1200GSA maintainence costs?
- Thread starter tomesd
- Start date
WU7X
Snow on the Roof
If you can afford the bike,
you probably can afford the maintenance costs :coffeedrink:
Actually, you can do a lot of the basic maintenance stuff yourself. I'd go back to the dealer for work until the warranty expired, then start wrenching on my own. You can go to the BMWMOA website and find all kinds of help there.
you probably can afford the maintenance costs :coffeedrink:
Actually, you can do a lot of the basic maintenance stuff yourself. I'd go back to the dealer for work until the warranty expired, then start wrenching on my own. You can go to the BMWMOA website and find all kinds of help there.
Makes sense and thanks for your input. I guess more of what I was inquiring about is the 1200gsa's dependability. I haven't read about any nickel and dime stuff going wrong with them- is this the consensus?
WU7X
Snow on the Roof
Heavy pigs
personally, I wish that Yamaha would have brought over the very successful, and highly rated Tenare it sells worldwide - except here! their Super Tenare is just too big for most of us.
In my mind both the Super Tenare and GSA are heavy pigs. One thing I have read from many expeditioners is that one thing they would change on their trips to foreign countries is to go from big, heavy bikes to smaller, lighter ones.
I have a R1150RT sport tourer. I have a lot of friends with 1150GS, 1150gsa, 1200gs, and 1200gsa's. They are all great bikes; wonderfully comfortable, but are heavy pigs. I can't imagine taking any of them around the world. I'm not Ewan McGregor so don't have the luxury of having two 4WD chase vehicles following me around.
That said, if you really want that big of a bike, the GSA is an incredible piece of kit. BWM can support it worldwide. It also has a pretty good track record.
I'd be hesitant to buy anything in it's first year on sale here in the states. If you really want the Super Tenare, why not give it a year or two to prove itself?
personally, I wish that Yamaha would have brought over the very successful, and highly rated Tenare it sells worldwide - except here! their Super Tenare is just too big for most of us.
In my mind both the Super Tenare and GSA are heavy pigs. One thing I have read from many expeditioners is that one thing they would change on their trips to foreign countries is to go from big, heavy bikes to smaller, lighter ones.
I have a R1150RT sport tourer. I have a lot of friends with 1150GS, 1150gsa, 1200gs, and 1200gsa's. They are all great bikes; wonderfully comfortable, but are heavy pigs. I can't imagine taking any of them around the world. I'm not Ewan McGregor so don't have the luxury of having two 4WD chase vehicles following me around.
That said, if you really want that big of a bike, the GSA is an incredible piece of kit. BWM can support it worldwide. It also has a pretty good track record.
I'd be hesitant to buy anything in it's first year on sale here in the states. If you really want the Super Tenare, why not give it a year or two to prove itself?
wesel123
Explorer
How about we all stick to the OP's question...not throw in opinions.
The maintenance it higher than most bikes, but your intervals are further apart. For example the big Yamaha motor suggests oil change every 3000 where on the beemers is every 6000, it doesn't quite average out but its close.
I've had two 1200's, and 1100 and now have an 1150 GSA. You need to break it down by service intervals. Every 6000 is the recommended, but like mentioned before you can do the "minor" service yourself. The "Major" is a little more tricky because you need to re-sync the throttle bodies. But all in all changing the major fluids take about an hour, that's oil, tanny oil and final drive oil.
And to be honest even at the major services if the plugs look good I wont change them just because the book says to. The only thing I would be super anal about it the final drive, if I remember its only 500mL, which is SUPER cheap insurance if you do it every oil change.
The maintenance it higher than most bikes, but your intervals are further apart. For example the big Yamaha motor suggests oil change every 3000 where on the beemers is every 6000, it doesn't quite average out but its close.
I've had two 1200's, and 1100 and now have an 1150 GSA. You need to break it down by service intervals. Every 6000 is the recommended, but like mentioned before you can do the "minor" service yourself. The "Major" is a little more tricky because you need to re-sync the throttle bodies. But all in all changing the major fluids take about an hour, that's oil, tanny oil and final drive oil.
And to be honest even at the major services if the plugs look good I wont change them just because the book says to. The only thing I would be super anal about it the final drive, if I remember its only 500mL, which is SUPER cheap insurance if you do it every oil change.
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Need For Speed
Supporting Sponsor
I Bought a new 2007 GSA and have never been back to the dealer. oil changes, final drive change, valves, TB sync all done in the garage.
check advrider.com in the Gspot section for a maint dvd and ride the thing for what it is....
check advrider.com in the Gspot section for a maint dvd and ride the thing for what it is....
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i ride a 2009 GSA i bought from a dealer with a factory warentee and an additional aftermarket one for 8 years full coverage, that protects me for issues like final drive, a known problem with SOME of these, i can do the simple maintenance like valve adjusts & oil changes but will use the dealer or in my case a reputable local BMW mechanic that can stamp my book and verify his work in case of an trouble. when i service the bike at 6000 mi intervals i usually need tires and between the two it's been around a grand each time..by the way i bought this bike as a treat to myself after years of riding bikes i can actually afford...like a KLR...i rode that one up to the arctic circle and it never failed me...but the big beemer is a machine like nothing else. on a 2 week through Utah last spring i was able to ride slickrock and had some get offs..and in the wide open Nevada desert 90+ was smooth as buddah...at your size it will feel great..your nearest dealer will let you testdrive one...so i say DO IT! :victory:
Thanks for the input buddy! That's what I was looking for!
stay away from bmw
take it any way you want! i have been working on motorcycles of all kinds ever since i was a teenager,i am a journeyman machinists and a certified motorcycle mechanic.i do not recall seing a bike so expensive that requires so much tinkering and maintenance,than a bmw ,any bike with so much torque on the back wheel should be double whishboned in the back, i do not no what the bmw engineers where smokin the day they invented the single swing arm suspension.,but they just cannot handle the punishment that a bike with so much power can dish out off-road .they are weak alloy metaled and the oil seals on them are just poor quality .to much money$$ to dish out for a bmw logo brand!stay the f$##$# away from them my two cents worth!!:victory:
take it any way you want! i have been working on motorcycles of all kinds ever since i was a teenager,i am a journeyman machinists and a certified motorcycle mechanic.i do not recall seing a bike so expensive that requires so much tinkering and maintenance,than a bmw ,any bike with so much torque on the back wheel should be double whishboned in the back, i do not no what the bmw engineers where smokin the day they invented the single swing arm suspension.,but they just cannot handle the punishment that a bike with so much power can dish out off-road .they are weak alloy metaled and the oil seals on them are just poor quality .to much money$$ to dish out for a bmw logo brand!stay the f$##$# away from them my two cents worth!!:victory:
trailsurfer
Explorer
Thousands of miles on a GSA/1200. Abused on and off road, and not one failure of any kind, unless you count the battery going dead once!
i figured to comment again on this....i have had some problems with my GSA..it has been out of service 2 times in the first year i had it...but both times the dealer fixed all that was wrong under warrentee costing me nothing but transport time there & back, parts from Germany had the bike down for several weeks each time...so BMW made my monthly payment for me...twice, is there another bike co out there that would have this level of customer support? not that iv'e heard of..sure it's over engineered but once you ride one just try and be as happy on something else...for me...not a chance..it's expensive, it's a machine, i ****in' love it:bike_rider: