2nd Thoughts

[Baz]

I sometimes wonder if I've done the right thing Buying a GS. I bought one as everyone raved about reliability & build quality and I thought it was the ideal replacement for my VFR.

However since I bought it every other post seems to be about problems. The latest seem to be about corrosion, final drives & gearboxes giving up the ghost with relativley few miles on the clock.

I appreciate these examples are probably the exception, but still makes you wonder whether BMW are becoming to complacent about their product. Maybe they should get some Honda people on board to sort their quality control.

Dont get me wrong I enjoy riding the bike, but if I wanted something that melted whenever it got wet or broke after relatively low miles I would have bought a Ducati!!

Hope you're all going to reply now with how youve done huge mileages with no problems, to restore my faith in the product.

Baz

 

[DrAlf]

I had a Honda before the GS and the thing was absolutely bomb proof. Thrashed it for many thousands of miles, gave it some real abuse and nothing at all went wrong ever. I think owning a Honda makes you become complacent with motorcycle reliability – you simply do not expect the bike to break down. The GS and these forums along with the ADV forums seem to inspire a different thought pattern altogether. You read of so many things going wrong that you actually start to expect things to go wrong. However I’ve covered 19,000 miles in the last year and the bike has been brilliant – nothing has gone wrong at all. Still don’t trust it like the Honda though and I’m expecting catastrophic failure any day now.

 

[Baz]

Has anything gone wrong with yours yet? If not, just ride it and quit thinking too hard............................

Not unless you count the corrosion.

 

[Paul Young]

You're right Baz, most posts are of problems or things going wrong. However, that's news. No-one posts "my bike went well again today" because, if they did, that's all you'd read most of the time.

"Dog bites man" isn't news, but "Man bites dog" is. These BB's are always weighted in favour of bad/unfavourable news so take what you need & leave the rest. Mine is one which has suffered a final drive problem, but I'm more than happy with it. The last GS I had was an R80GS which I sold with 98500 miles on it & I believe is now in N. Zealand & I'll be exremely happy if I get the same from this one, even with a bit of work on the way.

HTH,

 

[DrAlf]

My bike went well today.

 

[Baz]

My bike went well today.

Thats more like it

 

[Paul Young]

My bike went well today.

Mine went well, yesterday. Hope that helps.

 

[Eunuch]

Mine went well Friday but I do worry the finish isn't up to Mr Honda's high standards. Looks like I'm having to clean the BM far more regularly than I ever had to a VFR to keep it pristine. Mind you, I'm grinning like a madman which I never did on the VFR.

I'll fight the GS's corner in many ways, but its not built as well as my old Jap bikes.

 

[Deleted account W]

I'll fight the GS's corner in many ways, but its not built as well as my old Jap bikes.

This has been sat outside since 1983 and the wheel rims are still in good nick, the tanks another story, anyone ever try braising a tank to get rid of a petrol leak. It did'nt work!