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good luck on the BMW-I have a R1150RTP oil head with 73,000 on it that runs excellent beemers are good bikes (the final drive problem on some bikes is over stated) the rt doesnt have the FJR power but its close and does some things better-I sold my FJR but plan on buying another one soon and will stay on the forum to stay current on the FJR and model changes for what its worth my 08 sportster 1200R with 800 miles is for sale nice to look at and seems to be well made but not much of a road bike.

good luck on the BMW-I have a R1150RTP oil head with 73,000 on it that runs excellent beemers are good bikes (the final drive problem on some bikes is over stated) the rt doesnt have the FJR power but its close and does some things better-I sold my FJR but plan on buying another one soon and will stay on the forum to stay current on the FJR and model changes for what its worth my 08 sportster 1200R with 800 miles is for sale nice to look at and seems to be well made but not much of a road bike.

good luck on the BMW-I have a R1150RTP oil head with 73,000 on it that runs excellent beemers are good bikes (the final drive problem on some bikes is over stated) the rt doesnt have the FJR power but its close and does some things better-I sold my FJR but plan on buying another one soon and will stay on the forum to stay current on the FJR and model changes for what its worth my 08 sportster 1200R with 800 miles is for sale nice to look at and seems to be well made but not much of a road bike.

good luck on the BMW-I have a R1150RTP oil head with 73,000 on it that runs excellent beemers are good bikes (the final drive problem on some bikes is over stated) the rt doesnt have the FJR power but its close and does some things better-I sold my FJR but plan on buying another one soon and will stay on the forum to stay current on the FJR and model changes for what its worth my 08 sportster 1200R with 800 miles is for sale nice to look at and seems to be well made but not much of a road bike.

 
good luck on the BMW-I have a R1150RTP oil head with 73,000 on it that runs excellent beemers are good bikes (the final drive problem on some bikes is over stated) ...
The final drive failure problem is not overstated. I sincerely hope you never learn about it, the hard way - I know two people who did. Me, I was lucky; it only cost me money. I know someone who paid with 4 months in ICU and rehab; another who paid with his fiancee.

Don't ride Broken Motor Works. Life is short enough, as it is.

 
good luck on the BMW-I have a R1150RTP oil head with 73,000 on it that runs excellent beemers are good bikes (the final drive problem on some bikes is over stated) ...
The final drive failure problem is not overstated. I sincerely hope you never learn about it, the hard way - I know two people who did. Me, I was lucky; it only cost me money. I know someone who paid with 4 months in ICU and rehab; another who paid with his fiancee.

Don't ride Broken Motor Works. Life is short enough, as it is.
Would you mind expounding on this a bit?

I mean, do you know these two people personally? Or are they people that you "know of", kinda like we know each other through this forum. Also which specific models were these two friends riding? Any other pertinent circumstances?

I am genuinely asking as I have a weak spot for the K1200RS and would some day like to pick up a used copy to add to the stable.

With the number of BMWs out there it seems there would be more of an uproar if people were actually getting hurt due to frequent mechanical failures. I owned a '94 R1100RS and was a BMWMOA frequenter, and never heard the horror stories until I came to the other-brand sport touring boards (here and ST.N).

 
good luck on the BMW-I have a R1150RTP oil head with 73,000 on it that runs excellent beemers are good bikes (the final drive problem on some bikes is over stated) ...
The final drive failure problem is not overstated. I sincerely hope you never learn about it, the hard way - I know two people who did. Me, I was lucky; it only cost me money. I know someone who paid with 4 months in ICU and rehab; another who paid with his fiancee.

Don't ride Broken Motor Works. Life is short enough, as it is.
Would you mind expounding on this a bit?

I mean, do you know these two people personally? Or are they people that you "know of", kinda like we know each other through this forum. Also which specific models were these two friends riding? Any other pertinent circumstances?

I am genuinely asking as I have a weak spot for the K1200RS and would some day like to pick up a used copy to add to the stable.

With the number of BMWs out there it seems there would be more of an uproar if people were actually getting hurt due to frequent mechanical failures. I owned a '94 R1100RS and was a BMWMOA frequenter, and never heard the horror stories until I came to the other-brand sport touring boards (here and ST.N).
Gunny that!! I would like add an Adventure GS to the stable someday. You can't beat that 8+ gallon gas tank.

 
JRO: I'm with FredW and CHRIS_D regarding your post, could we please have more specific details regarding a breakdown.

My 1996 R1100GS has 111,000 miles on it with no final drive failures occurring, even though I did have a clutch start to fail at 48,000 miles while riding offroad in Mexico, but it got me back home to Arizona where Iron Horse BMW replaced it.

My 2005 R1150RT has 33,000 miles and not a hint of a final drive failure. I am the Director of AZ Beemers, a 160 member BMW Club here in Phoenix and not a single member of our club has had a final drive failure. But we are interested in this.

Dale "Warchild" Wilson, Matt "Ignacio" Watson, and Greg "SkooterG" Marbach were firsthand witnesses of the failure of Iron Butt Rally 'Yankee Beemer' Club Member Rob Nye's R1200RTP final drive. We in the BMW community want to know as much as we can about this problem! What bearing count final drives did you and these others have? The 17 or a 19 count?

Can you provide more real facts on the other events? I find it very hard to believe that the death of a woman passenger due to a final drive failure did not make any of the BMW forums or our FJR Forum! I mean, besides being motorcycle nuts, we BMW and FJR owner/riders can talk the ears off of a basset hound! No written report of a death from BMW final drive?!

