Bahnstormer

[Flashman2001]

Had another good service from Bahnstormer on Saturday - shaft oil change on my R1200GS for £33.10 - my bike is coming up to 9000 miles and no bits found in the oil - but advised it looked a bit dirty.

 

[Slowdown]

Errm - maybe I'm a bit optimistic here, but having spent 11 grand on a bike I don't expect to find 'bits in the oil' after 90 thousand miles. Has BMW reliability sunk to new depths???

 

[Flashman2001]

Hopefully not - but there have been a number of threads on this site regarding shaft drive failure. On the 07 models, I believe they have introduced an oil change for the shaft as part of the service rather than a sealed for life.

I have had the oil changed for my peace of mind as I will be keeping it after the 2 year warranty & thought it might be of interest to other 1200 owners, and certainly worth doing for just £33.10

 

[wurzel]

Errm - maybe I'm a bit optimistic here, but having spent 11 grand on a bike I don't expect to find 'bits in the oil' after 90 thousand miles. Has BMW reliability sunk to new depths???

You must be a hard man to please. After 90 thousand miles there must be wear and tear and some bits in the oil? My R80RT had 159,000 miles on the clock when I sold it and it never let me down.

 

[Ash]

You must be a hard man to please. After 90 thousand miles there must be wear and tear and some bits in the oil? My R80RT had 159,000 miles on the clock when I sold it and it never let me down.

90,000 on a GS1200 misprint or busy boy
misprint me finks.

 

[Steptoe]

You must be a hard man to please. After 90 thousand miles there must be wear and tear and some bits in the oil? My R80RT had 159,000 miles on the clock when I sold it and it never let me down.

Muppet . re-read the post -

He means, after spending a vast amount of money on a BMW, you shouldn't expect bits in the oil, even after 90 thousand miles.

 

[wurzel]

Muppet . re-read the post -

He means, after spending a vast amount of money on a BMW, you shouldn't expect bits in the oil, even after 90 thousand miles.

I've spent a vast amount of money for my R1200GSA and I'm sure it will be as reliable as the 2 R80RTs and 1100GS that I owned before.

Obviously 90,000 miles was a misprint, but then again...............

 

[thauma]

I was at Bahnstormers t'other week, getting the bike serviced.

I must admin that they were efficient, friendly and the availability of a loan bike was most welcome considering their location.

I made some suggestions that they were happy to listen to, but then argued against.

I must say that I was a bit surprised that they don't do MOT's and that tyres cost £100 more than Micheldever. I don't mind an bit of markup, for the convenience of a one stop shop, but £100 seems extortionate (yup that was £250 for tourance (front and rear) fitted). Their argument was that their guys are more than tyre fitters, so the price difference is in the fitting, but even I could change the tyres in less than 2 hours.

Sounds like I'm whinging - but honestly I'm just glad that there's someone making use of the old SPC site. More competition in the area has to be a good thing.

Good Luck Bahnstormer .

 

[BBB61]

I think that the going rate for a pair of Tourances fitted (including wheel removal, balancing and new valve) is about £180-190 at the most of the specialist tyre places now, so Bahnstormer are charging between £60-70 more. I would think the entire job would take them about 30 minutes so that would be about £30-35 labour, plus they wouldn't be able to get the tyres in at the same prices as a specialist tyre supplier.

I don't know of any motorcycle dealers (from my own experience) who would be as competitive as a specialist tyre supplier.

 

[thauma]

Bob,

I mostly agree with you, but they also need to consider local market forces, and I could get a nice man in a van (full mobile tyre workshop!) to my door to do the job for around £210. Still cheaper than their quote and I don't have to suffer the elements

Micheldever are well known in the area for their cheap prices, and good service . So it would be difficult to compete with that.

My main point is that I don't mind paying the extra - if it is a one stop shop for all the bike needs (MOT, tyres, service). But they just didn't seem to want to think outside the box and offer the full service experience ( Sorry I've been playing too much W**K Word Bingo lately). It's this sort of thing that will ensure that when the bikes get older, needing MOT's then people will start to look towards independents, or non-branded garages.

This is my opinion, and I don't expect everyone (or anyone) to agree with me. I also think that the service they provided was very good, just not as comprehensive as I'd come to expect from my previous dealer (Ducati not BMW) and in reality that is probably my gripe: maybe I've been spolit.

I'm all for people making money, and hence these were my suggestions to them, passed on directly at the time of the service. It's their choice, but if I still have the bike next year I will probably be looking for someone who can do it all in one go. On the other hand if I trade in for a new model, I will certainly be visiting them first .

Cheers

Dave#...

 

[Ash]

I think that the going rate for a pair of Tourances fitted (including wheel removal, balancing and new valve) is about £180-190 at the most of the specialist tyre places now, so Bahnstormer are charging between £60-70 more. I would think the entire job would take them about 30 minutes so that would be about £30-35 labour, plus they wouldn't be able to get the tyres in at the same prices as a specialist tyre supplier.

I don't know of any motorcycle dealers (from my own experience) who would be as competitive as a specialist tyre supplier.

they can buy tyres from same supplier as us but at trade price which is cheaper still.and most garages do.how else would they put thier 30% plus mark up on.but less us not forget there in business to make money.so if you want a deal go to tyre dealer direct.that would be the same for most non OE items.

 

[shugie]

It's this sort of thing that will ensure that when the bikes get older, needing MOT's then people will start to look towards independents, or non-branded garages....

I think Barnstormer are a good addition to the BMW dealers in the south, although I'm still kicking mysefl for not taking up the most generous trade in deal with SPC last year!

As the bikes get older I think there is a tendency for the owners to sort out their own MOTs themselves anyway. There's loads of places that can do bike MOTs nearer, for most, than a BMW place. They don't want to know 'cos they can't make money on MOTs. How many BMW dealers can do MOTs?