11-05-2013, 05:39 PM
I am German, and nonetheless I must admit that I prefer Honda. 
All what I hear (I have lots of colleagues and friends riding a BMW) and read on the Internet is that BMW has some quality issues ... sometimes. Sometimes things get fixed free of charge (gesture of goodwill), but "good service, good coffee" is not what I want. I want a good bike. E.g. google for "Honda Transalp" (this is the bike I had before my CB 1100) and "BMW F800GS" and look for typical failures and typical weaknesses. You will find a lot for BMW (e.g. engine, gear box) but nearly none for the Transalp (and then it is something simple like the spark plug).
And if something is broken, spare part prices of BMW and hourly wage of the service team is (in Germany) quite high compared to Honda (and Honda is known here to be one of the most expensive "Japanese").
All what I hear (I have lots of colleagues and friends riding a BMW) and read on the Internet is that BMW has some quality issues ... sometimes. Sometimes things get fixed free of charge (gesture of goodwill), but "good service, good coffee" is not what I want. I want a good bike. E.g. google for "Honda Transalp" (this is the bike I had before my CB 1100) and "BMW F800GS" and look for typical failures and typical weaknesses. You will find a lot for BMW (e.g. engine, gear box) but nearly none for the Transalp (and then it is something simple like the spark plug).And if something is broken, spare part prices of BMW and hourly wage of the service team is (in Germany) quite high compared to Honda (and Honda is known here to be one of the most expensive "Japanese").