How reliable is your 1200?

[IanC]

BMW sell the GS (in particular the ADV) as the ultimate RTW bike. With Canbus, ABS, EFI, etc., I'm just wondering how foolish it is to stray far from a BMW dealer with his computer gizmo!

So, How many miles has your 1200 managed before needing a dealer's computer in order to run? That is, if you were in some far-flung corner of the planet, even with a good local bike mechanic, it would not have been possible to diagnose and/or reset the system and continue without plugging in to a BMW computer?

I'm asking the question with regard to electronics/computer, as opposed to normal(!) mechanical failures such as gearboxes and final drives.

Let's not have another argument about 11**'s!

 

[Engineer]

BMW sell the GS (in particular the ADV) as the ultimate RTW bike. With Canbus, ABS, EFI, etc., I'm just wondering how foolish it is to stray far from a BMW dealer with his computer gizmo!

So, How many miles has your 1200 managed before needing a dealer's computer in order to run? That is, if you were in some far-flung corner of the planet, even with a good local bike mechanic, it would not have been possible to diagnose and/or reset the system and continue without plugging in to a BMW computer?

I'm asking the question with regard only to electronics/computer, as opposed to normal(!) mechanical failures such as gearboxes and final drives.

Let's not have another argument about 11**'s!

Mine has never needed the BMW computer to make it work - it is just over 1 year old and has covered 7,500 miles.

 

[Mike L]

Same here 7300 miles on a 04 bike and no probs other than a slight glitch with a pannier lock (a bit of wire and a swiss army knife sorted that). The bike has been fantastic.

 

[Bazza]

450 miles and dead...........
1200 miles and very dead

 

[minkyhead]

replaced 9 months 9000 miles

 

[NakedRider]

17,000 miles and counting. No failures.

 

[gavin@iow]

8000 miles, June '04 model, no problems.

 

[GSmonkey]

I'd worry more about the other 'consumable' items such as gearbox's, final drives and fuel pumps

 

[Tricky]

It has software updates at service time (don't they all?)

Until my next RTW trip

 

[birdseye]

There ought to be another question - "do you know your layshaft from your elbow?"

Seems to me that there are a lot of riders who havent got a clue about the mechanics / electronics of any bike so that if something trivial goes wrong (like say a sidestand switch) they troop off to the dealer and moan about reliability. IMHO they have unrealistic expectations that nothing will ever go wrong or wear out. We regularly see this on GS'er

With much of this publicised on the net, those inclined to worry are worrying about reliability before they get a problem whilst riders who would like the bike are put off buying one. And we have unrealistic reactions to minor probs - "my warning light is flashing, should I reject under sale of goods act" etc

If you're frightened of the cost of potential repairs I reckon you cant really afford the bike in the first place. Buy something boring like a Honda instead

 

[MATKAT]

Encouraging !!

Good to see from this poll that in spite of all the hype and scaremongering the 1200 is a brilliant reliable bike !!!!
Mine has 15000 miles.................. it did have a gearbox at 5600 (but it didnt let the rider down ) .headlight bulb at 8000 (but didnt let me down ) Fork seals at 12000 (but didnt let me down ). 12 v socket blown a couple of times , needed re-setting(which has caused the most inconveneince to blow up airbed )................
For sure nothing has(or likely too) changed my plan to sell my current 04 bike at 30000 and buy an late 05 or 06 with only a couple of thousand miles on

 

[IanC]

birdseye, just trying to work out if I've been unlucky, or more likely foolhardy in buying a very early one (May '04). My warranty's about to expire next month, and so far I've had a new Final Drive, Gearbox (both early on), and yesterday had a new ABS pump fitted.

Mine was the only one of around 100 my dealer had tested under the ABS recall which actually needed one (although it appeared to work OK). This was a six-hour job which I would not have liked to pay for! While there they also informed me that they'd like to replace the corroded front engine cover (that'll take 3 hours and another 140 mile round trip). Now 14000 miles on the clock.