 
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Can you provide more real facts on the other events? I find it very hard to believe that the death of a woman passenger due to a final drive failure did not make any of the BMW forums or our FJR Forum! I mean, besides being motorcycle nuts, we BMW and FJR owner/riders can talk the ears off of a basset hound! No written report of a death from BMW final drive?!
I must have missed that class action notice in the mail that I'm sure must have come through by now...

 
https://bmwfinaldrive.com/fd_failure_list.php FredW and CHRIS_D: Since you are perhaps interested in a future BMW purchase, here is the website maintained by concerned BMW owners regarding the final drive failures. There have been 74 reports filed. However, there have not been that many failures, just reports leading up to failures. But, even if there are only 50 real failures, this is totally unacceptable. But it is not the catastrophic failure rate that has been portrayed by others!

And if there was ever a forum where a death of passenger would be told, it would certainly be at www.bmwfinaldrive.com

 
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the rt oil heads are the number 1 selling police bike in the world do a search on the police forums for final drive failures and you will find it to be a non issue-do a search on the chp motor cop forums and you will find it to be a non issue these police bikes rack up a lot of miles under extreme duty and high speed the worlds police departments would not be using said bike if they were prone to failure and dumping their officers when they failed

 
BMW Reports Record Sales for BMW Motorcycles in 2007

January 31, 2008 - BMW Motorcycles succeeded in recording a new sales volume record in 2007. After surpassing the 100,000 mark for the first time in the previous year, the motorcycles segment continued to grow and recorded a sales volume of 102,467 units in 2007, which is +2.4% greater than the 2006 sales total of 100,064 units.

 
I personally have a friend that had the problem with the sport 1150 (I don't know these bikes well). Can't remember if it was $3k or $5k to fix - no warranty coverage. Jim was not happy. And one other person in our club had the same problem, but I cannot recall who it was. Haven't been going to meetings for the past two years. I personally know another two riders with RTs and they have not had problems. This is in the San Diego area. If only 50 bikes had the problem, I'm surprised.

I don't see Jim Branch or anyone else from San Diego on that list of 74 names.

 
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I personally have a friend that had the problem with the sport 1150 (I don't know these bikes well). Can't remember if it was $3k or $5k to fix - no warranty coverage. Jim was not happy. And one other person in our club had the same problem, but I cannot recall who it was. Haven't been going to meetings for the past two years. I personally know another two riders with RTs and they have not had problems. This is in the San Diego area. If only 50 bikes had the problem, I'm surprised.
I don't see Jim Branch or anyone else from San Diego on that list of 74 names.
https://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthread.php...0943#post320943 amansker: Say Hello to Jim Branch, Fulton Martin, John Hermann and other members of the BMW San Diego Club for me: Don Stanley. They always come over to our Road Runner Rally in Heber, Arizona the third weekend in May and we always ride over for their Fiesta and Oktoberfest Rallies.

I really do wish, as do other BMW loyalists, that I indeed knew the total amount of BMW final drive failures. I monitor Jim Puckett's list with its 50 documented failures because Jim rides same Boxer twins as I do, Type 259 Oilheads; 1994 to now.

This has been a constant topic at www.bmwmoa.org with lots of posts regarding failures. Link above is to a R850R drive.

I know there has been K bike final drive failures, but since I've never owned a K, only twins, I haven't checked out the K's.

https://bmwsporttouring.com/ubbthreads/show.../fpart/all/vc/1

 
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If only 50 bikes had the problem, I'm surprised.

There are more than 50 bikes! The K1200LT forum has a poll running on what componant of the FD failed.

There are 110 failures listed to this point. https://www.bmwlt.com/forums/poll.php?do=sh...s&pollid=82

That's just one model...and just on one forum. So...there has got to be many more from folks NOT on that

forum. And on other models. I know of one not listed myself...when I was once at my local BMW dealer and

a K1200LT was trailered in with a bad final drive. I asked them if they belonged to the forum and they said they

had never heard of it and weren't interested.

There are 15,000 members over on that forum...and I'd figure there are about 10,000 LTs represented. We determined LT FDs failed

at about 4%. That alone just on the forum is around 400 failures. Who knows how close to reality that is...but it is certainly a lot more

than the earlier assumed 50.

 
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If only 50 bikes had the problem, I'm surprised.
There are 15,000 members over on that forum...and I'd figure there are about 10,000 LTs represented. We determined LT FDs failed

at about 4%. That alone just on the forum is around 400 failures. Who knows how close to reality that is...but it is certainly a lot more

than the earlier assumed 50.
Problem with that line of argument is that people who have the failure are a lot more likely to research it on the Web and to end up on an online discussion board. Those that never have a problem are happy riding around the country.

 
Hey, that's better than Classmates.com!!!

I just found an old buddy in NC that had FD failure on his Beemer!

Small world! Think I'll call him up and see if he wants to go ride.

:)
JeffAshe: That's Great! It's amazing what a small world the motorcycling fraternity revolves around. When we FJR's were discussing Ride To Alaska thread a few months ago, the name of Jim Schultz of Texas came up. Jim and I had ridden to San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato State in Mexico. Thanks to this forum Jim and I reconnected; going to Gualalajara in October!

 
GREAT VIDEO, looked at a BMW, they wouldn't let me test ride one and I've been riding over 20 years, looked at an FJR, asked to test ride it, they gave me the keys and said see you in a few hours, rode it all day then bought my 07 from a great dealership for a good price

 
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