2006/2007 Bmw K1200 GT

[Jkern1]

So it really boils down to whether you want to spend an extra $6K for the duolever, servo brakes, BMW fit/finish/panache, more upscale dealers, and a better warranty.  I'd give the reliability nod to the FJR, but I suspect both bikes will be solid.

Better warranty? I thought the BMW had a 3 year/36,000 mile warrantee. That doesn't touch the 5 year unlimited miles of an FJR with a 48 month Y.E.S. (even at retail price for the YES contract).

Don't you have to buy the YES program?

What is the stock Warranty on a FJR?

Also BMW offers a YES type program that extend the warranty for 7 years and unlimited miles.

Just note on the warranty

I bet the extended warranty for BMW's is much higher than yamaha's Y.E.S. :haha:

I would asumme it is more expensive becuase you are getting 84 months of coverage verses 60 Months.

I would asuumes it should cost about 3rd more

 

[markjenn]

So it really boils down to whether you want to spend an extra $6K for the duolever, servo brakes, BMW fit/finish/panache, more upscale dealers, and a better warranty.  I'd give the reliability nod to the FJR, but I suspect both bikes will be solid.

Better warranty? I thought the BMW had a 3 year/36,000 mile warrantee. That doesn't touch the 5 year unlimited miles of an FJR with a 48 month Y.E.S. (even at retail price for the YES contract).

Don't you have to buy the YES program?

What is the stock Warranty on a FJR?

Also BMW offers a YES type program that extend the warranty for 7 years and unlimited miles.

Just note on the warranty

I bet the extended warranty for BMW's is much higher than yamaha's Y.E.S. :haha:

When I said the BMW has a better warranty, I met without going to extended warranties: the std. US warranty for the BMW is 36 months, for the FJR 12. Sure you can extend either at extra cost.

BMW final drives = Yamaha ticking. Both are problems, both generally get fixed at low or no cost to owners, both are overblown by the internet, and both are a royal PITA if it happens to you. Complaining about the other one without acknowledging your own problem is the pot calling the kettle black.

I think either bike would give excellent service and reliability to the vast majority of riders. It wouldn't be a factor in my decision and I'm probably one of the few folks around here who actually owns both a BMW and a FJR.

- Mark

 

[petey]

So it really boils down to whether you want to spend an extra $6K for the duolever, servo brakes, BMW fit/finish/panache, more upscale dealers, and a better warranty.  I'd give the reliability nod to the FJR, but I suspect both bikes will be solid.

Better warranty? I thought the BMW had a 3 year/36,000 mile warrantee. That doesn't touch the 5 year unlimited miles of an FJR with a 48 month Y.E.S. (even at retail price for the YES contract).

Don't you have to buy the YES program?

What is the stock Warranty on a FJR?

Also BMW offers a YES type program that extend the warranty for 7 years and unlimited miles.

Just note on the warranty

I bet the extended warranty for BMW's is much higher than yamaha's Y.E.S. :haha:

I would asumme it is more expensive becuase you are getting 84 months of coverage verses 60 Months.

I would asuumes it should cost about 3rd more

The last extended ( 3 yrs ) warranty I purchased for a BMW-1150GS cost me $950, and that was four years ago. :erm:

 

[Warchild]

BMW final drives = Yamaha ticking. Both are problems

That's kinda like saying two people have medical problems... but that's where the similarities end.

Ticking issues = migraine headache

Final drive failure = death (as in, you're stranded on the side of the road with a dead machine! ) :lol:

 

[markjenn]

BMW final drives = Yamaha ticking. Both are problems

That's kinda like saying two people have medical problems... but that's where the similarities end.

Ticking issues = migraine headache

Final drive failure = death (as in, you're stranded on the side of the road with a dead machine! ) :lol:

This simply isn't true. A wide variety of BMW final drive issues get lumped into the term "final drive failure" and most are relatively benign involving oil leakage from seals, excessive play in the bearings, and other things that while serious, will generally get you home without major issue.

On my R1100S, I had a minor rear seal leak at the beginning of a 6K trip. I monitored the leakage but it never dropped enough to bother topping off. At the end of the trip, it was a fairly minor repair. 30K miles later, no problems.

And except for the catastrophic rear spline failure problem (which is relatively rare) the repairs on BMW final drives are probably an order of magnitude less involved than pulling the head on an FJR engine and replacing valve guides.

Six to one, half dozen to the other in my book.

