Vincent Black Shadow.

Also faster than a F111 until takeoff

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TBS.com

A lot harder to answer than 'what's the most unreliable' ...

In terms of what have I had to do least to to keep it going I suppose it would have to be the 1800 Gold Wing I have in the US. From memory the sum total of repair work on it is zero. I've done some service work - oil etc - but its never let me down on the road and the only niggle has been replacing the battery when it was left for 3yrs one time.

Second - mainly because its vastly exceeded my reliability expectations - is my ancient 125 Suzuki. It just keeps going. It's not fault free but its only let me down once when salt water shorted out the plug while waiting for a ferry at Dover.

Because I rarely buy mainstream adventure bikes my choices are all going to be left field oddballs. At the moment I'm trying to get an ancient 250 two stroke reliable enough for a long trip. I'm fully expecting some side of the road 'experiences' - even new they weren't that reliable - but it just has to be good enough. If it was a 1250GS - or even a CB500X - I'd be applying different criteria.

So far no problems with my Versys-x 300. It has only done 20k km tho.

I emailed Kawasaki UK the other day to see if they are importing any of these this year and unfortunately not, I would be interested if they did.

I'm having the same conversation with Honda UK. H-ness 300? No. CT125? No. Have a CBRrrrr Fireplace Sir? FFS

I think they want me to buy an Enfield (the last two won't win the reliability contest, easy to fix though).

Andy

BMW1100gs
180K miles - apart from a gearbox rebuild which cost £300 it was only consumables.
Even with a clucking gearbox I got home from France - the bike never actually broke down.

I’ve just read backofbeyond’s thread and second place would go to my GL1000, plain Jane Goldwing - 120k miles.
The only time it failed was when a rivet came loose in the generator - engine out job for a simple fault but it was surprisingly easy to do.
The great thing about these bikes was that a lot of the parts were the same as a Honda Activan so very cheap.

My theory is, and there’s no science behind this, if you use a bike everyday it will be very reliable - I think this especially applies to BMWs. I don’t have a car and have been very lucky with the reliability of my bikes - I don’t fiddle with them or over wash them just service them according to manufacturers recommendations and ride them.

My old blue 1971 Honda CB100, never failed to start in the morning even covered in a foot of snow.

Mezo.

That's perhaps the more important consideration; as noted earlier, all or at least most of the mainstream modern bikes are very reliable, but there's likely to be something go awry eventually, so a bike that needs a heap of specialist tools and diagnostic computers to do even the basics like a service is not the one to choose. At least with modern online parts ordering and fast/efficient international shipping, obtaining spare parts is less of a problem than it was in the past, so you don't have to carry a heap of those along with you too; so long as you compare manufacturers spares back-up and select accordingly - BMW and the major Japanese manufacturers generally seem to be good.

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BobnLes

Not sure I agree. I suspect Bavarian marketeers and their "resets" have an undue influence.

I currently own two bikes, a 2020 CB500X and a 1973 CL350. The basic service on the CL is an oil change, timing check and valve adjustment every 2000 miles. The tank has to be drained and you need a test lamp and feeler gauges. The CB500X is every 8000 miles and is an oil change that can be done with two spanners and an oil filter.

To fault find the CL requires a multi meter and circlip pliers. You need enough tools to dig through it and the time to do stuff like plug chops and removing jets to inspect for blockages. It is a matter of luck as much as skill as to if you follow the right track to the fault first time. When there are two faults expect it to take 20 times longer.

The CB500X gives you a fault code. You read it and go from there. Even where manufacturers don't provide this most can be defeated by an OBD reader, something easier to find or carry than say a timing strobe or compression tester.

The 16000 service on the CB500X is a nightmare expedition through the tank and electrics tray, but just time and a pile of spanners. The CL is simpler because you just use those circlip pliers to access the oil spinner.

This to me is just knowledge and not believing idiots who'll clear the error memory and charge you seventy quid. I occasionally still train workshop technicians (the mechanic is unfortunately an endangered species) and do meet the "Thar' black box be full O' demons, we must exorcise them by grounding the sacred pin 24" variety. These are more likely to be found in Surrey than Sindh because young people there still have to find solutions not fob people off until they buy new vehicles.

Either way when you find something you need parts or a bodge. ECU pins or carb diaphragms can both be glued. An injector in 97 pieces leaves you just as stranded as a carb manifold in 96.

Andy

Typical wearing parts you will get anywhere after a short waiting time. But if you need something outside this range problems will start.

I think it´s a myth that manufactures cover the world with spare stocks. It is too difficult und expensive to forecast und to build up spare stocks in all markets. "Just in time" or "Just in sequence" is only done for manufacturing but not for spare parts. Manufacturers centralize spare stocks in general and outsource to spare parts logicstics to balance and reduce costs of parts, of availibilty and working capital.

BWM is perfect an example for this. A friend of mine crashed his GS 1250 in India in late 2019. This happened 10 months after bringing that modell to the indian market. BWM has 18 Service Centers in India. Not a single part was available there or in BMW Service Centers in asian countries nearby. All parts had to be shipped from Germany und to be imported to India including the import fee which nearly tripples the price. Took "only" 2 months of time because we bought and fetched the parts directly from BMW Germany. Than we faked the invoices a little bit to reduce the cost of import fees and send the packet via DHL. Packet was hanging around in 3 indian post offices for 4 weeks before he could pick it up with the help of some tea-money.

You can rate reliability of bike by the number of service points in the world but you never know in front where your needed part will be stocked. Equal of the brand it is definitely a matter of expense I would keep in mind if I will go for a longer trip.

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