It is very gold

Dodger's new Wing.

In fact, it's one of the nastiest colours I've ever seen on a bike,
but for a discount of over £7,000, who cares, and Dodger revealed that
he's already acquired the bling catalogues, so most of it will be
shielded by chrome and extra lights, I suspect.

My, but it's got a low seat, hasn't it? About the same height as my
little GN250, I think. I can get both feet flat on the deck with my
legs bent.

Anyway, it must be said that while it's a lot of dosh to pay for a
bike, it's a helluva lot of bike for the dosh. More gizmos than most
cars, I think. I particularly like the warning light for 'Pannier
Open', and the remote central locking. The Doctor was looking
wistfully at the rear seat heating controls....

Meanwhile, my brother-in-law is offering me his nutterly mint (only 9k
miles from new) 2004 BMW R1200RT at 'family rates' yet to be revealed,
because he never uses it these days. Part of me is tempted, and the
other part of me says: "Avoid, because while it's been trouble-free so
far, the early R1200s are supposed to be decidedly dodgy."

Any BMW-isti care to comment? No, not you, Lozzo.

 

Did he actually let you ride it or was it just "sit and press
buttons"?

This made me smile.

 

Nah, just sit on it. I shall await my turn at the HAGM-fest on the
French Run in May.

 

:

I don't know much about the RT. I'm not sure how much they share with
the R-GS.

With the R-GS the main problems have been final drives, fuel pump
controller corroding and the ring antennae for the immobiliser. Most of
these problems have been dealt with under extended warranty packages. We
are now getting to the interesting period where there will be many bikes
sold outside the BMW network that don't have warranties and I doubt BMw
will continue to offer contributions to repair costs. However, none of
this might apply to the RT.

I suggest you ring Mike at Cardiff Motorrad. He's servicing loads of
early R1200s now and will know main problems. He's usually quite happy
to offer buying advice over the phone.TEL: 029 2056 5666
http://www.cardiffmotorrad.com/

 

Have a quiet word with Brian and/or get him to check it over? Oh, and if
you talk to him, tell him I said hello...

 

Yes, probably the best call. I know the bike will have been superbly
looked after - it's just that I don't want to exchange an elderly but
superbly reliable and still very functional old K11 for what may be a
hand grenade with the pin already pulled out.

 

**** you then, if you can't handle the truth


--
Lozzo
Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike
in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere)
BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite
they churn out)

 

Yes, but it'll be a high quality German hand grenade.

Hmm. That's not helpful, is it?

 

I tried ringing Brian, and Wessie's bloke, but they're both unavailable.
It can wait until I get back from Chile, anyway.

 

I asked Wessie's bloke about the 1200s when I was down there getting the
1150 worked on.

He said that from a professional perspective he loved them as while people
owned them he'd never be short of work.

From a personal perspective he wouldn't touch one with a barge pole and was
going to stick with his 1150 until BMW got their act together again.

I've heard that the hex head 1200s are a lot better, but that's not much
use in this case.

 

He keeps telling me that my 1150 is "a keeper, good for another 100k" which
at the current rate will take another 20 years.

 

Hmmmmm..... I must say, I've heard very little that's good about the
early 1200s.

I'm on the K again today (roads releatively clear in London, so no
hassle with traffic, and the fairing keeps off the drizzle) and I was
reflecting that it still does a bloody marvellous job. I was wondering
whether the R1200RT would be significantly better. Newer, yeah, of
course, eleven years newer, but much better? I dunno.....

 

On Dec 30, 12:13 pm, "TOG@Toil" <>
wrote:

<snip>

Ah. Just got hold of Brian Giles. He reckons final drive, yeah, they
all had problems up until 2008. "Dealers will tell you to replace the
rear axle, which is £1200, but I've got all the parts and I can
rebuild them for less than half that."

Immobiliser ring - should have been sorted under a recall.

He reckons the RT is really good news, actually, and suggests that I
ride it over for him to give it a quicjk look-see and if he gives it
the thumbs up, I might go for it. Something to think about, anyway,
and I'll see what gives at the end of January.

 

and as the 1200s age there will be a cottage industry develop in
repairing FDs so that £600 will come down. I suggested it as a venture
for Burnt.

It's only a load of bearing and seals that go as they decided not to put
a breather in the housing and declared it a sealed for life unit. Post
2008 bikes have bigger bearings and a drain plug on the FD and get a
12,000 mile oil change.

The only way to change the oil on a 2004 bike would be to split the
housing like which few people do.

Probably. You can easily check with a BMW dealer if the current owner
isn't sure.

Most people I know with them seem to like them. Very comfortable
apparently. Effortless cruising, no idea about commuting.

I guess the RT didn't have the fuel pump problem as that was water
ingress related so probably exclusive to the R-GS.

I might buy one should the R-GS become too much of an effort to climb
onto or too challenging to my wonky knees. I'm not old enough or
decrepit enough yet to consider such a bike.

 

Just happened to see this post on the BMW Club website Forum, subject
"Worst bike":

 

<Snip>

Well, the 1200RT has done 9.5k miles and has been good as gold. Brian
Giles reckons they're OK. Price to me is £4500, but I'm undecided.

It's a bargain but I just don't know whether it will be as solidly
reliable as the K. Like your quoted piece, I took it out after weeks of
being immobile in a freezing garage and it fired straight up and off it
went.

(MInd you, I did fit a new battery this autumn....)

 

(The Older Gentleman) wrote in

I'm staying out of this because although I did 70k km on my RT, it was my
first bike, so I don't have a lot to compare it with. But I am watching,
and if in spite of that there's anything I can contribute, do ask.

It was a 2005 R1200RT, btw.