with 25000 miles for £1600...

What do you think ? Good enough for an Alaska-Argentina ??

I know nothing about this bike so all comments would be appreciated. Especially on reliability, economy and simplicity..

thanks

hi

i did uk to turkiye last april with a f650st and the engine has been broken (and couldnt fixed) in istanbul after app. 3000 miles. usually the f650's are reliable bikes i think i had a bad luck with it.

try to compare with honda transalp

Iv done quite a bit of research and posted on many forums...

The main reply i get is "pile of unreliable cheap crap"

Ill be sticking with my XT :)

BMW F650 F: very reliable
 

I have a BMW F650 Funduro 1999. With that bike I traveled for 8 month through the Middle East in 2001 and 2 years (2004, 2005) around the world. Total: 150.000 km without serious problems. To my experience the F650F is a very reliable motorbike, can carry a lot of weight and is easy to handle even if fully loaded. A top bike.

However there some disadvantages.
1. The engine needs first class fuel (95) which is not everywhere available. I lowered the compression a bit so the bike can run on 85 now.
2. Spare parts are not easy to find outside Europe and USA and BMW uses a lot of ownmade parts. I carried a lot of spare parts but didn't need to use them. This is the main point of decision: do you want a very reliable BMW but no spare parts or do you want a less reliable (but also very good) Japanese bike for which you can buy spare parts everywhere?

Weak points are the rear shocks and steering head bearings. My Funduros lacked all damping in the rear shocks after 40000 to 50000km.
Handling on technical tracks is way inferior to bikes like KLR650 or DR650SE. I did not like the handling of the F650F on tarmac either but you can buy a lot of agility by dropping the forks in the triple clamps by some 15 to 20mm if you are willing to sacrifice some high speed stability.
The Funduro suffers quite badly when dropped. (Front indicators on the second series Funduro, handlebars and footbrake lever, also plastics & headlight)

If you plan to do mainly tarmac and some good gravel the BMW will probably cope well.