Well, still too early to say !!

Although, Triumphs are usually built to a pretty high standard !

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

Quite.

I've spent the last 10 months riding a BMW F800GS 34000 odd miles from New York up to Alaska, Alaska down to Ushuaia & tomorrow I'm shipping the bike back to London from here in Buenos Aires.

70% Of my trip was on sealed road but in places such as Bolivia the bike did have it hard, so keep that in mind...

Faults.

Radiator fan - far too exposed to the ingress of dirt & by no means am I talking about hard core off road riding. Got wedged & threw up an oil pressure fault (???) on the electronic display, the computer cut in & shut the bike down whilst the temperature gauge didn't move despite the lack of cooling. Happened to me after crossing into Mexico & cost a mere $420 to get a replacement fan back in San Diego. All of this was less then 200 miles of freeway riding after a $1000 BMW service.

Side stand. Too short to adequately support the bike.

Fuel gauge. Despite being 'updated' under warranty reads full for 110 or so miles & then plummets to empty.

Water pump - failed & the new $520 replacement that took three weeks to arrive in Santiago, Chile was unable to pump water. Had to bastardise the old & new to avert another three week delay. $520 Well spent.

Rear bearings - failed & took most of the rear wheel hubb with them, despite being replaced at recommended intervals. 6 Hours in the desert spent smashing the remnants out with a rock as they'd been ground into the hubb when the bearing failed. Fun, fun fun.

Long first gear - when the going is slow off road (which is was for day after day in Bolivia) the clutch takes a hammering & therefore mine might just get me to the airport in the morning.

Front fork seals. One blew, followed by the other soon after.

I rode with three others. One African Twin - no faults & ridden hard. One neglected & hammered DR650 which still proved more reliable then my BMW & one other F800GS who had the same tale of woe as me.

Don't even consider buying one.

Smudger.

www.mytb.org/Smudger1

Might have to put up one of those 'is anyone having a trouble free run' threads to see if they exist! Doesn't sound good, I was considering one of these for the upgrade bike but think I might stick to the KTM990.....

Your reports are SCARY! Seems better of sticking with the Dakar...

I've been massively impressed with the quality and reliability of my two Speed Triples.

Once my daughter is out of school, I'm thinking seriously about bringing home either the new Tiger 800 XC or the BMW F800 GS. The bugs should be worked out of the Tiger by that time...

Likewise (minus the daughter in school lol)..

The new tiger is too expensive for me at the moment and that suits me fine as I'll let everyone else do the beta testing.. I still wouldn't buy a BMW though. I'd never seen one with problems yet...

The 660 Ten is now on my shortlist. Nothing seems to go wrong apart from the rectifier coupling as Tim kindly pointed out. I'd just put a stockier plug on it and take a spare.. Easy !!

For now though, I think a 650 V-Strom is on it's way to my garage

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

Mine's one of the first UK batch and has not given trouble. I have done 6,000 miles in the three months since buying it with 4k on the clock. I did open the rec/reg coupling and fill with silicone grease, which may have helped. The main problem with these bikes is the short life of the cush drive rubbers, which get hammered. I've sorted mine using the tried and tested method of adding bits of inner tube. I glued them to the lumps of rubber using bicycle tubular tyre cement.
As of a couple of days ago I know it will cruise two-up at over 80 on the motorway and still return 58mpg.

Gentlemen,

I'd like to thank you all. I've been fancying a new bike. The Triumph Tiger ticks many many boxes including keepng the dealer/parts contacts I've built up with the Bonneville, but as the stalling issue video on the XC thread shows it's just too new. My second choice Tenere fails because some of the use is with a pillion and 660 cc's plus a tall seat and short rider just doesn't work. I'm also damned if I'm going to buy a £6000 bike and stuff old inner tube in the cush drive. If I was happy with less power than the Bonneville, I'd get a Scrambler, everything I know just newer.

So, despite my better judgement after my last experiences of BMW I'm thinking of the F800. The underseat tank, Rotax bits and other assorted weirdness does nothing for me (at least it hasn't got the *****y three thumb indicator switches I'm currently trying to strip off the Brick) but there is a 2 year old yellow and black one on e-bay at decent money. Then I read this thread. Too many reminders of how BMW reacted to shorts in my F650 single, the waterpump in the desert walk and the three front shocks on my R1100 it took before they found one that didn't fail overnight.

So, the Bonneville (that hasn't done anything I couldn't fix with the stuff I had with me for the last seven years) is getting more petrol and a new back tyre. I have a big birthday in 2014 when the 790 will then have ten years use on it. We'll see how the Tiger is rated then I guess.

I would offer you a out of the cash I just saved, but I'm still saving up (and tight).

Andy

Rear/front wheel bearing,steering head bearing failure after 10-20.000 km on new bike?BMW?! After over 100.000 km on each my Jap "crap"(TTR,XTZ)It only takes some grease.
I was thinking about changing my old bikes,old wife...for new one
but now I'm no so sure any more...

Why not? I did mine and the result has been excellent over 2000 miles. It's about the only problem with these bikes - although less vibration and a bit more power would be welcome. Just in the middle of a two-up tour around Wales; with three box luggage, it will cruise on the motorway at >80mph and still get 58mpg.

The bike manufacturers (Especially BMW and Ural) love you

So where would you draw the line? Putting your own oil in and air in when you collect the bike? Checking all the nuts and bolts to find the ones they've missed? Rewiring it? Replacing the "Hand Grenade" alternator with a car bit you buy on E-bay? Throwing the whole thing away and buying a new one because they missed a bit out of the engine (but they all do that Sir)?

If we buy this crap and fix it ourselves, they'll just sell even crappier stuff next year

Andy