In the closing stages of our mesmeric tour of Ireland ( here ) I started to experience difficulty changing from 4th to 3rd. Stiff gear lever and a nasty clunk as it changed into 3rd.
Sometimes it would stick in 4th and needed a de-clutch and a second attempt with a decent bit of effort to get it into 3rd.
It gradually got worse to the point where, by Swindon (pouring rain, dark, cold, iPod battery exhausted) all down changes were horrible and required the clutch to be in, the revs blipped to the right level before the lever would engage the requested gear.
I dropped it straight into Vines the following day (last Saturday). Darren was superb - has asked the usual "how can I help" and I said "please can I have a new gearbox". Phil the technician took the bike for a ride and pronounced it "very nasty", and it was booked in for a warranty job immediately.
Vines service quality really is superb these days - cant fault it. Spencer and Darren are both excellent. And this was on a busy Saturday morning with some odd motorcycle rally going on outside.
Anyway, a new gearbox was prescribed, ordered, and arrived on Wednesday and is currently being fitted. They haven't disassembled the other one, they are just sending it back to BMW for diagnosis.
The bike has done 14k miles now and was just serviced at 12k by Vines before going to Ireland (during which they changed the gearbox oil). I bought it in May 2004 so its quite an early one.
Now, I'm a pretty smooth rider, and very mechanically sympathetic. I dont do clutchless up-changes or anything like that, or put undue stress on the bike. I'm rather surprised that the gearbox has broken, as any of us would be.
Vines said that this is the first gearbox that they have done. I'm sure this is correct as it was the parts chap, Anton, who I know pretty well, who does all the ordering who told me.
I know a couple of other people have had similar problems with gearboxes.
I have to say that I really love my 1200 but this has dented my faith a bit. Say I only did 5k miles a year - the bike would have been well out of warranty at 14k. I'm now in the "what will happen next" camp, whereas previously I had supreme confidence in the bike. I've resorted to checking for rear wheel play regularly, and am quite concerned about the brakes too although I've never had a problem with them.
Top marks to Vines for doing exactly the right thing though, sharing my concern and sorting it out quickly and efficiently.
I'll keep you posted if/when I get any more info about the cause of the problem.
Andy
Sometimes it would stick in 4th and needed a de-clutch and a second attempt with a decent bit of effort to get it into 3rd.
It gradually got worse to the point where, by Swindon (pouring rain, dark, cold, iPod battery exhausted) all down changes were horrible and required the clutch to be in, the revs blipped to the right level before the lever would engage the requested gear.
I dropped it straight into Vines the following day (last Saturday). Darren was superb - has asked the usual "how can I help" and I said "please can I have a new gearbox". Phil the technician took the bike for a ride and pronounced it "very nasty", and it was booked in for a warranty job immediately.
Vines service quality really is superb these days - cant fault it. Spencer and Darren are both excellent. And this was on a busy Saturday morning with some odd motorcycle rally going on outside.
Anyway, a new gearbox was prescribed, ordered, and arrived on Wednesday and is currently being fitted. They haven't disassembled the other one, they are just sending it back to BMW for diagnosis.
The bike has done 14k miles now and was just serviced at 12k by Vines before going to Ireland (during which they changed the gearbox oil). I bought it in May 2004 so its quite an early one.
Now, I'm a pretty smooth rider, and very mechanically sympathetic. I dont do clutchless up-changes or anything like that, or put undue stress on the bike. I'm rather surprised that the gearbox has broken, as any of us would be.
Vines said that this is the first gearbox that they have done. I'm sure this is correct as it was the parts chap, Anton, who I know pretty well, who does all the ordering who told me.
I know a couple of other people have had similar problems with gearboxes.
I have to say that I really love my 1200 but this has dented my faith a bit. Say I only did 5k miles a year - the bike would have been well out of warranty at 14k. I'm now in the "what will happen next" camp, whereas previously I had supreme confidence in the bike. I've resorted to checking for rear wheel play regularly, and am quite concerned about the brakes too although I've never had a problem with them.
Top marks to Vines for doing exactly the right thing though, sharing my concern and sorting it out quickly and efficiently.
I'll keep you posted if/when I get any more info about the cause of the problem.
Andy
And I hope it's now a damn site better than when I took out a BWM extended waranty - a year ago for 300 quid - which excluded just about everything except the engine & gearbox 
my luck continued the next day the No plate fell of my new LWB Shogun, and on Tuesday I found that it had a slight oil leak
