Some assurance please

[Giraffemom]

First some background. I'm a 64 year old male who has ridden for 50 years, first on beat up Cushmans and, for most of my adult life, on Japanese inline fours. I have always lusted after BMW boxers but could never afford one of the beauties. Two months ago an opportunity presented itself that I simply could not refuse. A pilot (I mention this only because of their legendary attention to detail) had bought a new bike and had his 2004 R1150R up for sale. 16,000 miles, dealer maintained, garage kept and "showroom" immaculate for $6500. No doubt the price can be argued about but that's not what brings me here.

I have put approximately 1000 miles on the bike and it's everything I had hoped for and more. This will almost certainly be the last bike I ever own and I couldn't have picked one that gives me more pleasure.

Now, to the point of this post. I have NO mechanical skill. Zero, nada. I'm a zookeeper for heavens sake. Maintenance will have to be done by the local dealership or a reputable mechanic. I will retire in two years and although I will be able to afford routine maintenance, any major repairs would almost certainly be a serious hardship. I am aware that one of the main purposes of this forum is to post problems and look for answers so I accept that it is skewed in that direction. Still, after several weeks of visiting I'm beginning to wonder if the vaulted durability of BMW's might have been overstated. Thus the subject line of this post. I need some assurance that with proper maintenance and sensible riding (I use it for recreational riding only, no commuting and very little in town riding) I can look forward to several years of trouble free ownership. Yes, I know, all things mechanical can and will break, but I'm hoping that in the case of BMW's, that probability is low, very low. Comments on both sides would be sincerely appreciated.

_____________
Richard
Memphis, TN

[iowabeakster]

Have no fear, these bikes are exactly like giraffes. You will have no problems.

(Ok...I'm not sure what I meant by that either)

These are good bikes. You sound like you have reasonable expectations, the bike will very likely exceed those expectations. It can't be promised that you won't have an issue of some kind, but many (MANY) of us that have had these bikes for a long time already... have had Zero problems. Do your maintenance ON TIME! The motor and transmission are extremely reliable. The brakes are excellent. There are a couple of small things to do to easily avoid the small hassles: replace the fuel disconnects with metal ones, and cut the zip-ties around the wiring harnesses on the horn bracket.


For you (and all the other new owners out there) DO THIS NOW!!!



Write the words "quick disconnects" in the search box... and start reading through the threads about replacing the plastic fuel disconnects with metal ones.

You're gonna love the bike.

[Giraffemom]

Iowabeakster,
Many thanks. You have eased my mind considerably.
The zipties are cut and the quick disconnects will be replaced very soon.
And many thanks to all the contributors to this forum. I have learned more about my bike in the last few weeks than I ever knew about my previous bikes. Tis time I become a member.

[boxermania]

Giraffemom

Welcome aboard, you will find this forum to be honest and forthright always trying to help the fellow rider, that being said I must bring to you attention an error of omission on your part....newbie’s need to:

1) Post a picture of their bike
2) It helps to know your location as we are all spread over the world and you might have someone very knowledgeable and willing to help just around the corner.
3) Educate yourself with the maintenance of the bike, can't be anymore difficult than feeding lions and elephants, it is fairly easy and will provide a sense of accomplishment and save you $$$$

[Giraffemom]

I had updated my profile to reflect my location, occupation and interests. I hit submit and it seems to disappear. I will continue to work on it along with getting a picture of my bike up as my avatar. Thanks for the suggestions.

[iowabeakster]

Giraffemom,

In your case, you have an addtional duty...

Quickly learn how to post photos, and post some pictures of your "babies".

[Lion_Lady]

...Now, to the point of this post. I have NO mechanical skill. Zero, nada. I'm a zookeeper for heavens sake. Maintenance will have to be done by the local dealership or a reputable mechanic. . .

