08-09-2013, 11:35 PM
Well, despite my personal bad experience with BMW, there's no denying that just about all of their boxer twins (GS1200, etc) are thoroughly great bikes. There's just too much evidence to support that to say anything to the contrary. They're simple, durable, easy to work on, and will gladly take their owners 100,000 miles or more with just routine maintenance. It's easy to see why these are clearly BMW's trademark bike.
My F800ST had a vertical/parallel twin, built by an Austrian company called Rotax. BMW supplied everything else.
The best I can guess is that these two units were combined and rushed into production, without suitable time to work out the bugs (instead, they let the consumers do that). Sure, I can understand any new bike needing minor tweaks, but to have the pistons begin slapping the head on every single upstroke? That get's old quick!
A new bike should not have those kind of problems...and if they do, the company should own up to it and make it right. BMW was too proud for that.
My F800ST had a vertical/parallel twin, built by an Austrian company called Rotax. BMW supplied everything else.
The best I can guess is that these two units were combined and rushed into production, without suitable time to work out the bugs (instead, they let the consumers do that). Sure, I can understand any new bike needing minor tweaks, but to have the pistons begin slapping the head on every single upstroke? That get's old quick!
A new bike should not have those kind of problems...and if they do, the company should own up to it and make it right. BMW was too proud for that.