We are actually up to about ten cases in that thread, now....
...including at least four that caused serious injuries. None of the failures that details are so far available for have happened in traffic, either - I'm guessing that bike and rider being run over by an articulated lorry would pretty much militate against the cause ever being identified.
The latest case is here:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8032725&postcount=146 and here:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8033913&postcount=150 - the guy picked up a brand new Dakar at a BMW dealer in Australia and 24 hours later the fork casting broke and chucked him off. He's lucky to be alive and not a quadriplegic or a vegetable. BMW told him, remember that this is in August 2003, that they had never heard of such a thing happening before, that there was nothing wrong with the metal in the part and that he must have hit something. Which he knew he hadn't. So he ended up paying for the repairs himself! He's still using the same original front wheel and the same original left hand fork casting on the bike 8 years later. He is so pissed off that he was lied to and stitched up for the cost of repairs to his brand new bike that he is putting his back into getting this exposed, before more people are killed or maimed. Oh, and the replacement right-hand fork casting he had fitted in September 2003 is one of the redesigned, beefed up items.
Pursuant to that, we now have the text of the original crash report posted on Chain Gang that led to the FAQ entry. It said...
Re: Front forks total failure on '00 F650GS.
Sorry for not responding. Been out of town. Beem is probably the one that purchased my spares in '02.
I bought the bike new in Aug 2000. Put about 5,000 miles on it mainly on blacktop and probably 400 on gravel/dirt roads. The failure occurred in Jan 01 on a dirt road in Argentina. Normal dirt road. No pot holes or obstructions - just 3 tracks.
The casting on the forks where it holds the wheel is the part that snapped - first on one side and then the other.
I have a lawsuit pending with BMW (the wheels of justice move slowly) and they have admitted to knowing about 3 failures other than mine that happened before they redesigned the part, adding material. I'm wondering if there are other failures that BMW doesn't know about or isn't talking about.
Gertarg
by gertarg
on May 24th, 2005, 6:13 am
Forum: General Discussion
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Re: Front fork failures
I forgot to mention that as both sides of the forks snapped, the front wheel departed the bike leaving the bike and me doing 3 flips as the forks dug into the dirt. By the way the front wheel is in almost perfect condition. I didn't hit anything.
by gertarg
on May 14th, 2005, 3:49 am
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Front forks total failure on '00 F650GS.
I own a F650 GS that I received new in June of 2000. After about 5,000 miles, I experienced a catastrophic failure of the castings on both side of the front forks. I sustained major injuries.
BMW has admitted to knowing of 3 nearly identical failures before they redesigned the forks, adding more material. They decided not to notify owners.
I'm wondering if any Chain Gang members know of similar failures.
Gertarg
by gertarg
on May 14th, 2005, 3:39 am
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Based on that information, BMW admit to knowing of four such failures before they did the redesign. We must assume that there were several others that they didn't know about or were never identified from post-fatality analysis. And consider that they may or may not have admitted what they knew.
So the question now is, when did they redesign the part and start fitting the new parts to bikes? We thought that the new parts were fitted to bikes produced after June 2003, but the Australian guy above has a friend who bought a new Dakar that was manufactured in December 2002, and that has the revised fork castings fitted!
Therefore, if anybody here wants to know whether they have the post-redesign castings on their F650GS or Dakar, or the early suspect castings, could I direct you to this thread on Advrider?
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=393785
There's a link on the first post there to a tool that will let you determine from the VIN of your F650GS/Dakar what date it was manufactured, and pictures you can use to determine whether you have the old forks or the 'beefed up' ones. Could I ask you to take the time to post a quick message there indicating the date your bike was built and what fork castings are fitted, just so a picture of when production really did change over can emerge?
Cheers!
Ken Haylock
