what am i reading ?

[fizzer]

only a few weeks ago i bought my gs12,and apart from a few little niggles its been brilliant,but as i read all the threads on this website about reliability i am getting increasingly worried about if i have bought the right bike ,i was led to beleive that the gs was a go anywhere without trouble bike ,and yet all i seam to read about is reliability issues .
now yes i have come from jap bike background ,and to be honest on the whole ,they have served me well ,value and reliability .
but what am i reading all the time about big items failing on the gs,is it just the fact that people like to tell us all about there breakdowns ,and no mention of the many bikes with huge milage and no issues at all.
are all these big breakdowns down to folk thrashing the bits of them off road or do they really breakdown under normal circumstanses.
not to mention anyone reading the threads on here before they buy a gs being put off for good.
thanks

 

[Deleted account 211025001]

They are crap - sell it quick before you are left stranded in Tesco's car park and up to your neck in debt.

Andres

 

[ianran]

only a few weeks ago i bought my gs12,and apart from a few little niggles its been brilliant,but as i read all the threads on this website about reliability i am getting increasingly worried about if i have bought the right bike ,i was led to beleive that the gs was a go anywhere without trouble bike ,and yet all i seam to read about is reliability issues .
now yes i have come from jap bike background ,and to be honest on the whole ,they have served me well ,value and reliability .
but what am i reading all the time about big items failing on the gs,is it just the fact that people like to tell us all about there breakdowns ,and no mention of the many bikes with huge milage and no issues at all.
are all these big breakdowns down to folk thrashing the bits of them off road or do they really breakdown under normal circumstanses.
not to mention anyone reading the threads on here before they buy a gs being put off for good.
thanks

Look at how many are sold, look at the amount of complaints, relax and enjoy!!! If youv'e got it with BMW warranty, assuming you are polite to your dealer, in the event of a problem, you are being serviced by the best warranty in biking.!

If you look at the identity of most the moaners they are a select band, some with valid issues but, perchance, the attitude that doesnt encourage good customer service.
Ive had a few issues in ownership and have a had a bike replaced in full. BUT bare in mind, this bike was almost a year old with 12K on the clock. Not many other manufacturers would do that!

 

[sidestand]

Trouble with bike forums is everyone posts about the bad bits - it's not very interesting telling everyone you've had yor bike for X number of years & done Y miles without anything going wrong, so you don't hear about it

Just look at the Fuel Pump controller sticky - 410 failures so far - admittedly there will be a lot more than registered on here, but thousands of bikes a year are registered in the UK.

Anyway, I've had my GSA almost a year & 5000 miles now & nowt's gone wrong with it

And before everyone posts up that's lightweight mileage, I've had 3 months off the bike with broken ankle this year & I've got several other bikes to play with - so I've done nearly 13000 miles on me bikes this year

 

[(RIP) DitchWater]

not to mention anyone reading the threads on here before they buy a gs being put off for good.
thanks

I was reading here and researched the GS model range before I put my money down. That's why I ended up with an 1150.

 

[theoneandonly]

sell it quick!

i'll do you a favour....and take it off your hands for.......£3k that i have burning a hole in my pocket ! how does that sound ? delivered of course ....and i will take you back to the train station afterwards. can't say fairer than that !

 

[MIKE R]

I was reading here and researched the GS model range before I put my money down. That's why I ended up with an 1150.

Every bike has it's Achilles Heel.

My ultra reliable 1150GS has now completed 52k but has needed the final drive bearing replacing twice.........36k and 43k. When the second went BMW blamed the (independent) mechanic for not shimming it correctly and the mechanic blamed a faulty bearing.

In about the same mileage 1200s ( admittedly 4 different ones......2 standard and 2 GSAs) I've been let down once with a fuel pump thingy.

Interestingly my last Jap bike was an FJR. In 12 months ownership and 9k I had the suspension linkage replaced (corrosion), fork leg (spot weld problem) and faulty battery.

You pays yer money etc

 

[David Nimrod]

They are crap - sell it quick before you are left stranded in Tesco's car park and up to your neck in debt.

Who said anything about it getting as far as Tesco's..?

 

[Pip_UK]

Hi Fizzer, have a look at the Trip Reports section, in the interests of balance about the GS ownership experience.

Personally I'm more worried these days about being pulped by a yummy mummy in a 4x4 than my GS breaking down.

 

[Little le800GS]

Go and part ex it against a Yamaha supertenere
just look at Nick Sanders trip 50,000 miles in a couple of months not a problem
friends just had a gearbox go on his 1200 at low miles costing a fortune to repair

 

[Rasher]

Best to keep up the warranty IMO

Bought a 2 year old bike with 6k on a year ago and had about a grands worth of work done in the first twelve months (8k)

The fork seals were replaced two months back and I have just noticed they are leaking again - at £400 a time! Even "little" jobs can cost a lot so I renewed the warranty.

Much as I love riding the GS I think it will be replaced with a Jap bike again within the next twelve months, probably a Tenere, but gonna wait and see what the new Honda is like before deciding for sure.

I find too many big ticket items fail more often than they should, and lots of smaller common faults combined with expensive labour and parts cost mean I can't see a GS being either as reliable or anywhere near as cheap to run as a Jap machine (or even an Italian / British one)

 

[(RIP) Johno23]

Go and part ex it against a Yamaha supertenere
just look at Nick Sanders trip 50,000 miles in a couple of months not a problem
friends just had a gearbox go on his 1200 at low miles costing a fortune to repair

This is a really stupid comment

ONE bike has done 50k apparently so it must now be better than the GS which despite being now 3K more (because Yamaha have dropped the price massively as they can't give em away) outsells the Yamaha 5 to 1. What Bollox

The GS is a great bike.As with anything mechanical you can get problems.I've personally had more probs with Jap bikes but have done more miles on the BM.

