Just a bit of a moan - and great to see the bikers coming back!

fredaroony said:
Very true and I do wonder about these bikes that corrode and the owners claims to wash them regularly.
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So do I because my experience runs counter to theirs - however these bikes should require as much attention to cleaning as they do.

The comparison with cars is not a good one either because if you look under the bonnet of a car you will see all sorts of cosmetic corrosion from winter salt but it’s just not so visible as it is on bikes.
 
Davey B said:
It's all very confusing.
Visit Allyearbiker and get it ACF 50'd. BUT..after each ride thru winter you need to rinse it off and 'top up' anywhere where the ACF 50 has been washed off. Trouble is, you can't be sure where it has washed off so do it all again ? After each ride, every day ?
Nah, I must confess that for a 150 mile a day rtn commute, I'd be on a 2000/2001 VFR 800, it'd look crap all covered in ACF and road crap but once a year it'd get a day spent cleaning and look half decent.
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That’s why I don’t go for this Allyearbiker thing and wash and protect on a weekly basis - it’s has kept my bikes almost totally corrosion free - more work than should be necessary in my opinion but until BMW iimprove things it’s the only sensible option.
 
Engineer said:
The comparison with cars is not a good one either because if you look under the bonnet of a car you will see all sorts of cosmetic corrosion from winter salt but it’s just not so visible as it is on bikes.
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I think it is a fair comparison. Car makers ensure that everything visible when the car is parked (excl cast iron discs) won't corrode or require significant cleaning regimes to keep corrosion at bay.
 
Mr Bean said:
I think it is a fair comparison. Car makers ensure that everything visible when the car is parked (excl cast iron discs) won't corrode or require significant cleaning regimes to keep corrosion at bay.
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The thing is every part is visible on a bike so it is far more difficult to make every part corrosion resistant - I wish they would do it so I wouldn’t have to spend at least 2 hours every weekend in winter cleaning and protecting it - until they do I have no choice if I want to keep it looking good.
 
Engineer said:
The comparison with cars is not a good one either because if you look under the bonnet of a car you will see all sorts of cosmetic corrosion from winter salt but it’s just not so visible as it is on bikes.
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I think you are wrong
The engine Bay on my Honda CR-V is corrosion free after 6 winters and gets no special treatment
Wheels have no blemishes
In fact the fasteners that hold the mudflaps to the body are mint, despite being blasted by grit and road salt, as is the metal on the inside of the rear arches - like new
So cars are much better built than newer GS 's
 
JohnnyBoxer said:
I think you are wrong
The engine Bay on my Honda CR-V is corrosion free after 6 winters and gets no special treatment
Wheels have no blemishes
In fact the fasteners that hold the mudflaps to the body are mint, despite being blasted by grit and road salt, as is the metal on the inside of the rear arches - like new
So cars are much better built than newer GS 's
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It depends on the brand and/or model. My BMW 320d (rather ironically) was immaculate under the bonnet after 4 years and 72k miles. My current Golf GT has visible corrosion on numerous components, as did the Mondeo I had prior to the BMW.

It could be something to do with how much salty road spray is directed into the engine bay?
 
ianm00 said:
Who would want to do 150 miles a day in all weathers on some "winter hack". Surely the GS would make the ride more comfortable and probably safer!
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The reason I bought the bike was indeed for the high mileage comfort. Cruise control for the motorway, adaptable suspension for the back roads, all sorts of electronic wizardry to try and keep me safe (as well as my noggin), quite literally the size of the bike for road presence.....the GS does indeed make for a comfortable ride even when the temperatures drop and the roads become some what sketchy.

Probably missing from my original post was the fact that yes i still love my GS, corrosion and all.......but then again I was having a moan, so left the praise out ;-)
 
Might not be related, but many say "my old bike never rusted," but we have to remember in the old days the paint was solvent based, now most of the paint is water based, and done by robots, how many coats, is another question, and another interesting question is the quality of the metals and alloys used, as we know the bean-counters want to squeeze every last penny out of us for the shareholders. :rob
 
What you say is related. Water based paints offer less protection. As for the metals used - they get cheaper and poorer quality year by year. Items such as disc brakes used to have a high percentage of stainless steel but no longer. Also the salt used in U.K. is far more effective at damaging bikes than clearing the roads. I ride all year round and at least rinse my bike after every ride in winter but the salt is eating away the bike during the ride which you cannot prevent
 
AP11 LAD said:
What you say is related. Water based paints offer less protection. As for the metals used - they get cheaper and poorer quality year by year. Items such as disc brakes used to have a high percentage of stainless steel but no longer. Also the salt used in U.K. is far more effective at damaging bikes than clearing the roads. I ride all year round and at least rinse my bike after every ride in winter but the salt is eating away the bike during the ride which you cannot prevent
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Yep seems logical, so best thing we can do is pay extra for warranty, or like they probably want us to do, change bikes every 2 or 3 years max, but like many have already said in this forum, you need to get lucky BMW have so many get out of jail free cards, with salt on roads etc, using wrong cleaning products etc etc etc...........
 
Interesting thread , looking at a gs again while looking at them recently , i was told when i raised oncerns about durability when been used all year round , that bmws view was they wanted to be environmentally friendly hence the use of environmentaly friendly paints etc and bmws view was it was up to the owner to look after it to maintain the condition !
 
twg1 said:
Interesting thread , looking at a gs again while looking at them recently , i was told when i raised oncerns about durability when been used all year round , that bmws view was they wanted to be environmentally friendly hence the use of environmentaly friendly paints etc and bmws view was it was up to the owner to look after it to maintain the condition !
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Who told you that? If is was a dealer sales droid then I never put much stock in what they say anyway lol. Half the time they don't know a hell of a lot about what they're selling
 
I think this water based paint argument is a load of bollocks.....my BMW does 160 miles a day in all weather and not been washed for weeks within not a spot of corrosion on the body work ....330E ....is can be done!
 
Everyone, I’ve just realised why my old bikes never seemed to rust ( my memory is failing ) but what they did do was leak oil especially my old Brit ones in quite prodigious quantities never could stop the Venoms chain case from leaking, never see bikes with oily back tyres now.
 
Outtomunch said:
I bang on about this a lot but, the majority of the corrosion I have seen on WC's comes from poor surface prep and paint application. The corrosion starts, under the paint layer. The corrosion then bubbles then breaks the paint layer.
No amount of 'surface' based protection is gonna stop this happening.

Apart form that the 'nano' coatings are flipping snake oil, you learnt the hard way.

Andres
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Thats right... it is poor manufacturing. Also the sequence of Paint then machine various bits on the cnc leaving naked ally surfaces with one edge cut paint... rife for weathering... But hey apparently 93% of BMW cars on UK roads and over 60% of bikes are on 3 year pcp deals...(any dealers here correct me, data of from a high up friend at Sytner HQ).. So who cares... Month 37 its back to where it came from...
 
fredaroony said:
Who told you that? If is was a dealer sales droid then I never put much stock in what they say anyway lol. Half the time they don't know a hell of a lot about what they're selling
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I had already told him i had three of them in the past, I could not belive it to be honest . Got a telling off from my mrs for my responce which was Thats balls or words to that effect. Was a prity high profile dealer in london. I asked him how yamaha managed it and gave him the example of my old xt660 which i used gir 32k every day and looked better than the year or so old gsa i sold given the same level of care . He just repeated the same thing .
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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