- Mark

 

[markjenn]

The last extended ( 3 yrs ) warranty I purchased for a BMW-1150GS cost me $950, and that was four years ago. :erm:

Well, you have to shop around just like with the Yamaha. And if you were extending a std. 3-yr BMW warranty to 6-yrs, then you were insuring years 4-6 of the bike's life, rather than yrs 2-4 if you extended a Yamaha's std 1 yr. As a general rule, extended warranties cost more on older bikes.

- Mark

 

[Jkern1]

Lets talk in hypotheticals for a monument. What would the new k1200gt/rt have to be, to get you to change from an FJR? The bike is targeted right at the FJR crowd. Is their no bike that BMW produces from this point forward that you would ever buy. What if this bike handles better, more power, stops faster, more comfortable, but cost 3K more then the FJR. Would you consider Switching? What if the ’06 FJR still have ticking issues would you switch? Does the (perceived/reality) reliability problems with BMW scare you away? These are just some questions I have

:detect: :erm: :eh: :dribble: :haha: :assasin: h34r:

 

[gr8eyes]

You're not working for BMW are you. Good questions all. If it weighed less than the FJR and was a $ 1000.00 or less price differential I may consider it. It would need the same power,braking and handling characteristics too.

Glenn

 

[Randy]

Lets talk in hypotheticals for a monument. What would the new k1200gt/rt have to be, to get you to change from an FJR? The bike is targeted right at the FJR crowd. Is their no bike that BMW produces from this point forward that you would ever buy. What if this bike handles better, more power, stops faster, more comfortable, but cost 3K more then the FJR. Would you consider Switching? What if the ’06 FJR still have ticking issues would you switch? Does the (perceived/reality) reliability problems with BMW scare you away? These are just some questions I have



:detect: :erm: :eh: :dribble: :haha: :assasin: h34r:

Hypothetically, if they made a bike that did all of that better for only $3K more, yes, I would buy it.

The perceived reliability problems of BMW do not scare me.

 

[sparky3008]

I own a fjr but I am still looking for that perfect bike.

To me the fjr doesn't meet many of the things I thought it would and perhaps nothing in this price range will.

I knew going in that I needed a bike with good wind protection. (FJR so-so) even with aftermarket windshield and custom angle (bolts under bracket).

I love all out sport bikes but don't meet above requirement and the weight on my hands would hurt me for sure so I needed an up right position. (FJR is still so-so in this department as I still had to add risers, and the upright position is part of what causes my butt bone pain) With a lean forward position and a lean back position the area of your butt that takes the weight is different and more comfortable.

For me a frequently get up into the 3 digits and for a SPORT-tourer I expected more.

Now I will wait until I get my new tires on for a final judgement but I have owned $1000 motorcycles that didn't shake at all when going 100mph and I expected more from this bike.

I didn't buy this bike for touring so didn't really need the bags and don't have them on most of the time. A tank bag works fine for me.

Handling, well it does handle better than my previous bikes as they were more cruisers but I am pretty confident in saying it doesn't handle like a true sport bike.

This said if this BMW is able to meet many of these above problems for me I would jump on it in a minute. However being that the Yamaha has probably the BEST fuel injection out there I am hesitant to go back to another FI bike. The carburator technology today seems so much smoother and without all the jerking and such you get from FI. The so called smoothness of this engine (Inline 4 mounted directly to the frame) I don't think is all it is cracked up to be. Many of the VTwin sport bikes such as the Suzuki TLR1000 and other VTwin's have great power with out the vibes.

Again if the BMW can meet my issues I would look at it seriously but in the past they couldn't. This bike at first glance seems very promising.

 

[Jkern1]

You're not working for BMW are you. Good questions all. If it weighed less than the FJR and was a $ 1000.00 or less price differential I may consider it. It would need the same power,braking and handling characteristics too.
Glenn

No i do not work for BMW. But i do ride a BMW, but i'm really thinking about a FJR. But the BMW is paid for and i do not have the flow for a new FJR so i will have to wait a while. I'm not a BMW guy, i just buy what i like and what makes me feel like a 10 year old boy the first time i say a playboy.

 

[MCRIDER007]

Lets talk in hypotheticals for a monument.  What would the new k1200gt/rt have to be, to get you to change from an FJR?  The bike is targeted right at the FJR crowd.  Is their no bike that BMW produces from this point forward that you would ever buy.  What if this bike handles better, more power, stops faster, more comfortable, but cost 3K more then the FJR.  Would you consider Switching? 

