My F800GS is currently on 23000 miles. First owner bought it new in 08 and rode it to Cape town. Only fault was the clutch burning out on the way.

Having fitted new chain and sprockets before he left didn't suffer that fault. He'd also fitted jubilee clips to the coolant hose, so didn't have that problem either.

I bought it at 8500 miles, and rode it to Morocco. Was faultless for me, including one stint of 828 miles in one day.

Since then, it's had a new rear wheel bearing, and a new clutch when the nut dropped off the rod - another well documented fault. Luckily both were repaired under warranty, and despite those incidents love the bike to bits - would happily take it round the world.

Ted,
As you know I am riding RTW on an F650 twin and have had no trouble so far it has now done about 18000km many thru the crap rides in Africa, I upgraded the suspension before I left and I still have the original chain and everything else.
However I don't go along with the theory of buying an older bike as they are easy to fix as one thing I observed on my travels thus far is that most people on older bikes were indeed doing just that, and if I recall you had to spend quite a bit of time at Jjs repairing your older bike. I have just spent another week at Jjs and noticed the work shop full with KTMs & a couple of DR650s (incidentally my favourite bike) but the BMWs were all parked up. I think this thread is turned to a bashing BMW topic & you only every hear the bad stories not the good, of course there will be lemons in every bike but it annoys me when the owners of BMWs are sniggered at, but I suppose they can console themselves by going to count there money !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My 2 cents
Paul

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....rather Die Living.....than Live Dying !
www.globetrekkers.net.au

I agree. Older doesn't mean better,but it often does mean simpler. The repairs I did to my 2003 DRZ were changing chain & sprockets, getting a new tyre and having my home made racks welded after a crash. The bike was fine and still is

I don't think this is a BMW bashing thread... Just bashing the small minded folk who refuse, point blank, that their mega bucks bells and whistles bike are more suited to riding up and down beach front cafes than anything else. You are not one of those folk.....

BTW. I do not hate BMW's at all. I hold them in the same esteem as Ducati, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, KTM etc etc. They are all capable of making fantastic motorcycles (and often do), but they sadly often chose to spend the R&D money on flashy marketing rather than engineering when it comes to some of their models.

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

Ah Ted, how I do enjoy your posts! Please don't hold back though, tell us what you really think

As much fun as it can be to wind people up, I don't believe that anyone would truly think that such disparate manufacturers as BMW, Ducati, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, KTM can be grouped together in meaningful way. They are such different companies from different countries with different corporate cultures with different strengths and weaknesses that any attempt to broadly paint them with the same brush doesn't result in any easily drawn conclusions.

And I know that you know this, but even light hearted bashing of folks as small minded if they refuse to see the world your way...although good for a chuckle, could be perceived by some to be small minded.

Doesn't it seem reasonable that the reality is that some of the higher priced bikes such as BMW are actually very well suited to long distance touring but they are also attractive for different reasons to urban folks who just ride it down to the corner cafe on Sundays? I certainly think so.

As the very loose poll here on HU shows and also based on all the overland bikers I have run into on a few continents, there are a heck of a lot of different bikes out there including a ton of BMWs as well as plenty of bikes you don't see discussed here very much such as KTM. We all have the choice of either believing that the owners knew what they are doing in researching, buying and riding their bikes and made good choices for themselves, or that they didn't.

Based on my experience, whatever the bike, they all seem to function fairly well with different, easily researched, issues that the owner planned around or dealt with on the road. Some were better than others in different ways. At the end of the day, bikes in general are so well built compared to not so long ago, that almost any bike is rarely the limiting the factor in travelling the world and seeking adventure, the limiting factor is usually us and our willingness to push ourselves and put up with discomfort.


P.S. If you do end up doing the Yukon, there are a few good shake out paddles you can do here in B.C. beforehand. You're welcome to drop by and borrow my canoe and gear to break in those old muscles before the big trip.