Buying, operating, and doing my own maintenance

[GSJeff]

I own a 2008 R1200GS with 81,000 miles on it. It's time to sell it. I have spent $8,214.12 on maintenance on the bike. So basically it is 10 cents per mile. It is my understanding that the Super T is much less expensive to maintain. Does anyone have a per mile number to keep the bike on the road?

Also, I am not very mechanically savvy. I can do an oil change, and a final drive oil change on the BMW, however that's about the extent of my abilities. How much maintenance, and how complex is it, that the Super T requires?

I can get a new 2013 Super T for $12,650 after tax and licenses. Seems like a fair deal to me. Does that seem fair to you guys who have recently been through a purchase?

 

[snakebitten]

I bought a 3 year service contract.
I think it was $1400

So I have paid $0.00 beyond that fee for the last 33 months and 37,000 miles. (I do pay for the actual brake pads and air filter. 2 sets of rear pads. And 1 set of front, although they had meat left)

This bike is incredibly cheap to maintain. Get the 4 years of additional warranty if you also want to remove those potential costs over the first 5 years. Cost about $100 per year.

Disclaimer: I did NOT include tire expenses in my boasting above. Please don't make me.
It's ugly. Lol

 

[creggur]

I'm in your boat...I'm good for simple fluid changes, and not much more.

The Tenere is super-easy to maintain, the only exception (for me) is the valve-check at 26k miles - it's going to the dealer for that.

The oil and final-drive fluid change is stupid-easy. Which is the vast majority of what you'll need up to the valve check...can't imagine the Tenere not being significantly less expensive to maintain than what you're used to...

 

[FDhog]

Bought my 2013 back in January.
Got the YES warranty and went out the door at $14K
Maintenance is simple, and parts don't have the BMW "surcharge"

 

[Kelvininin]

There is varying degrees of answers to this question.

The short answer is, the Tenere is low maintenance and the general maintenance is very easily doable by someone with little experience. I would venture to say that almost all the maintenance is doable by a shade tree mechanic but usually results is some interesting responses.

I don't know what happened in the US in the past 20 years, but when I started driving/riding, I did so doing all my own maintenance, including timing belts, valve adjustments, engine and transmission rebuilds ect. To this day still do.

Some people don't believe its worth the "risk" do do your own heavy maintenance, but for me I don't believe its worth the risk to let the dealer perform the work.

I traded my KTM A990 for the Tenere for the ease of maintenance and reliability.

 

[EricV]

Cost per mile maintenance? That's a common factor to consider and can be a very good benchmark. If you, (or anyone else), had done that before buying a BMW, BMW would no longer sell bikes in the US. Not counting wear items like brake pads, (1 set), and tires, oil that I changed myself, the only costs have been the valve adjustment I paid the dealer to do and the 600 mile service that I paid the dealer to do, more as a good will gesture than because I felt the dealer needed to do it. It was a lesson for them on what kind of rider I was.

I looked up my receipts so it wouldn't just be off the top of my head - 930.23 / 72,563 miles = $0.0128 (rounded off) or about 1 1/4 cents per mile.
600 mi service 193.01

Set of 4 sparkplugs and 1 air filter - 53.72 (probably should change those plugs again!)

Service Manual - 87.07

Case of 10 Yamaha oil filters - 68.58

4 air filters - 84.20

Brake pad kit (shims and springs) - 33.21

Misc. 4 oil filters - ~24.00

1 pair of ceramic headlight plugs (temp fix before recall) - 12.00

Sub total - 555.79

Scheduled dealer Valve Adjustment - (forgot to add the valve adjustment service! wrote it off on business expense) - 374.44

Total - 930.23
I have not included gear oil and engine oil costs, but you get the idea. Two recalls at no charge, (fuel pump o-ring and headlight sub harness). All other service owner performed.

 

[sail2xxs]

I own a 2008 R1200GS with 81,000 miles on it. It's time to sell it. I have spent $8,214.12 on maintenance on the bike. So basically it is 10 cents per mile. It is my understanding that the Super T is much less expensive to maintain. Does anyone have a per mile number to keep the bike on the road?

Also, I am not very mechanically savvy. I can do an oil change, and a final drive oil change on the BMW, however that's about the extent of my abilities. How much maintenance, and how complex is it, that the Super T requires?

I can get a new 2013 Super T for $12,650 after tax and licenses. Seems like a fair deal to me. Does that seem fair to you guys who have recently been through a purchase?