If the price difference was only 3k I would consider switching except that (1) the closest BMW dealer to me is 135 miles away, (2) I keep hearing stories about having to spend $600-700 to have have a BMW serviced, and (3) last May I camped next to guy who said that he had owned a Honda-Yamaha-BMW dealership for 25 years. He said he sold BMWs because they were profitable but the work he had to do just to make them run properly before they were sold and the warrenty work afterwards was many times greater than the Hondas or Yamahas. He sold the dealership to one of his employees and part of the contract was that he could buy bikes and parts at dealer cost for the rest of his life. He was riding a FJR.

 

[markjenn]

Having owned lots of both BMWs and Japanese bikes, I'd estimate that, across the board, BMWs cost about one-third more to buy and maintain. Most of the horror stories that predict 2x or 3x the maintenance costs are anecdotal or wildly inflated.

For some, that's a deal breaker; for others, it's noise-level stuff. The value judgment is always an indivdual thing.

We don't have official GT pricing yet, but I'll bet this rule of thumb will hold true. The 2006 FJR will list at $13.5K, the GT probably about $19K - about one-third more.

This cost premium for the BMWs is never a deal breaker to me, but it is enough that I need to see something tangible that makes that BMW work the extra. In the case of the R1100S I bought back in 1999, there simply wasn't a competitive Japanese bike. BMW had exactly the formula I wanted: reasonable sportbike comfort, gutsy twin, telelever, factory hard bags, ABS, heated grips, etc. The VFR was close, but was deficient in lots of areas. I got something I couldn't get in a Japanese bike so I ante'd up. It's been a great bike and I will likely keep it forever.

With the FJR vs. GT, I just don't see anything (yet) that puts the GT over the top and justifies that extra third. It's got the duolever but that's about it. Maybe it will handle a whole lot better or have something intangible that makes is much better bike. Anything is possible. But when I hear folks trumpeting that the K1200S is SO MUCH BETTER than an FJR, or hear the phrase "it is the bike the FJR should have been", I just roll my eyes. Cycle World certainly didn't think the K1200S was SO MUCH BETTER than the K1200S when it rated the K bike near last place and the FJR first in an eight bike comparison. And if the K1200S is the bike the FJR should have been, then why did BMW feel they needed to produce a version of it that moves it away from sport and back towards the FJR's sublime mix of sport and touring?

But I'm keeping an open mind.

- Mark

 

[MCRIDER007]

We don't have official GT pricing yet, but I'll bet this rule of thumb will hold true.  The 2006 FJR will list at $13.5K, the GT probably about $19K - about one-third more.

Since I have never bought a BMW I can only repeat what I have heard and that is that the cost out the door for a high demand BMW is probably going to be list price or higher whereas anyone who knows anything about negotiating can get at least $1K off the list price of a FJR.

To keep the numbers simple, lets assume that we are comparing a $12K FJR to a $18K BMW. Does the FJR cost just 33 percent less than the BMW or does the BMW cost 50 percent more than the FJR? Maybe it depends on which dealer you are talking to.

 

[Windjammer]

While the bike in the photo is better looking than most of the recent BMW's, it's still funky looking in my book, although not downright fugly like some of its predecessors. I've just never cared for the BMW body styling, much less the colors they offer. I was willing to try to overlook some of this and test rode the R1150RT, but came away 100% disappointed with its overall performance. In fact, I'd have to come right out and say it sucked.

I have no particular loyalty to Yamaha or any other brand. I just won't pay good money for an ugly motorcycle, especially a spendy one whose overall performance is generally exaggerated, IMO.

 

[Centerline]

My Yami dealer being only 3 miles away is a powerful part of the equation for me. BMW dealer is about 30 miles.

 

[Caba]

When I was looking for a bike I spent time in the BMW shop. 20 minutes looking at the bikes on a slow day and not one person asked how I was, what I wanted or even seemed interested in talking to me.

If I can't get their attention to take my money, how are they going to be at taking care of a problem.

I would own a BMW, but not here with this dealership to deal with!

 

[ock913]

While the bike in the photo is better looking than most of the recent BMW's, it's still funky looking in my book, although not downright fugly

I gotta agree. The side fairing panels just look to big to me. If it had some cut-outs or something perhaps that would break it up, but something about it just doesn't look right to me.

 

[Jkern1]

Here it is

https://www.bmwhp.org/content.asp?ID=1064&CLASS=NEWS#

 

[charismaticmegafauna]

We don't have official GT pricing yet, but I'll bet this rule of thumb will hold true. The 2006 FJR will list at $13.5K, the GT probably about $19K - about one-third more.

Way back in the '60s I bought a new m/c and the BMW I wanted (R69S) was about 30% more than the British iron I was looking at. I bought the Brit-bike. BMWs have always been -- just beyond my reach.

When a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience gets the money and the man with money gets the experience.