Tedious? Sounds a bit like 'Bob's Triumph Tales'
Hello pot, this kettle, sending black, over....
Should I buy another 1200GS?
- Thread starter Cornwallis
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Tedious? Sounds a bit like 'Bob's Triumph Tales'
Hello pot, this kettle, sending black, over....
BBB61
Registered user
Tedious? Sounds a bit like 'Bob's Triumph Tales'
Hello pot, this kettle, sending black, over....
I would suggest you take a look at my post count relating to Triumphs over the years. You will see that it is not a patch on Rashers 1200 gloom and doom posts, or on Johnny Boxers 1200 sniping
I would suggest you take a look at my post count relating to Triumphs over the years. You will see that it is not a patch on Rashers 1200 gloom and doom posts, or on Johnny Boxers 1200 sniping
Don't bring me into it
Thought Twotter's post was funny..................
The Nutter
Registered user
Had a mate of mine on a holiday trip. Totally ruined, his Boeing crashed and f**ked up several hundred peoples holidays. None of 'em lived to put a complaint on the Boeing owners club forum, so maybe that's the answer!
gazzauk
Registered user
Id go for the Kawasaki , my previous 4 bikes were all new kawasakis, a kmx crosser,gpz500, zzr600, zzr1200 and with a total of well over 60,000 miles i never had so much a bulb blow on any of them. When i can afford to change my 09 gs later in the year ill be going for a new gtr 1400 because in only 7000 mile of bmw ownership ive had 2 tyre sensors, 2 tank film sensors and now my final drive is showing signs of failure .
Motorbikes aren't clones, they're not infaliable, every make or model can break down. 
It's annoying when they have known faults, or weaknesses......but you look at any review of any bike that's been around a while and you'll find a 'look out for ...' on an issue with most of them.
I had a Honda 1300 Pan break down on a trip to Switzerland once...it was a 'it might get you home, or it might give up in 5 miles' scenario!.....I had to turn around and nurse it home, ruining my holiday!!
......that doesn't make all Pans crap bikes...merely I had mine break down!!!
I also took a Pan to Romania a few years ago when they were ravaged with heavy rain and floods, and all the roads were being washed away and it performed well beyond it's 'ability' and never missed a beat!...and that included off roading and crossing rivers on it at times!!!
My GSA's have been to Albania, Ukraine, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia...etc etc
.......and they've performed brilliantly.
I may have been lucky.....but if they do breakdown at least your not far from a BMW (car) dealer, and they'll get you the parts you need....not like the Triumph rider I met in Macedonia who had been waiting weeks for his parts.
It's easy to get paranoid about breaking down....but fear is a waster of opportunity.
It's annoying when they have known faults, or weaknesses......but you look at any review of any bike that's been around a while and you'll find a 'look out for ...' on an issue with most of them.
I had a Honda 1300 Pan break down on a trip to Switzerland once...it was a 'it might get you home, or it might give up in 5 miles' scenario!.....I had to turn around and nurse it home, ruining my holiday!!
......that doesn't make all Pans crap bikes...merely I had mine break down!!!
I also took a Pan to Romania a few years ago when they were ravaged with heavy rain and floods, and all the roads were being washed away and it performed well beyond it's 'ability' and never missed a beat!...and that included off roading and crossing rivers on it at times!!!
My GSA's have been to Albania, Ukraine, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia...etc etc
.......and they've performed brilliantly.I may have been lucky.....but if they do breakdown at least your not far from a BMW (car) dealer, and they'll get you the parts you need....not like the Triumph rider I met in Macedonia who had been waiting weeks for his parts.
It's easy to get paranoid about breaking down....but fear is a waster of opportunity.
TeaPig
Registered user
Oilhead GS's have been around for many years in one form or another and remarkably still suffer from weak FD's that seem to fail at random milages, some get lucky others don't. This is unforgiveable and it's p*ss poor that BMW don't redesign the thing so it'll last at least as long as the rest of the bike which is potentially a very long time, way over 100k miles - or much longer than a typical ownership.
