I absolutely love my 650GS and have put 50,000 miles on it in 3 years....BUT working on it is a huge pain in the ass. You have to take half the bike apart to simply repair the water pump for instance. WTF? It seems to me that BMW's are way over engineered. Like I said, I love this bike but ease of roadside repair is much more of a hassle than any other bike I have ever owned.
Does anyone else feel this way or is it just me?

FF

Just you FrankI have the same bike and year and do all my own wrenching, with the exception of the first 3 water pump repairs under warranty!
What else is there to do here in Canada when you are not on a trip down south for the winter and it is minus 10!
Saludos
Cal

It's a bit of a princes eh. But more issues regarding making maintenance easier and faster are well documented. Re waterpump the flexible oil hose. I'm just using a standard hose, not the steel braided ones heaps of others use. No need really.

You can often see why BM made the choices that they made. Only usually their priorities are all skewed.

__________________
Tacos Tyring Travels.com

Uh huh.

I've sworn more at my Dakar than any other inanimate object I can think of. But I'm not as mechanically inclined as you, and have certainly never torn down a Harley.

If you're after a bit of a chuckle (at my expense) about the #@%*ing f650 water pump issue, head here - Another Cup Of Java - the motorcycle maintenance post

L

__________________
Lucas & Ann
http://somemustard.blogspot.com

I have just returned from a year on the road and need to replace the water pump, clutch, neck bearing, sprockets etc.
I guess I just need a crash course in wrenching this bike. I have owned many Harley's (in my former life) and they are as simple as it gets to work on. They are just not the bike for the kind of riding I like to do these days.
Oh well, practice makes perfect right.
Enjoy the ride

Well, if you're going to keep it. Take the oppurtunity to get rid of that stupid solid oil hose and get someone to cut it at the banjo and silver solder a half inch barb on the end of it.



I've since replaced the stainless hose for a stock on. This was you can do the change in 20min + replacing the coolant. AND you get to keep the oil. All you than need to do is remove the LHS indicator (WTF!!!) and panel.

It's really not that hard after you remove the body work. It's just a pain to have to do it every time you do anything. This is why I'm making my own body work with 1/4 fasteners.

__________________
Tacos Tyring Travels.com

Thanks for the great suggestion Tmotten, but how does the barb work differently than the hose and save the oil? What is the issue that eats the water pumps in the first place? This is pump # 3 for me on an 07'.

Have a look on F650.com for the maintenance DVD. A key thing to have for any DIY wrencher. There used to be a few on Google video's in the past.

The OEM solid hose has to be removed to get the side cover off. Some have done it with just loosening it, but either way you will loose the oil. But with a flexible hose you should be able to get the cover off whilst keeping the oil circuit sealed. Off course you need to lean it over a bit. 2x4 under one side of the side stand works apparently but I just lean it againt a wall.

If you oil the gasket you can reuse this as well. This way all you "use" is the coolant and the parts.

How many k's did you get out of a waterpump? I've got 2 07 Dakars and one went at 20k km. The other at the same mileage is still ok. There seems to be a big difference between owners. Some have had them go very often and this could be due to a machining fault in the side case. Warrenty repairs have been done in some cases which have fixed it. They still wear more often than other bikes, but the reason is still a mistery. Just be glad you have that weep hole (keep this clear in all cases) so you don't ruin your oil and motor. Not all bikes have this.

It's a brilliant hard wearing motor. Colebatch is pulling his apart as we speak at 90k km and everything is still fine and he's only getting on with his first valve shim change.

__________________
Tacos Tyring Travels.com

They've also got a good FAQ section. If you're on the road, or planning a trip, grab yourself something like this - HTTrack - and download the whole thing to your hard drive. The last time we did the water pump, we had the laptop sitting there the whole time.

As for longevity, on the Dakar even at 10-15,000ks you could see it was on the way out. After changing it at 22,000 the bike has done an additional 30,000ks and, touch wood, seems fine. I put it down to the hammering we gave the bikes through Indonesia, but I'm just guessing.

__________________
Lucas & Ann
http://somemustard.blogspot.com