No disrespect here.. but anyone who would rather write bumwuh..?? instead of BMW has to be suspect.. and the same for their 'advice'...

I too have ridden thousands of miles with my 1150 well loaded with camping gear, not much off road, much some pretty appalling/bumpy surfaces with out a single spoke breaking.

Who would take an advice seriously from a person who never owned one on longer terms and just knocking it anyways? There lies the truth.

IMHO, just another equivalent of some members here on HUBB, who never owned one but bash the crap out of them with examples taken from the "thin air" ("I've seen this and that on the road" etc pseudo-arguments) It's not just GS but about some other bikes too.

It's called a 'selective-seeing' of faults when you've never owned one and look for reasons to smear it.

Ride safe, Margus

This made me smile :-)


As Margus has said there is NOT ONE PROBLEM with the spoked Gs wheels,
me own R1100Gs moto 150,000 miles (about 240,000km's) and not
a problem with them. I use the moto everyday for work and play (off road).
Overland to India and South America and me wheels are still spot on
just a little dirty ;-)
Regards
joe

This one never survived..

Attached Images

 

Thanks for all the info guys, I now have a better understanding off the best way to prep my bike and what to carry with me on route. Which was the original reason for the post.

I’m also now loaded with all this information (things I never knew I even wanted to know) about steel, alloys and spoke wheels on BMW’s. Remind me not to stand next to some of the “wheel guys” in a pub when you get into it.
Now I wil go and try to pursuade the Mrs to stop buying shoes and get her to save her money for a good set of spanners. What do ou mean alloy spanners are better than steel ones oh god here we go again !
Cheers guys

Nice one :-)
You'll have a ball,
enjoy take loads of foto's and keep us posted...
regards
joe

No disrespect either Sleepy but my naming conventions have nothing to do with what I think about vehicles. I also call MGBs "MugBuhs" and Suzuki GSXes "Guhsuxes", it's just the strange way my mind works. Try playing around with my UID a little and you'll see where my mind is at.

Anyways phtest, good to hear you now have the info that you need.

Garry from Oz.

__________________
Garry from Oz - powered by Burgman

if your going to use a cost/price equation, don't forget the all important resale value after you've ridden it around the globe.

Japs value = peanuts ( so original cost is written off)

BMW value = still very valuable ( cost probably works out cheaper than buying the cheaper bike in the long run)

I'm raising the dead here, not to join in a my-dog-is-better-than-yours debate, but solely for googlelanders out there just using the Net as it was intended--for information.

Having said this, the spoke issue is unqualified nonsense. This is not an opinion. The ill-fated bikes mentioned in the anecdote were (as also noted by the poster) not GS bikes, and as such did not enjoy the benefits of BMW's unusual, outer-mounted spoke design. I've ridden my R11GS where they are not welcome--over crash-plate bashing, tire-thumping, twisty single track, up rock scrambles, on whoopdedoo's, and down 2500 miles of endless, endless washboard--the latter in a single trip. I have in fact posted pictures elsewhere from said trip of my shock, after the upper mounting eyelet had torn clean off. Sadly, the image didn't capture the nearby snickering of my spokes.

I'm still riding my '95 R1100GS with 100,000 miles on it, entirely original save for tires, pads, belts and one hall effect sensor. All spokes have come along for the ride.


As for opinions and selective sight, my two pence is this: save for the occasional Goldwing that has snuggled and cooed its way down plushy pavement, I've never come across a single Japanese bike that had more than 70K on it. Of course they exist, but it doesn't take Leonard Nemoy or National Geographic to find one.

My advice would have been: sure, take a spoke with you, but save room for a hall effect sensor and an alternator belt.


Hope this finds someone like myself, looking for information, and that the OP's ride is still going.

I was in the same position few month ago before I picked my 1150GSA and spent hours online looking for answers, should I get a BMW /why /does they fail too much...blablabla I soon realized that the BMW are great and even if they break ( all bikes do )they are pretty good RTW bike easy to aminatin and most of the problem with them have been already observed by other travellers, the few electrical problem or fuel pumpor even spoke are not to be a big worry and the space required for spare parts is not that big.Thanks god for Fedex the important ( missing) part can come in few days . The biggest problem with BMW is that most of the people spend more time talking about thier failure (FD...)than riding them , I asked many RTW travellers if they wood take another BMW for a long and most of them answered yes ( they are not all masochist I hope)

PS: I did cross africa on a old R90 and didn't any real problem

Good luck

I'm on my 2nd 1150GS, and 4th BMW (other a F650 and F800S).
I've done 90,000kms on my first 1150GS, about 15,000kms was on gravel roads, never had anything that went wrong. Great bike.
Then I bought the 1150GS Adventure (new) and has since riden it for almost 180,000kms, most of it two -up with RTW lugguage etc.

The most anoying problem I encountered was that I had to replace the rear wheel bearing 5 times. So my advise to anyone out there is to carry a spare 6917 bearing, two or three extra shims of various thickness and a 7mm allenkey (to open the diff). Educate yourself on how to replace the bearing. Check the diff regularly and change the oil regularly, especially after some water and river crossings. See also my other post here on the modification that I've done to an Angular Contact bearing.

Regarding the spokes, my bike broke about three spokes on the rear wheel, not a big issue really. I always keep one spare with me.

I weigh about 120kg, wife is about 60kg and lugguage another 50kg. The standard rear shock is a bit soft for this weight, but you dont need to buy expensive aftermarket shocks. I stripped the coil spring from the strud and added a 20mm spacer to make the spring stiffer. It worked great, and never bottoms out and handles perfect, especially two-up etc. Cheap and easy.

My ABS/Servo system failed at about 85,000kms, so I just removed it and ever since used normal brakes. This is unfortunately not just a remove and go operation, and need some time and electric work to get around it, but only should cost you new brake hoses, nothing else. Somewhere I have the wiring diagram how I did mine, so will happely share it with you if you encounter this problem. The removal of the pump created a nice packing space under my fuel tank for those emergency brake downs like the bearing etc.

My RID panel also failed, but you dont need it and I've riden the last 10,000km without it and will do so untill I can find a secondhand one for a reasonable price.

I carried an altenator belt with me all the way, but never had a belt failure. Other than that the 1150GS is actually a very reliable bike and I'll ride mine for many more years to come.

My servo didn't fail but I removed it anyway. Used std brakes. Saved 10kg off the bike weight.

Just use some brake line to bypass the servo and wire up some relays to make the brakes work. Simple.

Put a bend in a cast wheel and try and whack it back into shape? You now have a two piece wheel!

Squillions of dirt bike racers and riders can't be wrong. If cast were better for dirt/rough stuffthen spoked wheels would have gone off the market yonks ago because the cast wheels are cheaper and a lot easier to make and set up.

My R1150GS has 145,000kms on it. I bought it off a friend, We are both giants, 6'3"/310lbs and have partners that are mature and are carrying a bit of spare beef. We don't travel light and the bike has blasted over Australia's rough roads and trails at warp speed for the past 10 years without a wheel problem. I checked them recently and they were ok. The spokes are all original. I will buy some spares if my mate can't find the spares he bought when the bike was new and he carried them on every trip for the first few years.

Now, If I could squeeze my ZRX1200R motor into the Beemer, I would be in hog heaven!