Advice on almost new GS12, appreciated

[virco]

Cheers mates.
I am in rather advanced discussions with a local dealer for a 2005, 2.000km (cca. 1350 mi.) GS1200 that was used as a test drive bike. The machine looks and feels pretty good (it is to be expected for such low mileage) but there are 2 things that worry me:
- 1. both front fork seals leak (there are oil marks on the inner chrome element and the rubber seals are soaked) and I wonder if this might just be the rubber getting old (the machine is 2 years old now) or a result of too hard or improper usage / handling.
- 2. being a test drive bike I presume nobody took the care to keep it under 4k revs for the break-in period so I am wondering at what extent improper or absent break-in usage (heavy use from 0km) might compromise the motor, gear box and transmission life.
The bike still has 18 month warranty but the kind of damage heavy early use can produce I think appears longer in the machine's life.
Please tell me what you think about my concerns and what are the other things / places I have to check to detect early problems or signs of obvious misuse.

Thanks a lot.

“Don’t ride faster than your angel can fly”

 

[Farmboy]

hi,

cant really comment on it all but i would point out your concerns and the bikes problems to the dealer and demand at least a further 6 month warranty to take it upto 2 years.

If they dont agree then simply walk away and wait for them to call you back. ( i appreciate its hard to do when your looking at a new shiny bike ) but there are plenty around and the dealer should have sorted out the selas before it went up for sale in any case.

You need to be strong and not fall for the new bike scenario ( that we all have at some stage )

When i bought mine privately it had a number of small problems ( such as corroding timer cover and crazing to rocker cover etc.. ) which I used to haggle a decent price Then I took back to BMW under warranty and got it all done for free.

keep at em and dont let them give you the hard sell

Chris

 

[mikepg]

Plenty of 12's out there in dealers now - so shop around..........

 

[alcanara]

Does that apply to GSA's as well???

Alcanara

 

[Dahoum]

what's he asking?

 

[Brian ROSEN]

History check

The reputation of the dealer is just as important as the bike's history - so see what you can find out;

 

[Jonny_L]

I can't comment on the fork seals, but I wouldn't worry about the possibility it's not been run in properly. I've had 2 ex demo BMWs now and they've both been fine. I think there's some arguement as to whether it's worth bothering keeping the revs so low or not even, and being a demo bike you know it should've been looked after well if they've used it to advertise their new bikes (whether or not it actually has is a different story).