The vast majority of the time they are great all-round bikes, which is why I'm on my 5th and why they have sold so well world-wide.
The beauty of a long model run is that both the good and bad points are well known and reported in the press and in forums like this. Essentially, all the problems and faults have been exhaustively reported and should come as no surprise if you one of the unfortunate minority to experience an issue
It's like marrying your girlfriend, you have plenty of time to figure out what you are letting yourself in for before you take the plunge, thereafter you only have yourself to blame
The vast majority of the time they are great all-round bikes, which is why I'm on my 5th and why they have sold so well world-wide.
The beauty of a long model run is that both the good and bad points are well known and reported in the press and in forums like this. Essentially, all the problems and faults have been exhaustively reported and should come as no surprise if you one of the unfortunate minority to experience an issue
It's like marrying your girlfriend, you have plenty of time to figure out what you are letting yourself in for before you take the plunge, thereafter you only have yourself to blame
There have been some really useful comments to my posting which are very much appreciated.
I accept that bikes do break down and that the GS has 'character'. The issue that I'm struggling to get my head around is that BMW bikes, like their cars, represent a premium product/brand at a premium price. Over recent years, I get the feeling that the way the Company is demonstrating this not through product quality but through its after care (e.g. constant part modifications and I received a £1300 ABS pump f.o.c. for a bike that was almost 5 years old).
From the feedback to this thread, I'm not entirely convinced that the latest GS is as reliable as it should be which is disappointing. But I'm equally unconvinced that the Stelvio or Tenere is the bike to replace my GS. Despite the problems, there's one thing that BMW excel at and that's residual values. However, it would be a bit sad to think that a relatively high purchase price isn't a reflection of quality but the fact that defects will get sorted and owners will get a decent return when they sell.
I accept that bikes do break down and that the GS has 'character'. The issue that I'm struggling to get my head around is that BMW bikes, like their cars, represent a premium product/brand at a premium price. Over recent years, I get the feeling that the way the Company is demonstrating this not through product quality but through its after care (e.g. constant part modifications and I received a £1300 ABS pump f.o.c. for a bike that was almost 5 years old).
From the feedback to this thread, I'm not entirely convinced that the latest GS is as reliable as it should be which is disappointing. But I'm equally unconvinced that the Stelvio or Tenere is the bike to replace my GS. Despite the problems, there's one thing that BMW excel at and that's residual values. However, it would be a bit sad to think that a relatively high purchase price isn't a reflection of quality but the fact that defects will get sorted and owners will get a decent return when they sell.
There are some horror stories about FD's going after ridiculously low miles....and that's never acceptable.
The build quality did suffer a few years ago...but BMW have tried to address that recently. But parts are generally of lower quality across the board nowadays (makes, cars, etc) compared to 'years gone by' cos unfortunately that's economics nowadays......but again, shoddy build quality isn't acceptable when your paying high figures for a bike.
I think overall the GS range holds it's own, and BMW are mostly good at trying to keep customers happy.
Reliability??.....I did 6,600 miles on a just run in '10 GSA in 4 weeks and it never missed a beat!
The build quality did suffer a few years ago...but BMW have tried to address that recently. But parts are generally of lower quality across the board nowadays (makes, cars, etc) compared to 'years gone by' cos unfortunately that's economics nowadays......but again, shoddy build quality isn't acceptable when your paying high figures for a bike.
I think overall the GS range holds it's own, and BMW are mostly good at trying to keep customers happy.
Reliability??.....I did 6,600 miles on a just run in '10 GSA in 4 weeks and it never missed a beat!
(RIP) Mark H
Formerly known as Easyrider5258 (Mark)
I would suggest you take a look at my post count relating to Triumphs over the years. You will see that it is not a patch on Rashers 1200 gloom and doom posts, or on Johnny Boxers 1200 sniping
Post counts??? Well I could do a little spreadsheet and work it all out, and make a graph, or maybe a nice pie chart, but that would be......what's the word....oh yes....tedious
By the way, have you got the number for Triumph's cuustomer services? I've got a feeling you might know it
skywalker
Guest
The bottom line is they can't be that bad cos you lot still buy them.