I feel I'm getting to know my dealer far too well! Oh, and to top it all, when I got there, there was a 12GS being loaded onto a car transporter, presumably after being fixed following a breakdown.

Back to my original question, in fact my bike has never actually failed to run, and problems have all been mechanical, probably new-model-teething things which hopefully have now been sorted out.

I've got an 1200 GSA due May 22nd (a week before my exiting warranty expires), and just wondering whether I'm a gluton for punishment, or if I've just been an unwitting part of the BMW development team! It would be nice to think that the glitches have now been ironed out, even if it was with my help!

I'm also wondering whether, for reliabilty's sake, I'd be better off without ABS, which does seem extremely complicated. I do intend taking the GSA out of Europe, and out of range of BMW dealers.

Since I was 12, I've owned 14 bikes, from step-thru's through motocrossers to Harley's. 7 of these were Hondas (including 3 MX'ers). The only real problems I've had with all of these, before my GS, apart from crash-damage and flooded engines, was a knackered pot on a CR250R (my fault for not locating ring correctly on piston, so not Honda's fault), and sheared splines on the clutch of my SS50, due to the massive power increase when I fitted it with a 70cc top-end! Oh, and a blown oil-pump on an Electra-Glide after a 400-mile thrash through France. So it seems I've had more problems with my GS that the previous 13 (non-BMW) put together. And I've now ordered a GSA... Please don't phone the psychiatrist.

 

[Geordietraveller]

Reg. Sept '04. 31k miles (mostly round Canada, Western US and Mexico hundreds / sometimes thousands of miles from a dealer)
Probably tested as hard as any 1200GS. Carrying 2 plus gear for a year. Used hard, put away wet, taken down lots of gravel tracks, dropped and thrashed.

Final Drive replaced @ c.5k (corrosion)
Fuel Pump sender replaced @ 6k (failure)
Transmission, seals, clutch, replaced @ c.15k (seals failed + contaminated cluch)
Balancer Shaft machined to repair grove worn by incorrect assembly at factory c.15k
Gearbox replaced c.15k (jumping out of 2nd)
Battery replaced c. 24k after failure
Stepper motors reprogrammed c. 26k (made bike idle rough but that's all)

Has it needed more attention than any previous bike? - yes
Are early 1200s all prone to the same faults? - seems so
Am I convinced that all the problems are over? - not sure (but looking good so far)
Is it the best bike for a real 'round the world' ride? - no but no worse than an 1150 with ABS. Something older, cheaper and smaller would be more sensible.
Would I swap it for anything else? - Nope
Is it the best bike I've ever owned? - Definitely

Si

BTW the ABS is diiferent on the GSA anyway, but I think you got more chance of regretting NOT having it when you needed it, (it's not going to immobilise the bike)

 

[steveuk]

25,00 no probs.

25,000 miles in first 12 months.
no big problems...except the rear wheel barings are "going" - so they are doing them under warranyty

 

[IanC]

You've certainly tested it SiFi - and had all the "normal" problems with a couple of extras thrown in for good measure. Still a lot of problems-per-mile though. It would be nice to think BMW have addressed all the common problems now with the latest builds, as the majority seem to be Final Drive/Gearbox/Fuel Pump/ABS, i.e. a few specific problems rather than loads of different ones. I do know that the newest boxes are very different.

I've only today learnt that the ABS cannot immobilise the bike, which is also a relief. After my last 44,000 miles being on ABS-equipped-bikes, I may have got more used to relying on it more than I realise.

How is the GSA's ABS different - is it the new Continental Teves system I've read about? And do you mean it's different form older 1200's or different from the latest normal 1200? I've not heard this before.

Happy travels!

 

[sven]

There ought to be another question - "do you know your layshaft from your elbow?"

