Wow, thanks for the info Maria. I REALLY hope to make the UK HU rally- perhaps I can upgrade my horse! I'm really surprised to hear this by the way. Maria, when in Colombia, try almuerzo for lunch, it's a set menu, cheap and tastey. Also the soup, ajiaco (sp), yumm. You lucky devils! H.

It happens
 

About 15 years ago I had a BMW K100RT, '86 model. I owned it for about 5 years. About 6 years ago I bought a '88 K100RS as a hack bike and one day i found an old key in my workshop, and for a laugh I tried it in the '88 bike, and it worked! Then about 4 years ago I bought a '92 K100LT, and the '86 key opened the tank but not the ignition, and the '88 key did the ignition but not the tank. The '92 key would not work in the '88 bike! Whew!!! Follow that if you can.
I now have a '94 F650 and a 2000 F650GS. Maybe I will try the keys in those and see what happens.

Regards

Nigel in NZ

I have a BMW R850GS and as worrying as the key thing is, i found that the whole security of the ignition is very weak.

I broke a wire in the ignition loom while on a dirt road in ecuador. I removed the electrical socket at the bottom of teh ignition using the small screwdriver in a Swiz card in about 30 seconds much to my surprise.

a quick repair and i was off again, worrying more about how easy it is to steal a bike!

use a lock!

cheers
mike

Never had problems with my F 650 GS / Dakar but know for fact that the Funduro keys & locks were cheap rubbish. Wear is the problem.

Or maybe someone tried to or did authorise himself for a spin on your bike at some time. This often happened with the 1970's style plastic cylinder ignition switches on XT500s et al. A stick, knife or screwdriver would switch them on.

Yep, that was me. I went back though and had a much better time.