BE CAREFULL!

[ONYERBIKE]

If you are using your X Challenge as intended and riding it off road make sure that you carry out your own modifications to what possibly should have been done from the start when the bike left the factory.
Was riding my bike off road in Hampshire the other week, not riding at any great speed, managed to somehow put the bike on its side, but then again thats the nature of trail riding. Anywayz managed to snap off the gear lever and despite my efforts to protect the gear shaft by drilling holes along the gear lever, my low speed fall is a costly one.
BMW have quoted 8-10 hours labour, plus over £200 parts +vat as the complete engine needs to come out of the bike, split in half to access the gear shaft and replace what is a £32 part. When I rung my local dealer to get an idea of the cost, the service manager told me to bring the bike in so that they could see if the bike would be worth repairing, talking about writing my bike off for a gear lever and shaft!
My local dealer went to BMW and as a goodwill measure they offered to pay for 50% of the labour charges, after a telephone call by myself to BMW customer services to ask if they could do anymore to help me as I still have a bill of £700 (after BMW's contribution), I was told by the Customer service manager that he regretted making the offer in the first place!!!

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

Been reported a few times on AdvRider

Sobering story

I fitted a cheapy steel F650GS one, from Day 1


Bummer

 

[rossi]

Sorry to hear about this.

I looked at the gear lever and drilled 2 10mm holes. One right at the base of the lever where it meets the shaft and one one the bend. 10mm was my largest drill bit, and these 2 points looked like the most likely to give in the event of an impact. I drilled the lever in the middle at its thickest point in order to remove metal at the thickest point.

I have managed to bend my lever inwards, by dropping the bike on its side, to the extent that I had to remove the lever and put on my spare. Your impact seems to be different to mine in that your bike was moving forward so the force is transmitted back, along the length of the lever. In theory the hole at the base of the lever should allow the lever to bend at this point and save the shaft but there is no way of knowing for sure. I think a steel lever is probably cheap insurance but still no guarantee

 

[FERRET]

I put a cheap, "£8 off e bay Kawasaki kx 80" lever on mine, cheap and tacky steel lever which i have had bent back to the footpeg when hitting a stone in a rut, but at least it saved the shaft!

Cant you find a competent mechanic on here willing to do the work?, ime sure theres enough knowledge and expertise!!!!!!!!!

Come on guys, help a fellow tosser out!

 

[Timolgra]

Crap design and set too high from the factory, I noticed last weekend Timpo had his set 2 splines higher to avoid that.

 

[Wingit]

BMW ORS change the lever for the one off the xcountry which is softer and bendier.
Sorry to hear of your mishap.

 

[Timpo]

Oh bollox.... OYB, that's tough luck!

T.

 

[dibdob69]

I put a cheap, "£8 off e bay Kawasaki kx 80" lever on mine, cheap and tacky steel lever which i have had bent back to the footpeg when hitting a stone in a rut, but at least it saved the shaft!

What he said

 

[Racey]

Have you had a word with Steve Grover OYB ?

Steve is Motoscot... Works out of a site in Luton...

Bloody good bloke - I'll vouch for him and I'm sure others will too...

You can find him on this forum as Motoscot or via http://www.motoscot.co.uk

He might be "better value for money" ?

Good luck whatever route you take...

 

[ONYERBIKE]

Have you had a word with Steve Grover OYB ?

Steve is Motoscot... Works out of a site in Luton...

Bloody good bloke - I'll vouch for him and I'm sure others will too...

You can find him on this forum as Motoscot or via http://www.motoscot.co.uk

He might be "better value for money" ?

Good luck whatever route you take...

Yes, someone else recommended Steve, I had a good chat with him last week and he quoted half the money that BMW want, I was hoping that BMW would pay for a bit more, considering that most other bikes (KTM, Yamaha) with the same fault "only" take 3 hours to repair, going in through the clutch.

 

[OzMatt]

How did you get home?

 

[ONYERBIKE]

How did you get home?

Luckily enough the bike was in 2nd or 3rd gear when I went over, so I could ride the bike to the end of the trail and then ride the 5 or so miles by road back to the car and trailer.
The bike is pretty handy in this state, like a sort of automatic twist and go,
may not bother getting it repaired

 

[Spout]

may not bother getting it repaired

Is there enough of the shaft to do a "bodge" tack weld repair?

And then do a proper replacement when you next have to split the cases?

 

[Timolgra]

Is there enough of the shaft to do a "bodge" tack weld repair?

And then do a proper replacement when you next have to split the cases?

I was wondering that but the seal's very close.

It's probably too hard to drill, tap and make a stud to join the two and perhaps not enough to join using an old gear lever clamp cut from the lever.....hmm there's an idea

 

[rossi]

I once got away with welding a gear lever on to the end of a shaft when the splines stripped. I had slightly more metal to work with though. If you try it, worse case is you melt the seal and have to cut the lever off and split the cases so not much to loose.

 

[ONYERBIKE]

Thanks for the replies and ideas guys, may get round to a local welder to see if anything can be done. Probably just get round to Steve Grover and pay for the repair..........then sh#t meself every time I take the bike out in case I do it again........looks like the future maybe a 400 KTM or DRZ

 

[powroll]

Stubby

BSAs used to use a very short uncranked stubby lever but not sure it would tuck around the casing, could use the splined end and weld on some thin bar just enough thickness to engage but thin enough to bend easy.Good luck.

 

[ONYERBIKE]

BTW, I have been thinking about how I done this and although I cross rutted and dropped the bike at a 90 degree angle to the uphill section that I was riding, the bike also slid on its side a foot or so, which caused the lever to be ripped off and also bending the handlebars and riser. Todd, one of the guys I was riding with at the time suggested that I fix a piece of wire between the bashplate and the gearlever to limit the amount of travel and stop this happening again.

 

[Micky]

Sorry to hear about this

Wunderlich wanted to give me their replacement gear lever for our trip, but I gratefully refused!

They said my standard metal one could bend or even break off in a tumble ... yes please, much better than an after market one braking the actual shaft!

Aftermarket goodies not all they are made up to be!

Hope you get it sorted soon...