I am a few days away from crossing the 120,000 mile mark on my S10. Including tires, oil, etc (everything/anything maintenance related) my total maintenance cost has been $6402.97 so about $0.053/mile. A small amount of that number is due to my penchant for buying Yamaha oil filters in bulk. I'm currently sitting on a stash of about 20 - back those out, and the tab is ~ $150 less. I change my own oil and final drive fluid. Recently changed the brake pads myself for the first time - generally just get them done while I am getting fresh tires installed. Everything else maintenance related has been done by the dealer.

If you want a spreadsheet detailing the entire maintenance history of the bike, let me know via PM.

Best,

Chris

 

[Checkswrecks]

I am a few days away from crossing the 120,000 mile mark on my S10. Including tires, oil, etc (everything/anything maintenance related) my total maintenance cost has been $6402.97 so about $0.053/mile. A small amount of that number is due to my penchant for buying Yamaha oil filters in bulk. I'm currently sitting on a stash of about 20 - back those out, and the tab is ~ $150 less. I change my own oil and final drive fluid. Recently changed the brake pads myself for the first time - generally just get them done while I am getting fresh tires installed. Everything else maintenance related has been done by the dealer.

If you want a spreadsheet detailing the entire maintenance history of the bike, let me know via PM.

Best,

Chris

Hi Chris
Tires are probably constant between the machines, so what was it without tires?

 

[Checkswrecks]

I own a 2008 R1200GS with 81,000 miles on it. It's time to sell it. I have spent $8,214.12 on maintenance on the bike. So basically it is 10 cents per mile. It is my understanding that the Super T is much less expensive to maintain. Does anyone have a per mile number to keep the bike on the road?

Also, I am not very mechanically savvy. I can do an oil change, and a final drive oil change on the BMW, however that's about the extent of my abilities. How much maintenance, and how complex is it, that the Super T requires?

I can get a new 2013 Super T for $12,650 after tax and licenses. Seems like a fair deal to me. Does that seem fair to you guys who have recently been through a purchase?

Likewise, what would your GS have worked out to without tires?

 

[GSJeff]

Likewise, what would your GS have worked out to without tires?

My 10 cents per mile does not include tires. It includes only scheduled maintenance. That would be oil, filters, valve inspections, spark plugs, etc. But no wear items such as suspension, tires, gas, etc.

Great replies so far. Either way, based on the info that has been posted here, the Super T is exponentially less expensive to own and operate than a 1200GS.

 

[krussell]

Jeff, are your numbers with YOU doing the work, or with a DEALER during the work?

 

[snakebitten]

Gotta be dealer, right?

That's why I assumed my comparison was closest to apples/apples. Except I thought that huge number included tires. Wow.

 

[creggur]

Went back and did the math, without tires I'm running about .04 per mile. Even with tires I'm only running about .08 per mile which includes only getting 4k out of my OE tires due to a lag bolt that took my rear out, so I went ahead and put a set on for a trip. I do oil and final drive changes, everything else goes to the dealer: brake/clutch fluid, coolant, plugs, etc. Haven't made it to the valve check yet, but mine would be less if I could do the other fluid changes and such myself...

Only one warranty claim, and that was for the headlamp harness that is now a recall that I need to go get done...

 

[GSJeff]

Yes, all dealer maintained except oil and final drive fluids.

 

[Rasher]

I worked out a 24,000 cycle of services works out as follows in the UK:


DIY all the way = £0.01 per mile

Dealer all the way = £0.05 per mile.


I plan to do the 6k, 12k and 18k services myself now the warranty is up, and let the dealer do the Valve checks, using the main Yamaha dealer moves the costs right up to 3p per mile, but I will use my local indie for the valve service which brings it down to a 2.5p average.

I have not included tyres which cost about 3.5p per mile, at 12k I have not yet needed brake pads so they will not affect the running costs much.


I did have a 1200GS and the dealer servicing on that worked out about 20% more than the Yamaha over a full 24k cycle, what cost the money on the GS was the issues, by £12k it had over £1,000 of repairs (luckily under warranty) and I then extended the warranty at £350 and still had to pay £200 in excess on repairs over the next 6k. Had the GS been reliable I would be OK with the extra 20% for servicing and would have bought another one.

 

[sail2xxs]

Hi Chris
Tires are probably constant between the machines, so what was it without tires?

Tires (all K-60s) were $2186 including installation. Without tires in the total, maintenance cost per mile has been $0.035, inclusive of valve adjustment at 120,000 miles.

Best,

Chris