Paranoia

DesertStormer

DesertStormer

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Devizes, Wiltshire
It took me years to adjust to fears of gearbox implosions and ABS giving up the ghost on my R1100GS...Now I've gone and bought a 2011 R1200GS twin cam. How long will it take to overcome all my newly generated fears of ESA malfunction, CANBUS errors and rear drive bearing collapse...?
 
DesertStormer said:
It took me years to adjust to fears of gearbox implosions and ABS giving up the ghost on my R1100GS...Now I've gone and bought a 2011 R1200GS twin cam. How long will it take to overcome all my newly generated fears of ESA malfunction, CANBUS errors and rear drive bearing collapse...?
Click to expand...

Don't worry about them. The ring antennae and FPC will fail first.... :P
 
DesertStormer said:
It took me years to adjust to fears of gearbox implosions and ABS giving up the ghost on my R1100GS...Now I've gone and bought a 2011 R1200GS twin cam. How long will it take to overcome all my newly generated fears of ESA malfunction, CANBUS errors and rear drive bearing collapse...?
Click to expand...

DesertStormer, all the piss-taking aside, can I make a suggestion? I suspect that what you feel is not so much a fear of something going wrong mechanically, as a desire for reassurance against fate.
Every bike ever made has an Achilles heel. Some, like the GS and derivatives, have several. There is a chance of encountering mechanical mayhem no matter what you buy, and no matter how much you spend. (If you don't believe me, ask any past or present owner of a Ducati 916/996.)

The way to overcome this fear is to adopt a 'one-day-at-a-time' viewpoint. Don't try to deal with tomorrow's problems today. Don't try to forsee the future. Don't anticipate disaster. Doing any or all of these things means a one-way ticket to a psychiatric hospital - and you STILL won't know what the bike will do next.

Ride the nuts off it. Enjoy it. And if it breaks, deal with the breakage then.

Vaya Con Dios, my friend. :thumb
 
Nick V said:
DesertStormer, all the piss-taking aside, can I make a suggestion? I suspect that what you feel is not so much a fear of something going wrong mechanically, as a desire for reassurance against fate.
Every bike ever made has an Achilles heel. Some, like the GS and derivatives, have several. There is a chance of encountering mechanical mayhem no matter what you buy, and no matter how much you spend. (If you don't believe me, ask any past or present owner of a Ducati 916/996.)

The way to overcome this fear is to adopt a 'one-day-at-a-time' viewpoint. Don't try to deal with tomorrow's problems today. Don't try to forsee the future. Don't anticipate disaster. Doing any or all of these things means a one-way ticket to a psychiatric hospital - and you STILL won't know what the bike will do next.

Ride the nuts off it. Enjoy it. And if it breaks, deal with the breakage then.

Vaya Con Dios, my friend. :thumb
Click to expand...

A very large +1 for Nick's comments. I've just spent three months waiting for disaster to strike having bought my first GSA, a 2009 model with no warranty in December 2013. This is an excellent site with some world class contributors, but all of that good advice refers to the very long list of potential expensive repairs that might be just around the corner. After a very short time it becomes your bike which may or may not break down, but good preventative maintenance and a bit of luck might leave you needing pads and tyres.

My bike now feels like a really good dog waiting in my garage every morning and I really trust it to get me there and back. Its developed a hint of a misfire and Roy Pidcock are charging me £15 for a once over and next weekend Mikeyboy is fitting me some new Tourances for £200 which should get me a good 8K miles. Its true that you can't spend too much time worrying, I had a small crisis of confidence in January and spent every day waiting for something to fall off and bankrupt me. Nothing happened, to quote someone here the petrol went down and the mileage went up and so did my faith in the machine. Stick with it and I'm sure you'll learn to love it.

Very best of luck!
 
Thanks for the (sensible) advice! After a few circuits of my local area over the past couple of weekends I can honestly say that the bike is awesome fun to ride. It feels a few evolutionary steps on from the 1100, particularly with the uplift in torque and power, but inherently similar - which I guess it what it should feel like! I've had to get some boots with a thicker sole though, as the thing seems to be quite a bit taller than the 1100 even with the seat on the lowest setting. And, I keep forgetting to re-set the ESA to the single rider setting after I've set it up for a passenger, which tends to make the bike even taller when the passenger's got off the back! Guess I'll get used to the extra technology eventually...
 
DesertStormer said:
It took me years to adjust to fears of gearbox implosions and ABS giving up the ghost on my R1100GS...Now I've gone and bought a 2011 R1200GS twin cam. How long will it take to overcome all my newly generated fears of ESA malfunction, CANBUS errors and rear drive bearing collapse...?
Click to expand...

2011 TC Yellow GSA 3 years on approx. 21000 miles....1 headlight lamp replaced @£6.25, panniers oxidised, head educated to look out for safe landing spot, if you can have an extended guarantee buy one, slip phone in pocket and enjoy yourself.

My bike does make different noises at different times, sometimes clunks into 1st, enjoy the long leap from the 1100 :D
 
The twin cam seems far more reliable than the previous versions (my experience at least) so nothing much to worry about. Always a risk the FD will go at some point but you can have it fully rebulit for £3-400 so not the end of the world. Only issue I've had in 4 years and 19k miles was a squeaky exhaust widget replaced under warranty.
 
The standard GS seat set low is 20mm lower than the GSA seat. Set high its the same as the GSA on low
Its not enough to scrunch your legs but does help the reach to the floor.
 
Davy F said:
Yes, I agree. Since I have become a KTM owner, all paranoid thoughts have left me and I'm no longer worried about the crap that is BMW. :aidan
Click to expand...

Rusty Spokes, Rusty Spokes, Rusty Spokes,....:D
 
Davy F said:
Yes, I agree. Since I have become a KTM owner, all paranoid thoughts have left me and I'm no longer worried about the crap that is BMW. :aidan
Click to expand...

My mate had endless problems with the clutch on his 950 Adventure along with Carb icing problems. His 990 had a jerky throttle response.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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