It would be a fair point to say when your on the other side of the counter you do see the bad side. HOWEVER there are a lot of folk out there who don't have any issues at all with their bikes.
It would be nice if Mr Rasher occassionally said something positive about BMW ownership. They're an awfull lot of new folk who come on here looking for advice.
Bob's obviously had a bad experience with Triumph and at some point felt at liberty to vent his spleen.
Reading some of his posts I don't see the same repetativness on his Triumph exploits as Rasher seems to do on his. No doubt someone on here will say otherwise.
A bike is a bike when all said and done. BMW's are a popular marque especially with the "GS" range. Other manufacturers have build issues & I bet if you looked at other forums you'd see a similar pattern.
What they don't have is the decent back up provided by BMW when your bike goes wrong outside warranty.
In over 30 years in the motorcycle trade I've yet to see another manufacture provide anything remotely near it.
It would be a fair point to say when your on the other side of the counter you do see the bad side. HOWEVER there are a lot of folk out there who don't have any issues at all with their bikes.
It would be nice if Mr Rasher occassionally said something positive about BMW ownership. They're an awfull lot of new folk who come on here looking for advice.
Bob's obviously had a bad experience with Triumph and at some point felt at liberty to vent his spleen.
Reading some of his posts I don't see the same repetativness on his Triumph exploits as Rasher seems to do on his. No doubt someone on here will say otherwise.
A bike is a bike when all said and done. BMW's are a popular marque especially with the "GS" range. Other manufacturers have build issues & I bet if you looked at other forums you'd see a similar pattern.
What they don't have is the decent back up provided by BMW when your bike goes wrong outside warranty.
In over 30 years in the motorcycle trade I've yet to see another manufacture provide anything remotely near it.
trainman
Registered user
exactly, and at some dealerships they feed off repeat business and sales and after sales/service, the more rural ones would not survive any other way
if you dont know already get the low down on the local dealer, maybe even find the local owners club mtg place if there is one and ask them
if you take the plunge then having a good dealer to hand is one of the big plus's with BMW, but there are clearly some bad ones (or some that have the odd off day, none of them will be perfect) and they do occasionally change hands, for better or for worse!
some of them arrange ride outs, even abroad, it can be as much or as little as you wish to partake of the 'brand'
if you dont know already get the low down on the local dealer, maybe even find the local owners club mtg place if there is one and ask them
if you take the plunge then having a good dealer to hand is one of the big plus's with BMW, but there are clearly some bad ones (or some that have the odd off day, none of them will be perfect) and they do occasionally change hands, for better or for worse!
some of them arrange ride outs, even abroad, it can be as much or as little as you wish to partake of the 'brand'
SpyInTheCamp
Registered user
I had a similar situation to you. Bought a 1200 in 2005 and put 50k miles on it. Various things went wrong while it was in warranty. I didn't renew the warranty, crossed my fingers and by and large it was OK.
Until October 2009 when the gearbox let go. I left it in the garage over the winter and thought about my options. In the end I got a second hand gearbox which a friend fitted last spring. But fpr various reasons in 2010 the bike cost around £2k to keep on the road. Plus it seemed to handle and run poorly.
Bikes are rarely dealt with in a purely rational way. I had a think about what to replace it with and in the end decided that I wanted another 1200 and went for a very low mileage 58 model that the dealer had in their showroom at the start of the year.
So far, so good. It's a great bike and definitely better than my old shagged out 05 bike. But I'll be swallowing my pride and renewing the warranty next year!
Until October 2009 when the gearbox let go. I left it in the garage over the winter and thought about my options. In the end I got a second hand gearbox which a friend fitted last spring. But fpr various reasons in 2010 the bike cost around £2k to keep on the road. Plus it seemed to handle and run poorly.
Bikes are rarely dealt with in a purely rational way. I had a think about what to replace it with and in the end decided that I wanted another 1200 and went for a very low mileage 58 model that the dealer had in their showroom at the start of the year.