Seems to me that there are a lot of riders who havent got a clue about the mechanics / electronics of any bike so that if something trivial goes wrong (like say a sidestand switch) they troop off to the dealer and moan about reliability. IMHO they have unrealistic expectations that nothing will ever go wrong or wear out. We regularly see this on GS'er

With much of this publicised on the net, those inclined to worry are worrying about reliability before they get a problem whilst riders who would like the bike are put off buying one. And we have unrealistic reactions to minor probs - "my warning light is flashing, should I reject under sale of goods act" etc

If you're frightened of the cost of potential repairs I reckon you cant really afford the bike in the first place. Buy something boring like a Honda instead

Any fault which causes the bike to breakdown, no matter how trivial the cause (faulty sidestand cutout switch etc.), is unacceptable, especially on a "premium" priced product IMHO.

For those who live miles from a dealer, even minor faults can be a PITA.

 

[wilbjr21]

I'm fed up of boll*cks polls like this. The electronics are so reliable you can forget about them. Just grease all of your plugs and sockets with ACF 50 grease and learn how to fix a puncture.

 

[hokoboko]

In resonse to Ian C's ?? re: ABS here's my story.
I've got a 1200gs and a Basic. If I was going to Africa which bike would I take? No contest: the Basic. Why? Because quite simply, if the 1200 fails in Nowheresville what's the chance it could be terminal? Excellent, given my experience and hearing those of others. The 1200gs is a great bike - but unproven. I had the rear wheel bearing fail in Corfu. Was replaced by a competent BMW car mechanic but because he didn't have the computer he couldn't check the ABS system. It eventually failed me in the middle of Calabria at night in a field looking for a site to pitch camp. That effectively cancelled the brakes. At midnight I decided to bleed the rear brake which got the ABS system working again (but sporadic) and in the morning headed for Palermo non stop which, for God's sake, was where the closest computer was - just so they could diagnose and fix what was in effect minor prob on any other bike. As it was, I'd pretty well fixed it but according to certain 'experts', the bleeding caper should, theoretically, not have worked because once the 'brain' had decided there was a prob with the ABS it had to be instructed by the computer that the problem had been solved. Moral of a long and boring story - if you're heading out of reach of specialist BMW computers, given my experience, I'd forget about ABS. UNLESS BMW has a new ABS system - I've heard somewhere the Adventure does - anyone confirm?

 

[IanC]

I'm fed up of boll*cks polls like this

This ain't no boll*cks poll!!!

I'm trying to cut through the boll*cks and get a true picture of the reliabilty of the 1200, and in particular see how often you could be totally knackered by the bike insisting it wants to copulate with a BMW computer when it doesn't really need to. It would be annoying if it happened in Europe, but worse than annoying if it happened in Africa or S America.

hokoboko, your experience is just the sort of thing that alarms me - "intelligent" electronics making mountains out of molehills. Although it's good to know that ABS doesn't actually stop the bike running. I stayed in Palermo a couple of years ago - they let me park my ST1100 in the hotel lobby, but I had to take the indicators off to get in the door!

SiFi mentioned a new ABS system on the 12 GSA - I hope he can enlighten us further. Anyone have any idea how good the non-servo/ABS/linked brakes are? Presumably a whole lot better than "residual" braking!

As GSmonkey pointed out earlier, it does seem that the majority of problems are more traditional (mechanical), and very few are actually with the electronics side of things, apart from the ABS.

 

[Geordietraveller]

SiFi mentioned a new ABS system on the 12 GSA - I hope he can enlighten us further. Anyone have any idea how good the non-servo/ABS/linked brakes are? Presumably a whole lot better than "residual" braking!

Sorry to dissapoint, but my 'knowledge' is very limited

A friend of ours (Paul )has just taken delivery of a 1200GSA with ABS and from what I've seen, it doesn't have brake servos (certainly no 'whine' as the brakes are activated!). No doubt GSA owners who used to have GS1200 can provide more info than my pitiful effort.

I'll speak to Paul tomorrow and see if he has any tech. info on them.

On the subject of a 1200 being suitable for a RTW trip I don't think it's reliability (or strength) is an issue - its simply the non-serviceable items that would not be able to be 'bodged' to keep it on the road.