Mick Fagan
Registered user
98 1100GS bought new, serviced exclusively by myself except for the 1,000 Klm service.
Battery went at about 6-8 weeks, replaced under warranty.
This year the ignition wiring loom cracked and died, something I never would have suspected, replaced it and fixed it so it cannot happen again.
Just this last weekend whilst servicing, I was replacing the fuel filter and I checked out the filler cap water drain pipe thingy. The part of the drainage system that passes from an internal (to the tank) hose to a metal pipe that passes to an external hose was starting to rust and scale up, which was preventing water draining from the fuel filler cap recess. I cleaned it out thoroughly and then re-assembled and now it works perfectly.
The bike is never ridden to work or any kind of commuting, it only does trips and sunday/weekend rides. The bike has been into some interesting situations dirt wise and water crossing wise whilst solo, but is mainly used for two up touring and is heavily Tourateched.
Now has 73,000 Klm's on it, and, apart from normal wear and tear hasn't had a fault worth mentioning, or one that I can readily remember.
Previous 1982 R100CS had 305,000 Klm's on it and I never had the cylinder heads off. replaced the clutch, G/box and rear shockers at 275,000 Klm's, apart from that, nothing much else.
Bike before that was a 1980 R80 G/S it did 85,000 Klm's and went through two clutches and two rear suspension units due to extreme thrashing by me ( I was younger). It got completely submerged during some river crossings and hopelessy bogged in mud, sand, and scoria (Volcanic stones) It did have an extremely hard life.
Bike before that was a 1977 R100/7 which did 350,000 Klm's It also got bogged badly in various situations, but we floated it across deep rivers. Rebuilt the G/box, as in bearings at 300,000 Klm's and replaced the clutch at the same time, kept the original clutch as a spare as it wasn't worn too much, that bike went through two rear main seals and about 10 sets of rear wheel bearings. The wheel bearings died due to lots of water crossings followed by sand, weak part of the bike actually.
Bike before that was a 1975 R90s which did 115,000 Klm's. This bike was raced in road racing on tracks and went touring everywhere. Broke the rear subframe in 17 places on one trip to central Australia, cartwheeled it on another trip and stuffed the re-welded sub-frame which eventually led to replacement of said sub-frame. This was my first new BMW and since then I've never really had a problem. I onsold it to a mate who still owns it, he restored it to as new condition after 500,000 Klm's
I had various secondhand BMW bikes before those mentioned above and apart from a real stinker of an R68 they have all been reasonable.
Basically the machines are soundly manufactured and if you look after them normally and take the good with the bad then they are pretty good bikes!
Mick.
Battery went at about 6-8 weeks, replaced under warranty.
This year the ignition wiring loom cracked and died, something I never would have suspected, replaced it and fixed it so it cannot happen again.
Just this last weekend whilst servicing, I was replacing the fuel filter and I checked out the filler cap water drain pipe thingy. The part of the drainage system that passes from an internal (to the tank) hose to a metal pipe that passes to an external hose was starting to rust and scale up, which was preventing water draining from the fuel filler cap recess. I cleaned it out thoroughly and then re-assembled and now it works perfectly.
The bike is never ridden to work or any kind of commuting, it only does trips and sunday/weekend rides. The bike has been into some interesting situations dirt wise and water crossing wise whilst solo, but is mainly used for two up touring and is heavily Tourateched.
Now has 73,000 Klm's on it, and, apart from normal wear and tear hasn't had a fault worth mentioning, or one that I can readily remember.
Previous 1982 R100CS had 305,000 Klm's on it and I never had the cylinder heads off. replaced the clutch, G/box and rear shockers at 275,000 Klm's, apart from that, nothing much else.
Bike before that was a 1980 R80 G/S it did 85,000 Klm's and went through two clutches and two rear suspension units due to extreme thrashing by me ( I was younger). It got completely submerged during some river crossings and hopelessy bogged in mud, sand, and scoria (Volcanic stones) It did have an extremely hard life.
Bike before that was a 1977 R100/7 which did 350,000 Klm's It also got bogged badly in various situations, but we floated it across deep rivers. Rebuilt the G/box, as in bearings at 300,000 Klm's and replaced the clutch at the same time, kept the original clutch as a spare as it wasn't worn too much, that bike went through two rear main seals and about 10 sets of rear wheel bearings. The wheel bearings died due to lots of water crossings followed by sand, weak part of the bike actually.
Bike before that was a 1975 R90s which did 115,000 Klm's. This bike was raced in road racing on tracks and went touring everywhere. Broke the rear subframe in 17 places on one trip to central Australia, cartwheeled it on another trip and stuffed the re-welded sub-frame which eventually led to replacement of said sub-frame. This was my first new BMW and since then I've never really had a problem. I onsold it to a mate who still owns it, he restored it to as new condition after 500,000 Klm's
I had various secondhand BMW bikes before those mentioned above and apart from a real stinker of an R68 they have all been reasonable.
Basically the machines are soundly manufactured and if you look after them normally and take the good with the bad then they are pretty good bikes!
Mick.
