They just ask you a lot of money coz you just bought the new one Nowadays it's not just BMW offering pricy guarantee extention.

As for reliability: my old R1100GS took more than 17000km of abuse without any maintenane(!) in middle east the the hardest time august month with temperatures exceeding 45 degrees Celsius while the only jap Yamaha Super Tenere i saw in Iran stood in the corner of Hotel garage because it was broken down from the heat and the Italian professor who rided it got no help from locals and had to cancel his middle east trip. I Hooked up with a Norweigean riding R1200GS to China and had no problems after 20 000+ on the clock coming from Europe with NO MAINTENANCE on the bike. He's was an actor by the way and he rided the bike accordingly, i was amazed he hasn't crashed the bike yet but as he sayed: boxer GS is the most safe enduro there is with ABS and telelever. Not just the bike ideal, but it works if you want it to do so. My 1100 was written by Polish car driver and it was 100% till 60K (the bike was not even shown to the BMW service, all maintenance done by my own) bullet proof the best bike i've ever owned that i got another 1100. And even IF IT WAS UNRELIABLE some how i'd still ride the same one - the engine characteristics, the low grunt and centre of gravity the boxer has along with shaftdrive, telelever and ABS can't be replaced by any other one that brings the same smile into my face travelling with it.

All bikes broke down sooner or later anyway, mostly depending on owners riding style and technical knowledge of the bike. Having owned long term japs before my BMW i can tell this JAP vs EUR thing is mostly for paranoid people having very little technical knowledge about bikes in reality and only want to bash from jelousy (well yes, BMW is one of the most innovative motorcycle companyes on current date - whether you like them or hate them) or any non-empirical experiences any other strange reason.

Now everybody ride own machine and be happy, stop bashing things you never tryed really yourself would be my final word on this


[This message has been edited by Margus (edited 18 November 2005).]