Are you a happy 1200GS owner?

[Bert]

Well Mike...

You've seen mine close up!
12,821 miles in last 7 months
France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Italy in all weathers from chucking rain, hail, heat and , touching wood, so far so good!
Excellent engineering- there will always be a niggle somewhere if you look for it. Ride it! the grin factor is.....high!
My only gripe is my vertically challenged position leading to a few adrenalin 'moments' when turning around especially on slippery ship decks ! or adverse cambers

 

[Piggers]

Only done 800 miles so far (absolutley no problems) and loving it.

 

[Burdocks]

Started with a Honda 250n, had a Triumph, had sports bikes for years mostly Honda, tried the Harley thing, boring and I'm not into Tattoos and pony tails, but absolutely love the performance, handling and exhileration of riding my 1200GS. No problems todate.

 

[ianm00]

Love riding the bike BUT........ its so unreliable and right now I would never buy another BMW!!!

Bike is currently with the dealer for the 4th time due to intermittent electrical ABS fault/problems.

Bike was new 05 1200GS on 1st March so I thought teething problems would have been sorted by now! How wrong can I get!!

I have had the bike since 1st march 05 and covered 7000miles, the bike has never been offroad and the electrics are having faults!

What would happen to this bike if I took it offroad through mud/rivers etc? Maybe I should have perhaps thats where I have gone wrong!

This is my first BMW and my last if this problem isn't sorted this time, I need a reliable bike !

Ian

 

[fast boy]

4500 miles

i just thrashed the plums out of mine two up fully loaded round france, italy, switzerland. ran it in for 600 miles then off we went.
got a low seat and a skinny arse so it hurt like buggery after about 200 poxy miles, but i can change the seat!
got nothing left of my new boots, and scraped about quater of an inch of the sidestand, and thats with ten ton of shite on it. (and no i dont mean the wife!) fantastic bike not a hickup 4000 in 2 weeks flat out. ive had 1100gs. 1150gs and an adv but this makes then look like the tractors they are!!
anyone that slags them in my books just hasnt ridden one for long enough, if at all. i dont care what it looks like im riding the thing not looking at it!
much happiness here. not like the blades and such like i have seen off round bends

 

[FIN_GSer]

To ianm00

What are the symptoms?

ABS does not boot at startup. (quick blinking ABS light?)

If so, I had the same problem. The brake lever switch was faulty. Seems like a ghost problem for analyst computer & mechanic.

You can make the bike rideable by unpluging the connector and short circuiting the connector. -> servo boots OK. (if you unconnect the short circuit wire, the servo pump will stay on untill you short it again.)

The problem was solved by changing front brake lever switch.

FIN_GSer

 

[ianm00]

To ianm00

What are the symptoms?

ABS does not boot at startup. (quick blinking ABS light?)

If so, I had the same problem. The brake lever switch was faulty. Seems like a ghost problem for analyst computer & mechanic.

You can make the bike rideable by unpluging the connector and short circuiting the connector. -> servo boots OK. (if you unconnect the short circuit wire, the servo pump will stay on untill you short it again.)

The problem was solved by changing front brake lever switch.

FIN_GSer

FIN_GSer,

Similar. On boot up the red triangle always stays red (doesn't go yellow during ignition boot sequence) and then Brake failure stays flashing (slow flashing so ABS disabled). Servos still work but I believe ABS has been disabled. Also whilst riding speedo sometimes dips from current speed down to zero then back up again. Dealer has already replaced rear ABS sensor as this was what they thought the problem was initially.

Im feeling very pissed off now as the bike was with the dealer for a week and it never got solved. Yesterday bike went back to dealer and now it looks like I wont get it back until next week!

If it doesn't get fixed this time I will be considering asking for replacement bike or my money back again! Not sure this will happen but Im thinking that changing from my ultra reliable VFR800 VTEC was a big mistake. Looks like this will be my first/last BMW. I like riding the bike but I want a reliable bike more!

Thanks

Ian

 

[Deadskin]

Im feeling very pissed off now as the bike was with the dealer for a week and it never got solved. Yesterday bike went back to dealer and now it looks like I wont get it back until next week!

If it doesn't get fixed this time I will be considering asking for replacement bike or my money back again! Not sure this will happen but Im thinking that changing from my ultra reliable VFR800 VTEC was a big mistake. Looks like this will be my first/last BMW. I like riding the bike but I want a reliable bike more!

Thanks

Ian

Hi Ian
Does the dealer/bmw assist give you a loan bike/car when yours
is off the road ?
Your bike sounds like the KTM 950 i had
though the loan bike was a duke and wasn't bad.
But the thought of sitting on a Scarver if my 10k GS
needs work doesn't really bare thinking about

 

[ianm00]

Hi Ian
Does the dealer/bmw assist give you a loan bike/car when yours
is off the road ?
Your bike sounds like the KTM 950 i had
though the loan bike was a duke and wasn't bad.
But the thought of sitting on a Scarver if my 10k GS
needs work doesn't really bare thinking about

The first time it was with the dealer I had a bike for a couple of days (R850) then a car for a couple of days!

This time I have been given a 650GS. The problem is that this bike is too small for me and its uncomfortable. I think they should give me like for like as you spend a lot of money on new bike which has faults!

The bike loan is only done by the dealer if they have one available BMW assist only provide car for 2 day periods.

Ian