Agreed 100%.

But as you can see, for some people, there's no end to BMW-hatred and bashing :) There's always an excuse to bash something. And if someone steps out to say things aren't that "black&white" or (over-)generalized someone tries to paint them, it's the BMW owners who then get bashed. Apparently bashing BMW gives great satisfaction for some certain type of people, ...especially those who haven't owned one :whistling:

Maybe moderators should create separate forum section named: "Bash BMW here!" or "Your personal punching-bag", and those angry people can let all their steam out with all the words they can w/o any limits? Sounds like a ingenious idea to me, at least (hopefully) keeps the other threads clean.

Now I'll go out riding my trusty BMW, over ten years old and currently 80K on the clock and not a single fault after all the abuse it gets from me - will let you know when EWS gives up (oops, I dont have one?), rear wheel gets loose, gearbox blows, shaft drive kaputt up or the engine seizes ;)

Data? Did someone say data? As I've said over and over, IT IS COMMON KNOWLEDGE, especially among BMW owners.

Lets start with this one:

BMW FD Failure List

So you found documentation on four FD-errors on 1200GS :-)

Nice job, they have sold more then 100.000 1200GS…

The discussion seems to have morphed to be about BMW in general, not the GS. Here's another tid bit. (shhhh .... more lies)
Read a few pages in if you have the patience. This is just one of hundreds of owners forums with reports on this.

MCN (US version) just published a pretty damning article on FD failures too.
But of course, they're liars and have never owned BMW and must be paid by the "Japs" to Bash! Right? :cool4:

Motorcycle Consumer News, F/D Failure - BMW Luxury Touring Community

Sorry Mollydog, I don’t know anything about the LT and I stay away from discussions where I don’t have first-hand experience.

The LT is a BMW. The MCN article is about BMW final drive failures. I will post it if they publish it on their website. So far, it is not there.
You stay away from?:confused1: Yes, I noticed :welcome:

Cheers,

Patrick :mchappy:

the bmw questionnaire was on the R1100RT, that in fact showed the 25% gearbox failure rate
At that time it was the best selling bike in the country.
Direct competitor to the ST1100.

The article on the R1100GS was equally shocking, but I don't have that particular one any more, so I can't quote exact percentages.


A "quality" poll on the dutch GS club site, shows that only 48% of 1200GS owners have had no technical problems/ warranty claims at all.
20% of respondents have had severe probs... Pictures of broken off exhaust valves are particularly hot at the moment.

Sure every bike model ever made will have some individual units, that will not function as well as the majority of them do.

But I think its correct to say the R1200GS as a model, and considering the kind of bike it is, its price range, and from which factory it comes from, has had more than its fair share of problems during these 4 years.

Its supposed to be "the real deal" of their adventure range, and yet it seems like a lot of the expensive new GS´s wont take even normal use without any troubles. That is below-par, no matter how much you want to forgive BMW.

Sure its a nice bike, versatile and sweet handling. But for a very long trip, and when going outside the regular dealer network, I´d choose something else. Just my 0.02 cents...

Post links first please.

Getrag info on 1100 transmissions can be found here. No-one there says about your very nice'n'round number 25% of failures. Factory should have that kind of info, and if it was so it'd be a media-wide scandal if every 4th bike had a blown transmission on low mileages through out it's production years IMO.

Wow, you must be personally deep inside BMW owner field to know such stuff. It has to be top-secret common knowledge then.

Being BMW owner myself and constantly in communication with other (thousands of) BMW owners through various forums or personally, I've never heard about it being a common knowledge. Just few rumours earlyer models may had some potential issues like early 1993-1995 R1100 models gearboxes with noise-supressing bearings, or early 1200 models with non-serivicable final drives.

The same rumours you hear about Japanese bikes, like early V-Stroms with constantly blown clutches, surging EFIs etc.

Never believed rumors myself.

But certainly nothing to do with common knowledge, and especially among BMW owners who have first hand experience with the bikes.

Smells like another village gossip or a rumour that Mollydog's (selectively) taking seriously, mainly because the name "BMW" is marked there?

As AliBaba already pointed out, divide production numbers with those first, do you get 25%?

We all are looking forward to see unbiased real-life data and extensive survey done on the case, how big is the failure rate, various graphs, how are the bikes ridden and serviced, etc. :)


Ignorance is bliss. Apparently you didn't get AliBaba's point. What he probably ment was:

Don't knock one if you know nothing about one.

Geez, turns out there is a lot of info online about BMW!

Transmission recalls from another organization that
must be lying! :helpsmilie:


BMW R1200 GS, R1200 GS Adventure, R1200 R 2008 Motorcycles - US Recall News Alert

Read this short blog from a BMW rider who lives in my neighborhood.

Check the number of failed parts and all the maintenance required.

Yes, 100,000 miles but a lot of problems along the way!

2005 BMW R1200GS Service History

Almost forgot this reference.

The BMWMOA is the largest BMW motorcycle organization in the world. It is USA based and is full of lawyers, doctors, even State Senators and Congress folks!

This is just one of dozens of threads about final drive and transmission failures, electric, ABS, and lack of response from BMW NA in New Jersey.

It would take years to read through them all ......

Article on BMW Final Drive Failures - BMW MOA

BMW is not the only manufacturer having recalls, or you try to prove Japanese manufacturers have no recalls on their products?

Info on recalls of different manufacturers here:

Motorcycle Recalls & Defects | Find Motorcycle Equipment Recall Alerts at Automotive.com