final drive failures

[Acpantera]

Anybody hear of any on the R1200R, I had the lube changed at the 600 mile service, but I have heard of failures on many RT and GS hex heads. Think it's an issue with our bikes? (Just a little paranoid I guess.)

[deilenberger]

I've seen no reported Roadster failures.. but that doesn't mean there won't be any reported. The design is no different than other Hexhead drives.

FWIW - to me - it's a non-issue. No one has been able to show it occuring on more than a few percent of the bikes, and I think an accurate count would be less than 1% of the bikes. To me - that's in the noise, sorta like getting struck by lightening on a clear day. Could happen - not likely to - not worth staying awake thinking about it.

[JGP]

Don E

Looking for you opinion, what type of lube would you suggest in the final. Lots of chatter out there as to what is recommended and what is not, but one thing is for sure, confusion exits.

jgp

[mogu83]

I agree with Don (strangely enough), these internet lists tend to blow things way out of proportion. The few that have a problem post it and then others keep dragging it on and on. The thousands that have had no problem don't say anything.
As far as the type of fluid to put into the rear drive. As long as my bike is under warranty I'll use whatever the dealer puts in. If it does go, I don't want to give them a reason to say I caused it. IMHO,etc,etc

[Acpantera]

dealer used castrol synthetic lube

[deilenberger]

The recommended fluid from BMW is 75W-90 GL5 synthetic lube.. which BMW sells. That's what they put in mine at the 600 mile change. BMW PN: 07-51-0-394-082.

[iowabeakster]

Did you guys see reports from the Iron Butt Rally this year? The hex-head FD's did not do well at all. A BMW rider did win, but many did not finish.

Marty Leir has won the 2007 Iron Butt Rally. He bagged a staggering 45 bonuses on the second leg to pull himself up from 6th place to 1st. Added to the 109,032 points on his first leg, his second leg score of 235,090 points gave him a total of 344,122 points. Marty was lucky enough to be riding one of the BMWs that did not suffer a catastrophic failure, an R1200GS-Adventure.

[Lost Rider]

My goal is to have a FD failure happen before I'm out of warranty this coming summer.

[OU812]

Joe, if you have one, you will be 300 miles from nothing.

[Lost Rider]

Joe, if you have one, you will be 300 miles from nothing.

The possibility of that happening are what make them Adventures!

[Phillo]

Our local BMW outlet have only 3 final drive failures on record - two of them being the same guy on a 1200 GS who I know is very hard on his bike so I would guess that under normal riding conditions we should not have a problem with the R1200R.

[deilenberger]

Did you guys see reports from the Iron Butt Rally this year? The hex-head FD's did not do well at all. A BMW rider did win, but many did not finish.

WAY overhyped. A lot of other bikes also DNF for lots of reasons. Seems the chance was there to take a ding at BMW (who always dominates the finishers) so - it was taken.

I'll repeat - I don't stay awake worrying about things like this.

[Phillo]

Like Don - Im snoozing - this is my fifth BMW and I have never had a problem of any description with any of them never mind final drive problems and I dont ride like a "girl" - in fact I had one of my younger friends a little concerned for my safety when he saw the "chicken strips" on my rear tyre" - his comment was "poo old man, you must take it bit easier".