Much has been written about this subject..and I’m sure much more will.
Firstly it’s important to be objective on this subject.
I love the bike, like many owners do, and would not change it…unless for another GSA!
I have a 06 GSA 14,000 miles which is used mainly for foreign trips once or twice a year. It has never let me down (touch wood!) apart from a minor little glitch in Switzerland last year, but it never let me down.
I think this is the only way I, personally, have been affected by the stories of doom and gloom, and faults….cos although it is annoying breaking down in the dead of night in the UK…it would be much worse in Albania!...and I admit I never worried before, but I do now…although that is covered by taking relevant spares.
I think this bike has ‘character’…by this I mean it’s not like a faultless Jap bike that can almost be too refined, and sterile…it has characteristics. Sometimes it seems it is only these characteristics that new owners..(can I dare say maybe the more original type of BMW riders?)..that doesn’t readily accept these things as normal, or quirks, and then deem them flaws…the erratic fuel gauge, back-fire on over-run, rattles, noise etc etc etc.
I as someone who said he’d never own a BMW, but who was won over by the GSA, as deemed a ‘new’ customer…I think we accept the characteristics a little easier as part of being an ‘adventure’ motorbike, not just another BMW we’ve owned.
I don’t think this excuses any major faults at all though, EWS, FPC etc…or makes every owner having to experience it any less unacceptable.
But it has to be said that there have been plenty of other bikes with faults released from most of the major manufacturers…but they deal with them in recall, or in subsequent models..pretty much what BMW are doing.
It’s also ironic the Pan European 1300 has been mentioned…I also own one of these.
And although it is an amazing bike, which I have often said is the best all round standard touring bike on the road, and still believe…..it does weave!
Mine does, many others do too.
But it only does it in certain conditions, normally in turbulence from lorries on motorways, and at excessive speeds…..not good, but I can work around it, and I still love the bike despite the fault.
A fault Honda have never come out and admitted to, or ever remedied!
The police bike incidents are also a good point…they are on highly modified to the road bike (different suspension, different weight distribution), so aren’t really the same bike….but it has been now associated with it, and so do the problems and dangers. A case of information sometimes clouding the facts.
In all, I think there have been a lot of GS/GSA’s sold….it is inevitable some will go wrong.
Like I say, not acceptable if major faults. But no motor bike is perfect, and some ‘faults’ have to be accepted as niggles, or just routine maintenance, or just ‘they all do that sir’ sometimes.
But I would guess that the vast majority love our GS’s, and appreciate it, and wouldn’t be without it, and never regret buying it, ever.
This is what I think!
http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=190172
(sorry for the long reply!)
