Tremor38 said:
Well, whether or not it's 'seriously good kit' is speculative at the point. I love how innovative BMW is, but they need to silence the critics when the subject of reliablity is breached. That is an essential element in any 'seriously good kit,' IMHO. Hopefully pressure from the S10 has pushed them to examine and improve their QC process instead of just making products that make people say 'oooo, ahhhh, I want one' then suffer through malfunctions and high-priced repair/maintenance.
In relation to my reference to good kit, I'm being rather more inclusive as opposed to exclusive in that regard and therefore am not talking secular about BMW in those terms. Many manufacturers of motorcycles and electric ebikes (electrically propelled moto-ebikes and not the smaller capacity ebikes so common in Asia) are coming to the masses with all kinds of two wheelers, including many newly designed bikes, or upgrades to existing models released or coming to market (well most markets). Even a few reincarnations. ::008::
There's such an abundance and array of choices all over the varying market segments. Seems like us motorcyclists are being the opportunity to be somewhat self indulgent at this moment in time in relative to the issue of choice - if one is looking to buy or otherwise upgrade ones ride IMHO.
Reliability is all relative, and if you are referring to BMW, then I've had several and never had any issues other than one time, riding over the Haast Pass towards the west coast of the south island of NZ on my K1. Beautiful sunny day, no traffic (the usual for that part of the world), taking a nice fast right hander when the K1 lost all power. Nothing, zilch, zippo. Coasted to a stop, checked everything... no idiot lights on the dash. After a sequence of logical checks, I went to the main fuse box under the side cover. Well, bugger me there as plain as day was the cause of my several minutes of scratching the head, check this, check that moment. A monstrous dragonfly carcass of all things, lay fatally and mortally wounded (dead) against the side of the clear see-through plastic fuse box cover, which in itself was still intact. Following careful removal, and dignified disposal of said corpse, I removed the fuse box cover, removed and checked all fuses which were all none-the-worse for wear - all checked out ok. No fuses needied replacement, turned the ignition key and all the previous dead idiot lights, responded in their respondent colours much like a Christmas tree. At least it felt like Christmas to me at that very moment in such a moment of felt isolation, it's my story and I'm sticking to it. Hit the starter and the engine responded in kind. Hastily I reassembled the required pieces, donned my helmet, reattached my gloves and made haste to the wild west coast.
Reliable, you betcha! Never had a big-end, main wheel bearing, shaft drive failure, no ABS malfunction or such like. ABS has saved my arse on a couple of occasions and thankfully so. I'm a believer and a ABS convert. By the same token and in all fairness I've not had any major failures with any motorcycle I've owned in the past 34 years, even the couple Chinese made scoots. Hopefully that record remains.
::017::
Disclosure: I still own that K1... amongst other rides. :-X
It does appear to me there are alot of European bike reports lately over the Japanese. Is this due to the lack-luster new model OEM's such as Honda have been blah-blah in bringing out??? I think so. Last year, Dec 2010 at the motorcycle show, it was amazing to see the people standing around talking about this Tenere. There was nothign at Honda that hadn't already been there for a few years for the most part. Well, anyway, this is maybe why we see what we see in the mags!!!
