BMW rider thinking of returning to Honda

[Riko_imp]

My personal, unscientific theory is that the final drives are fine if you are a skinny German guy riding to Austria. But if you are a typical (large) American with a three week supply of clothes in your side bags and tail bag with a 6 liter tank bag and camping gear strapped to the rear seat, all of that weight goes beyond the design specs and the drives go TU.

Me personally, I've never had an issue with the BMW FD units, but then I weigh less than a hummingbird and rarely carry a bunch of stuff, and I've usually flipped the bikes before they got too many miles on them anyway.

Ah, I was going to post something, but I misread your comment. I agree that the shaft drives are probably more fragile than chains, however, they offer some advantages: they're sealed against weather and their maintenance interval is a lot higher. BMW has shaft drive on their K1600 which is a 700+lbs bike with 125+lbs/ft torque. I haven't heard much, if any, on shaft drive failures on that bike.

Ah, I was going to post something, but I misread your comment. I agree that the shaft drives are probably more fragile than chains, however, they offer some advantages: they're sealed against weather and their maintenance interval is a lot higher. BMW has shaft drive on their K1600 which is a 700+lbs bike with 125+lbs/ft torque. I haven't heard much, if any, on shaft drive failures on that bike.
true but you should search "the net" about all the other issues this bike is (in)famous for....

a google search with the word combination of the designation name of BMW's flagship, with the words problem or issue delivers a bit too much results

I've been on the K1600 forum since the bike came out. The major problems are/were: clunky transmission (no fix and never acknowledged, however, 2014+ bikes have much better transmissions according to owners), handlebar switches which was addressed, and the weird pull left some bikes exhibit. IMO, there aren't really that many problems at all with the bike. I test rode a 2012, clunky transmission and all, and thought it was fine. Not the best tranny I ever rode, but not the worst, either.

I've been on the K1600 forum since the bike came out. The major problems are/were: clunky transmission (no fix and never acknowledged, however, 2014+ bikes have much better transmissions according to owners), handlebar switches which was addressed, and the weird pull left some bikes exhibit. IMO, there aren't really that many problems at all with the bike. I test rode a 2012, clunky transmission and all, and thought it was fine. Not the best tranny I ever rode, but not the worst, either.
You left out two of the biggest problems with the K1600-

The water pumps that failed so often on so many of those early bikes that riders were reduced to carrying a spare pump along when their K16 was actually rideable.

And the bikes that would suddenly and without warning shut off, even if you were in the left lane of an interstate. Very unsafe. I don't think this problem was ever acknowledged by BMW.

And those handlebar switches! Some people had theirs replaced TEN TIMES OR MORE before BMW was able to engineer a better replacement. And that was an issue on multiple models not just the K16. Mine failed on my R1200RT. And for a while the actual advice given to us by the BMW techs was to go get a bag of ice and place that on the switch to cool it down and you should be able to start the bike! Or, if you weren't near a store the advice was to carry a can of compressed air to shoot over the switch in an attempt to cool it!

The $4,100 clutch jobs and the $2,000 final drive jobs were the reason I ran away from BMW and back to Honda after almost 15years and 10 bikes. I didn't even keep the one that I won in their Superstakes. For me, there was too much to worry about while out riding.

I've read this is actually caused by those faulty handle bar switches, the right one I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRYFi9ebU8w