So far, so good. It's a great bike and definitely better than my old shagged out 05 bike. But I'll be swallowing my pride and renewing the warranty next year!
I've had a look and by the DIN number is a two headed small arrow which points left and right. Going by what I have since been told by other Guzzi folks it would seem that the headlight adjusts for either side, and replacement is not necessary. This actually confirms something that occurred when I first got the bike, as I noticed at times I was being flashed at night by oncoming road users, when I took the bike in for first service I mentioned this and they said they would check and rectify it. When I collected the bike no mention was made of a replacement unit being fitted and the lights have been OK since.
original_concept
Registered user
IMHO yes, they're pretty much sorted. FPC is still a lottery, also FPC repeat failures can be caused by poor installation of the gasket.
My 2.5 year old GS has just ticked over 71K.. and is on its 3rd FPC, 2nd one failed by the looks of it by a poor install by the roadside guy.
Having said that, now the old girl will have a 'fit' and prove me wrong :-(
GSband
Registered user
Have a look at your rider's manual under 'headlight' :
- the headlight has an assymetrical low beam
- headlight low beam can be adjusted so the beam is ok when riding solo; my guess is this is what your dealer did.
- when loaded with pillion and/or luggage, adjust spring preload to make sure (a.o.) that the low beam is not shining into the trees.
Cheers !
ExpatinIstanbul
Registered user
You seem to be spending a long time convincing yourself you don't want another GS. Here, let me....don't buy another GS, they go wrong and break down a lot.
Buy something else...there's Yamaha, Honda, Moto Guzzi, Ducati, KTM, Triumph (wait for the 12 to see what it's like) all making rufty tufty looking bikes. Check out the JD Power survey to see which one is the most reliable...that'll be the one you want.
Buy something else...there's Yamaha, Honda, Moto Guzzi, Ducati, KTM, Triumph (wait for the 12 to see what it's like) all making rufty tufty looking bikes. Check out the JD Power survey to see which one is the most reliable...that'll be the one you want.
You might want to check the original posting before jumping into what has been a really useful discussion. I wasn’t trying to convince myself of anything. Having had some unexpected and what I thought were unreasonable problems with my first generation GS, I was seeking the expertise and experience of members of this forum by asking two well reasoned questions:
- If I purchased a 1 to 2 year old 1200GS, are the problems pretty much sorted?
- Does the current 1200GS have the reliability of its 1150 predecessor?
Things could be worse of course, I could have experienced these problems in the back and beyond of somewhere like Turkey........
I have an '05 1200GS. I've had various problems with it including the infamous fuel control module and unpredictable electrics. But I love the bike and I've had nothing serious enough to stop me taking it to the US twice and clocking up about 35k miles.
On the other hand, when I was offered an '02 1150GS with less than 10k on the clock for £3k in November, I made a more or less instant decision to sell the 1200GS. There are things that need sorting on the 1150, I'm sure mainly because it has spent the majority of its life in a garage, but I am convinced that it will prove to be a more robust bike and easier to maintain in the long term.
I was planning to take the 1150 to Russia this summer, but delays getting a Certificate of Conformity for French registration mean that I will probably take the 1200 instead ... and then sell it later this year (if anyone is interested!).
I suppose my point was that it depends what sort of riding you do but, IMO, there is nothing like a GS if you're planning on serious mileage.
On the other hand, when I was offered an '02 1150GS with less than 10k on the clock for £3k in November, I made a more or less instant decision to sell the 1200GS. There are things that need sorting on the 1150, I'm sure mainly because it has spent the majority of its life in a garage, but I am convinced that it will prove to be a more robust bike and easier to maintain in the long term.
I was planning to take the 1150 to Russia this summer, but delays getting a Certificate of Conformity for French registration mean that I will probably take the 1200 instead ... and then sell it later this year (if anyone is interested!).
I suppose my point was that it depends what sort of riding you do but, IMO, there is nothing like a GS if you're planning on serious mileage.
