Most all the negative feedback about BMW comes from actual owners of the bikes who have become feed up.

Also from dealers, who deal with BMW every day and know the dark secrets. Go to any big BMW rally and talk to owners .... then you learn about a few of these "secret" problems that officially BMW claim do not exist. This is not new, been going on for years and years and is very well documented.

BMW has a whole promotion industry based around long distance riding, a manufactured mythology of Adventure combined with the delusion of superiority. This master race allusion tends to upset some people. I just can't imagine why?

The long distance element is a keystone of their corporate culture. Go to any BMW rally, they give awards to longest distance and such. They have had BMW club publications for 40 years promoting the bike and its long distance heroics. BMW gmbh. often sponser many of these publications and clubs.

Check out the RA (BMW riders Association) or the big one, BMW MOA (BMW owners of America) both these clubs are huge and each have a slick, well produced monthly magazine. Big money mixed with a nearly super nationalist zeal for all things BMW.

The Japanese don't do much of this sort of flag waving Horse shit. Honda has a couple Gold Wing type rallies each year but that is about it. Japanese efforts go a different direction .... and purposely so. They let sales numbers and race wins do the talking.

The big four decided long ago to leave BMW alone and not go in direct competition with them. They realize the world and motorcycle industry need small companies like BMW and KTM and Husaberg to keep things interesting and foster innovation.

This is why Yamaha bailed out Ducati in the 80's and why other Italian marks have miraculously risen from the ashes with untraceable money from banks who have no money to lend but somehow came up with some to revive companies like Benelli, MV Agusta, Laverda (now gone), Moto Morini and a few others. Am I saying this is all Japanese money? No, but some of it is. A lot of it is Chinese money, like Benelli. Now owned 100% by Chinese moto company. But of course the Chinese have a different motivation, and one not nearly so benevolent. $$$$$$$

Where do you want to start? How about the Honda CB360? No one crowed about this bike or got a hard on doing big miles, but these bikes were around for decades, in the millions, quietly running on for years, without a dime spent on maintenance.

Many unsung stories beyond that here in the USA. Big country, lots of disposable income. Dozens of Jap twins have done millions of trouble free miles. But so what? Most riders don't care. They just ride it.

Gold Wings probably hold most "records" for any longevity contest you want to invent. But nobody really gives a crap about that sort of BS, only the BMW Hard-Ons care about that.

More recently regards twins? the Suzuki Vstrom's both are doing big miles and most importantly NOT having problems. Anytime you would like to compare dealer visits over a 3 or 4 year period between any BMW twin and any Vstrom, well, be my guest. Of course, you must also look at the Africa Twin and Trans Alp Hondas. Big miles, low maintenance examples of both can be found still on the road.

And Margus, you said :
"has any jap big-traile twin has done similar mileage without any breakdown or major work ..."

Would not this statement, by definition, leave BMW OUT! ?? Older BMW's need lots of maintenance and component replacement. Breakdown's? Uh, yes, indeed! At least most of the examples you see still on the road have been rebuilt and fixed many times over. So lets figure in another element here: Nostalgia. BMW guys tend to be a nostalgic lot who enjoy putting cash into an old, heavy outdated heap of crap. Fine. More power to them. But if you're looking for problems start here:

Shall we look specifically at BMW electrics?


That's funny Margus! You give us an official BMW web site reporting on a "Cross country' race in GERMANY. :confused1: I've never heard of this series. Is it run on pavement? In Germany NO off road "Cross Country" races are allowed, no? !Verboten! Is this an FIM backed series?

Also, never heard of any of the other riders, except Kriss who is a pro out Cherry Picking for BMW. A ringer.

Hey Margus, lets look at some real races now ... that have real competition.
Show me where BMW is in the results for the ISDE enduro's the last ten years and lets see how many BMW turn up in the results here. :confused1:

Now lets broaden the view a bit and check out the World Enduro series results from last 5 years or so. Now check out: World FIM Motocross series, USA AMA Super Cross, AMA GNCC series, AMA enduro series and AMA outdoor motocross series, Baja / SCORE :1000, 250, or 500.

Any BMW's shown there? (somebody did enter a twin in one of the Baja races!)
Now, should we begin with road racing? Lets compare world championships, shall we? In fact, pick any race series world wide. How many times does BMW appear?

Yes, BMW are now making a dirt race bike. And YES, it is on a fast development track and will compete. So lets wait (we've waited 40 years already) and see if they can match results from years ago in ISDE where they actually did OK ..... that was in the 50's, no?. My guess is they will need 5 years to show any sort of consistent results in a variety of legit race series world wide. This plus lots of money, the best riders and some luck.

BMW are new at this and have there own "superior" ideas about how to build a good dirt bike. Let's see how it goes, shall we? And by the way, what happened to their World Super Bike effort this year? They said they would be ready to win, but now have put it off yet again for another year???

Sorry Margus, no one takes BMW seriously. Zero credibility in any race environment. This is just the reality, not hyperbole and nothing at all against folks who like to ride the bikes.
They are beautiful bikes ... just not for everyone.

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Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!