BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

How many thousands miles or kilometres can the R1150R run in her life time without major problems?

Of course we all know that this depends on the nature of the roads, way of ridding, etc… but what I think about is a bike which is driven in a normal condition and get a good maintenance as mentioned in the manual.

regards
Robert

The number of miles depends on your lifespan rather than the bike's. Here is a woman that had 333k miles on her R1100RS a while back: http://www.bigbend.net/users/glaves/voni.htm
How much time do you have? How often do you drop your scooters? All good questions.

Thanks for posting that Carlos. That's Voni Glaves, wife of the MOA ON Benchwrenching columnist and motorcycle mechanic Paul Glaves. They have rretired to the Big Bend of Texas area near Alpine. They aren't in Kansas anymore Toto.
I think the only thing Voni loves more than riding is Paul and red.

So your answer is:

333,000 miles

IF

Robert Glaves does your maintenance, or Voni if she did her own.

No. I fully trust my maintenance skills. Where I am always afraid I could mess up one day is on the saddle!
Besides, at the pace I am going (with 56k on the clock) 333k miles will take me another 31.4567 years. I will be 78.231 years old and I suspect that by then one of my two daughters will be riding it more than me, probably with her boyfriend on the back saddle!

Robert

Firstly do you regard 3000-4000 dollars for a new ABS system
a major problem?

As it is highly unlikely the ABS system will do 333,000 miles without failure.

Do you regard clutch spine failures every 33,000 miles as a major
problem?

Do you regard rear drive bearing & seal failures every 60,000 miles
a major problem?

Robert:

Is that a cat shooting a rifle out the window in your avatar? I hate it when my cat does that, don't you?

Personally I'm most impressed with the Nikasil coating on the aluminum cylinders.

Fooling with BMW cars, bikes and Porsches all of which partake of that type coating I have to say that with proper maintenance 200,000 miles, with somewhat decent performance is attainable.

However, realize that all mechanical devices endure wear and do have to be refurbished, so at that mileage, rings, possibly piston lands, valve guides, seals and valve seats would be at the upper limit of their design life with the ensuing loss of performance.........

So what was the question.....I forgot........

How long is a piece of string?...

DJ

DJ Downunder wrote:How long is a piece of string?...

DJ

I think this is the best answer! How long do you make it?

Sure, some bikes have unavoidable failures (final drives, clutch splines, etc), but not all of them. I'm approaching 55,000 miles on my '04 and don't see any issues coming up in the near future. Someday I guess I'll have to look at a new clutch, but that's the same with all bikes. Sure, ABS will add another point of failure and added maintenance so that's something to consider.

Give the bike the maintenance it needs, and it will most likely take you for a long ride.

I certainly beleive 150-200k miles is easily reached without a huge repair bill in your future. I own a 1974 BMW with welll over 100,000 miles and put 0ver 200,000 miles on a Paris Dakar with anything goshawful serious happening. I did replace a clutch and some big pieces but I wasn't affluent and I don't remember any of it hurting too bad.

I have 20,000 miles on my Rockster with out a hint of trouble. I think that all motorcycles can have their problems; what seperates BMW is the permanance of their machines. Its worth replacing a clutch on a bike thats still solid as a rock. It may or may not be worth it on another machine with 75k or so on it.

As far as drive train issues go on some newer bikes, I will not poo poo them. I will say I have yet to see one in person, so that leads me to believe the probability may be low. In the electronic era, those 5 isolated break downs are ALL going to say something. The 200,000 that don't experience a problem may not. But, who knows.

All I know is I'm taking my chances. I'm on my 4th BMW cycle and I'll buy a new one at 125,000 miles. Selah

I have no statistics to add and very little personal experience other than owning one since 2003 with very few troubles.

One thing I will add is that in this age of "Instant Information" that we live in we now hear of every or nearly every failure and we hear it almost immediately. We seldom hear of all the bikes out there that don't break at all. Those guys are too busy riding to get on the internet and complain!

Bad news travels fast and always has. Good news travels hardly at all.


Wayne
04r

I like my bike and will keep it forever. When I can't get parts, I'll make them.

GypsyRR wrote:Robert:

Is that a cat shooting a rifle out the window in your avatar? I hate it when my cat does that, don't you?

Hello Gypsy,

This cat is well trained for shooting bad people only. It took long time to train him for this . The bad thing that he is not mine because I have allergy from cats & dogs but luckily not from beautiful women .

Regards
Robert

Hi Robert,

It's not uncommon to see WWII R's in use today in Athens...
With proper servicing the R can outlive us all :-)