Enjoy your new purchase you'll love it!!

 

[Beemerman59]

Best to keep up the warranty IMO

Bought a 2 year old bike with 6k on a year ago and had about a grands worth of work done in the first twelve months (8k)

The fork seals were replaced two months back and I have just noticed they are leaking again - at £400 a time! Even "little" jobs can cost a lot so I renewed the warranty.

Much as I love riding the GS I think it will be replaced with a Jap bike again within the next twelve months, probably a Tenere, but gonna wait and see what the new Honda is like before deciding for sure.

I find too many big ticket items fail more often than they should, and lots of smaller common faults combined with expensive labour and parts cost mean I can't see a GS being either as reliable or anywhere near as cheap to run as a Jap machine (or even an Italian / British one)

Everyone has a story to tell and nothing will change their views on this and thats perhaps the way it should be.

I bought my GSA second hand off this forum at 11 months/2,200 miles old. I had the same concerns about reliability when I started to read all the gloom & doom off this site. The bike is 3.5 years old and 26K miles now. Other than consumables/servicing it has cost me the princely sum of nothing in the two and a half years of ownership. I forgot worrying a long time ago. I never took out extended warranty and do my own service work which on the 1200 is simplicity itself and cheap to do.

Make your own mind up based upon your own history and not anyone elses.

 

[mrsroynie]

only a few weeks ago i bought my gs12,and apart from a few little niggles its been brilliant,but as i read all the threads on this website about reliability i am getting increasingly worried about if i have bought the right bike ,i was led to beleive that the gs was a go anywhere without trouble bike ,and yet all i seam to read about is reliability issues .
now yes i have come from jap bike background ,and to be honest on the whole ,they have served me well ,value and reliability .
but what am i reading all the time about big items failing on the gs,is it just the fact that people like to tell us all about there breakdowns ,and no mention of the many bikes with huge milage and no issues at all.
are all these big breakdowns down to folk thrashing the bits of them off road or do they really breakdown under normal circumstanses.
not to mention anyone reading the threads on here before they buy a gs being put off for good.
thanks

If all people cared about was reliability when they bought a bike, Harley Davidson would have gone out of business long ago.

What attracted you to the 1200GS in the first place? I bought mine in 05 for a trip to Alaska. I was px'ing an F650GS and had in mind to get an 1150GSA. Vines pointed me towards the new 1200 model as I didn't feel comfortable at the idea of riding off-road on something as tall or heavy as the GSA.

I had a fuel pump controller failure too, but hasn't stopped me taking the 1200 to the US twice (incl Alaska) and to Russia.

Enjoy riding your new 1200. Don't waste time worrying about what might or might not go wrong with it. If you don't enjoy riding it, sell it. Simples.

 

[mcinlb]

Forums, great eh, my mate had a KLE500 years back and he started reading the forum on that bike. Doom and gloom in abundance, asked the kawa mechanic about the bike when it was in getting serviced, mechanic said " great bikes, never get any back in" ....
I bought my first BM, a 1200GS last year, best bike I've had, aware of all the 'issues' mentioned, but would not change it based on forum train wrecks.

 

[fizzer]

thanks guys for your honest replys ,as i bought it from a dealer i did get the parts and labour warrantee.
its a 05 plate with 8000 miles on and is as good as new .
but thanks anyway for your replys ,
i am the kinda person one i have made my mind up about buying a bike i will stick with it through thick and thin ,hopfully this ones going to be fine.
oh and how on earth did you know only a mile away

 

[Bikerjim]

Had a selection of bikes over the years and the GS was the most trouble free.

Yes its final drive was repaced under warranty but done in a day.

Yep the front corroded but its a bike which is used all year round.

Yep battery went dead in the coldest winter for 125 years

My Suzuki lasted 18 months and cost more to service (service intervals every 4k not 6k) It went through 2 chains and i was advised to sell it as the front rocker cover had corrdoded the bolts into the head

My Aprilla had numerous trouble but the main problem is the parts are not avalible for months at a time.

My last GS was sold with almost 30k on the clock which i had done 24k and only had two problems.

Enjoy your new bike

Jim

 

[Farmer Palmer]

GS.....They're rubbish mate!

I wouldn't worry too much about what you read on here.......!

These bikes are everywhere and the majority of owners ride many thousands of trouble free miles and if they have a problem get it sorted without drama or crisis.

I'm not saying you won't have any problems with your GS but I think you sometimes get an 'unbalanced' view about these bikes on owners forums 'No news is good news' doesn't make very interesting reading and my repair bill was bigger than yours etc,etc.

Doom and gloom in abundance about somes it up sometimes and yet it can be a great 'place' full of fantastic information and friendly folk with helpful advice and good humour.......!

It could be worse.......You could have bought a Landrover Defender or a VW Golf!

Ride your bike and enjoy it......

FP.

 

[slydog]

problems

all bikes have issues and if you trawl the internet and take it all in you would end up taking the bus . i love my gsa only had it 6 months but covered 7k on it trouble free . if it breaks il fix it simple . its nice to have a bike wich is so easy to work on . just ride it and enjoy it fella its a great bike

 

[Sgt Bilco]

The fork seals were replaced two months back and I have just noticed they are leaking again - at £400 a time! Even "little" jobs can cost a lot so I renewed the warranty.

Rasher me old mucker, where the feck are you going to have to pay £400 for fork seals

10 minute job mate and seals are around a tenner a go