08-22-2013, 04:01 AM
If you are a BMW lover, you may not want to read this. All of this talk about BMW's begs me to chime in. I rode BMW's for almost 40 years. Of course any twin will have more vibration. The smaller displacement BMW's of yesteryear had little vibration. What little they had added character to the machine, IMHO. They were great bikes, the standard of the industry. The opposed twin cancelled vibration and the reliability was excellent.
Jump forward to today. I sold my last two late model BMW's. What a relief to get rid of them. I don't know what happened at BMW, maybe bad management, but they can't build a good motorcycle anymore (have you read the Consumer Reports article a few months ago?). I have one in my garage right now (belongs to a friend) that has 9,500 miles on it. The motor knocks, the trans won't shift, the ABS almost got him killed. A new ABS pump is $2400! The only thing he hasn't had trouble with is the final drive. I know a guy who is on his third one. Give me a chain and sprocket any day. At least they're easy to replace and then it's new again! What a piece of **** (pick the 4 letter word of your choice). I went from one of their most eager supporters to one of pure disgust. I wish I had not sold my last old bike, a 1962 BMW R69S. What a great bike and user friendly too.
When there is something as reliable as a Honda (or any other Japanese bike) available, I wouldn't even THINK about throwing my money away on a late model BMW. JMO
Jump forward to today. I sold my last two late model BMW's. What a relief to get rid of them. I don't know what happened at BMW, maybe bad management, but they can't build a good motorcycle anymore (have you read the Consumer Reports article a few months ago?). I have one in my garage right now (belongs to a friend) that has 9,500 miles on it. The motor knocks, the trans won't shift, the ABS almost got him killed. A new ABS pump is $2400! The only thing he hasn't had trouble with is the final drive. I know a guy who is on his third one. Give me a chain and sprocket any day. At least they're easy to replace and then it's new again! What a piece of **** (pick the 4 letter word of your choice). I went from one of their most eager supporters to one of pure disgust. I wish I had not sold my last old bike, a 1962 BMW R69S. What a great bike and user friendly too.
When there is something as reliable as a Honda (or any other Japanese bike) available, I wouldn't even THINK about throwing my money away on a late model BMW. JMO