F800GS. 34000 Miles in 10mths & my list of woes.

[Slippy]

I've spent the last 10 months riding my F800GS 34000 odd miles from New York up to Alaska, Alaska down to Ushuaia & tomorrow I'm shipping the bike back to London from here in Buenos Aires. I thought I'd share the benefit of my hindsight.

I don't go on this site often & it appears just from looking at the thread titles the following are common issues.

My bike was serviced at BMW dealerships regularly (as it was initially under warranty) & 70% of my trip was on sealed roads but in places such as Bolivia it did have it hard, so keep that in mind...

Faults.

Radiator fan - far too exposed to the ingress of dirt & by no means am I talking about hard core off road riding. Got wedged & threw up an oil pressure fault (???) on the electronic display, the EWS cut in & shut the bike down whilst the temperature gauge didn't move despite the lack of cooling.
Happened just after crossing into Mexico meaning a return to San Diego & a mere $420 to get a replacement. All of this was less then 200 miles of freeway riding after a $1000 BMW service.

Side stand. Too short to adequately support the bike. Yes I do have panniers but so did my old 1150 & 1200 & the stand on those did the job. Others I've met on the road have the same issue.

Fuel gauge. Despite being 'updated' under warranty it reads full for 110 or so miles & then plummets to empty. Useless.

Water pump - failed & the new $520 replacement that took three weeks to arrive in Santiago, Chile was unable to pump water. Had to bastardise the old & new to avert another three week delay. $520 Well spent.

Rear bearings - failed & took most of the rear wheel hubb with them, despite being replaced at recommended intervals. 6 Hours in the desert spent smashing the remnants out with a rock as they'd been ground into the hubb when the original bearing failed. Fun, fun fun.

Front fork seals. One blew, then the other.

I rode with three others. One on a 12 year old African Twin - no faults despite being ridden very hard off road. One neglected & hammered DR650 which was ridden by an ex Baja 1000 competitor & despite the lack of care & total battering it received still proved more reliable then my F800.

The third rider also had an F800 & sadly suffered from the same list of woes as me & more. He's on a round the world trip & is now swapping to a Japanese bike.

As you can no doubt guess, I've lost the love.

Brian

My travel blog is; www.mytb.org/Smudger1

 

[doyle]

Seems you had your share of problems.I hope it didn't spoil your trip too much.But i expect it did .
Which bike are you going to get now?

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

Form over function

 

[GunZenBomZ]

Nice blog! Would be good to do a few images & thread in the Ride-report section.

So..do you still love your bike or is it been swapped for another?

 

[jolyon_russ]

Just a quick note on the fuel gauge:

I recently replaced my '08 800GS with a new '11 one and BMW in their wisdom have removed the miles till empty screen from the onboard computer.

You still have the bars on the left, but when it get's to fake reserve - last bar it starts counting miles up from zero. I've yet to strap a can of petrol to the back and run it dry to see how far it'll go.

That and a new frosted front brake reservoir are the only 2 differences I can tell at the moment.

 

[Slippy]

I'll be back in London in a few days & will add a summary of the trip with a few pictures to the ride report section then.

Despite my troubles, I couldn't recommend riding the America's highly enough!!! (Sadly, just not on a BMW)

Next bike will probably be something Japanese as I met so many fellow riders on route who just kept clocking up relatively trouble free miles. Although my F800 will sit in the garage for life despite the tantrums.

This is my third & last BMW, as I mentioned in my previous post I've lost the love.

The fragility of the bike combined with massively expensive & equally as fragile replacement parts meant I easily spent inexcess of $4000's more on parts & servicing then a friend on a 12 year old African Twin covering much the same distance on the same terrain - only his bike was ridden much, much harder off road. His rear bearings did fail giving me a little satisfaction but he hadn't ever changed them & he really does put the bike through hell in the dirt.

Brake reservoir.... Mine was very nearly snapped off in a scrape with a bus (nice) on the infamous 'Death Road' Bolivia. Not too many dealerships round that way but luckily the aftermarket guard took most of the impact. Without it, it would have definitely snapped clean off. Positioned where it is, it's more then a little vulnerable on this type of journey. I can't see any improvement over a metal reservoir as an integral part of the lever but I'm no BMW engineer.

I think the fuel gauge sums it up. Such a simple piece of equipment known to be a problem yet it still doesn't work even on recent models. I truly expected more.

For sale - one BMW wooly hat.

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

Honda would be the best choice

 

[v8legend]

Just a quick note on the fuel gauge:
You still have the bars on the left, but when it get's to fake reserve - last bar it starts counting miles up from zero.

Mine's been modded. I've been down to less than 10 miles to go regularly, and on 3 occasions down to zero, then managed to get in over 16.5 litres. No complaints from me.

 

[Dave Ett]

You must have a Friday afternoon one!

My fuel gauge is spot on I have to say. Funny how people seem to have lost the ability to gauge fuel use by the distance they've ridden. Remember the days before fuel gauges? When we just reset the trip and rode until we knew it was getting low?