Have no fear. You can do a lot of the basics yourself. I have NO mechanical skills (or at least I didn't when I first bought my Rockster) - and I'm blonde! However, with some guidance from fellow R bike owners, I learned to change my engine oil, transmission and final drive oil, adjust the valves and sync the throttle bodies on my bike. The best thing about the boxer twin is that everything is right there, easy to get to

P

[Giraffemom]

Some help please.....how do I move photos from Flicker to a post on this site.

[Giraffemom]

Thanks for the encouragement Lion-Lady. Engine oil, transmission and final drive oil, spark plugs.....piece of cake. The rest? Well, time to start learning I guess.

[iowabeakster]

photos...

1. When making a post, at the place in your message where you want the photo to appear... paste the link to the photo (copied from flikr)...

(It helps to have one tab open with flikr...and one open at r1150.net (writing your message)

On the flikr page, click the "share this" tab above the photo... click the "grab the link"... copy and paste

it should look somewhat like this:

http:/www.flikr.com/location/of/your/photo=9812374923u49238490832498273e4

2. then, take your mouse and highlight the link in your message

3. Then, click the "Img" button just above the message box

[img] brackets should appear at both ends of the line...like this:

[img]http....[/img]

If that was a link to the location of a real photo... it would appear when you hit "preview" or "submit".

[Giraffemom]

Okay, we'll give it a try. It didn't show up as a picture in the preview so we'll try a post and see what happens. This should be a picture of my bike.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9946630@N03/4939147101/

[Giraffemom]

Okay. That didn't work. Late. Have to be up at 3am for work. I'll try again tomorrow. Thanks for all the help and support.

[NoRRmad]

OK, that's ninety percent done. All you need is the tags, thus:

Okay, we'll give it a try. It didn't show up as a picture in the preview so we'll try a post and see what happens. This should be a picture of my bike.

And, I had to select an image with a particular size. The image you were quoting didn't have the size designated in flickr, yet.

[Boxer]

If I were you, I'd get a cover for it, if you don't have a garage or carport...or make a ramp on the right and left sides of that porch then you can roll it right up and down very easily. Nice looking bike. The weak spots are the final drive areas and wiring under the triple tree. All else is BMW strong...for the most part.

[Giraffemom]

NoRRmad,

For the life of me I can't replicate what you did. I've added tags to the baby giraffe pic and I've gone to "view all sizes" and picked a size (Medium). Here I get lost. I can't figure out how to move that size choice back to the "share this" page. I'll keep working on it and hope to figure it out soon. In the meantime, my dog needs a walk and my bike needs a ride.

Slablog,

Thanks for the compliment. I have no garage so I immediately bought a cover. An advantage to the cover and cable is it makes it a tad more difficult to just hop on and ride, thus getting a few things accomplished around the house.

[NoRRmad]

Actually it was a bit more complicated than I implied. I don't use the flickr "share this picture" buttons -- 'cause they don't always insert exactly the right text into your posting, and I don't see any buttons on this page. So, I try to reveal the URL of the actual picture -- by right-clicking on the picture and selecting 'properties.' No go; a legal 'rights' statement pops up instead of the 'properties' box. They've disallowed copying from this page and inserted a warning to anybody who tries. Then, I tried to see what sizes are available. Select (what was it?) medium, I think. Try to pull the 'properties' of the picture again, and bingo, there it is. Cut'n'paste the URL from the 'properties' box into the posting here, add image tags, and bob's yer uncle.

I guess you got the URL from the address bar on your browser, which is the address of the page, not the picture within it. Since it's a page, not a picture, image tags don't work.

Have I obfusticated sufficiently?

[Giraffemom]

NoRRmad,

You obfuscated beautifully. This works on the preview, let's see what happens on the post. This is why my user name is giraffemom.

[NoRRmad]

Cool! Looks fine.

[scottybooj]

welcome...and why not giraffe'dad'?

[Giraffemom]

Um, because giraffe dads can't give babies milk? Also just a small streak of trouble maker having fun. It confuses people on the gender thing.