Sorry you had problems, but I suggest that if you use after-market bearings and fork seals you'd halve the problems. Dunno why BMW chose cheap parts for various bits - the chain being another.

The fan is a common fault and just needs the housing modified I reckon.

Not heard much about water pump failures, maybe you just got lucky?

Overall I think it's a great bike, far lighter and more refined than an Africa Twin. It just needs a few simple mods to make it more robust, that's all...

 

[Slippy]

The other F800 I rode with here & there was two years newer & suffered from the same faults - plus a new alternator - as mine.

All the while the African Twin annoyingly rumbled on without any woes. For this trip I accept the points on handling, weight etc. etc. but my primary concern was a bike that actually ran & without expensive & repetitive repairs. Sadly mine, nor the Aussie's did.

After 34000 odd miles in 10 months oddly enough I became akin to resetting the mileage counter after each fill up. But thanks a lot for the heads up...

Perhaps it's just me but a fuel gauge is not rocket science. Granted yours does work but others including the lad above on an 11' plate doesn't.

I was a fan of the BMW brand, honestly I was. But putting the bike to the test & meeting other F800 riders made me think differently.

 

[Dave Ett]

It is a real pity there's been such a mixed bag. Quality control issues at BMW perhaps?

 

[bumblebeard]

the fuel gauge on my 2010 F650 is next to useless too, shows full for about 100 miles then drops to empty in no time.

 

[Dean]

the fuel gauge on my 2010 F650 is next to useless too, shows full for about 100 miles then drops to empty in no time.

My gauge never shows the true when full range, but on empty is very accurate, on a big run I set the fuel gauge on the garmini, works for me.

Also 16,800 miles and no Major problembs to gripe about.


mind these old africa twins as mentioned in the first post are like little tanks, through my leg over one yesterday for the first time think it was a RD04 very original .


still theres always the triumph tiger XC

 

[m0ng00se]

Sorry to hear about your troubles ....

I just recently did a trip from London to South Africa down the east coast of Africa ... and I have to say, apart from a dodgy side stand switch (which I should have disconnected before I started the journey), I had no problems at all ... took everything I thew at it ... love my F800GS even more now ! It's a beast

http://uk2za.wordpress.com

 

[v8legend]

apart from a dodgy side stand switch (which I should have disconnected before I started the journey),http://uk2za.wordpress.com

When my side stand snapped last year, I had a similar problem. No stand to flick up, so no switch! The switch assembly comes off the back of the stand quite easily (one small nut) and can be moved in to the 'stand up' postion permanenty.

 

[F650Dakar_Norway]

Amazing story, but doesn't surprise me on some issues.
I ride most of the year on my 3 operational bikes, a 2010 F8GS ( done 19 500km ), a 2008 KTM 690Rally Replica ( 8300km ) and a 2004 F650 Dakar ( 110 000km ).

My F8GS saga:
- My fuel gauge worked flawlessly on both the 2008 and 2010 model.
It takes a while to react, but the "distance left" function has worked with amazing precision on both bikes.
- I also judge the front end to be vulnerable and expensive to repair. The beak is a "good looker", but once broken requires expensive plastic replacements.
The plastic instrument holder assembly frame is difficult to repair (save for duct-tape and zip-ties) and can't take much pressure before breaking. I barely nudged a car from behind at a lowly 30kmh with the 2008 model and to my amazement the whole instrument/light assembly broke off and dangled by the wires.... same thing could easily happen in the boonies with a tree or boulder.
- Except for that self-induced damage, no problems with wheel bearings etc. I systematically regrease the wheel bearings each tyre change.

I don't consider this to be a very robust motorcycle. Just inspecting the front light/instrument assmebly frame and it doesn't even compare with the robust metal front setup of my 690 Rally Replica - or even my winter bike, the F650 Dakar. Both the latter have better front end crash tolerance when it comes to taking a whack near the fairing/instrument areas.

I've crashed the F650 hard on an icy dirt road at 70kmh, and after replacing the clutch lever and collecting the broken fairing window I was able to ride on with a fully functional front light and instrument setup. Its turning beak and metal frame instrument holder frame is more solid than ditto of the F8GS - which once broken will leave you with a zip-tied and duct-taped, flip-flopping headlight and urgent need for a replacement plastic front assembly frame.

The F800GS is still my all-time favourite bike - for street- and dirt-road work. Just treat it with respect, within it design envelope and it'll serve well.

I would reinforce its front end before using it on a RTW trip though. Losing the front light and instruments is rather serious, and I was amazed how little it took to break off. A metal front assembly frame can be bent back and welded. Plastic ditto just break, and the angular dipped-beam light housing also is vulnerably shaped (angles catch more than rounded shapes) and will transfer a frontal whack backwards. This can happen easily on a rough dirt-road in the woods, when losing momentum and falling rightwards into a tree or boulder.

I plan to modify the front assembly with a metal-framed 650X rally-fairing from Touratech before doing a long trip with it. And additional fuel capacity.