I don't need to defend BMW, for god's sakes I don't even have shares in this company so I am going to stop here.
This is what I do and if you are interested call Klaus at hpn and organize a test ride of one of their handbuilt models and make up your own mind. For me there is nothing else and now one will convince me, not because of ignorance but purely because their just is nothing else. There is only two reasons why everybody is not driving one of these and that is because you don't know about them or you do not have enough money to own one of them.

Anyone in the UK thinking of a BMW, would benefit from having a look at this site (and others) first ::. UKGS'er.com .:: - Powered by vBulletin and do some homework before being blinded by legends
My findings point to the older bikes being more robust than the newer models But then, what do I know I ride a Triumph

Trophymick

Before I came back to motorcycling I did a lot of research. What I wanted was cheap, simple to repair and reliable. and.. with a right hand gearshift.

The bike a ended up choosing was the same as i had years ago, a 1970 triumph tr6, but these are horribly expensive. In the end I compromised on the gearchange and bought my 1985 r80rt. those monolevers do not have the shaft problems of the later paralever bikes, but do have an engine set up for low grade fuel. It has proved to be reliable transport. BUt, i still hate the gearchange. One day i will get either the old Triumph, or a modern lean burn Enfield Electra.

The new Bonneville is a win win bike. It even shifts pretty good. (Japanese transmissons!)

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Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!

I don't do Dakars. As far as I remember this thread was started round the question of whether BMW GS's is a good choice for a round the world tour based on its reliability. I believe a bike for touring on real bad road conditions in third world countries must be chosen for more than only it's reliability. It does not matter how reliable your bike is if you keep falling down somethings are bound to brake down at some point. This is hardly the fault of the bike manufacturer but rather the rider himself. Other things to consider is fuel range, luggage carry capability and this go two ways as you need the system for the luggage but the frame and the suspension must also be able to carry the extra weight.
BMW's go very far in this regard and this is why their bike do so well with long distance travelers.
I still do not believe they are the best bikes to use for more remote traveling because of all the high tech, making field maintenance and repairs nearly impossible.
The suspension is not made for hard off road conditions and even though weight is down somewhat on newer models they are still very heavy.
These three aspects in my mind is the biggest reason for not choosing the latest BMW models and why I believe the HPN concept to be so great.
The HPN BMW is based on the low tech mechanics of the 80's and 90's models but are making use of the latest quality suspension and developments making this hardly a bike out of the "stone age".
With the HPN you have the perfect balance between serviceability, weight, fuel range, luggage carrying ability and brilliant off road capability with ultra reliability.
If you can afford, this is the bike for the true adventurer and this speaks for it self when you meat people like Werner and Claudi on their HPN models that have spent the last 7months traveling down Africa and only had flat tyres to repair as well as the odd mirror and crash bar indicating that they have had a rough enough time to prove that these bikes hold up no mater how bad the conditions get. Check out their site and many photographs.Claudi und Werner reisen durch die Welt For those that do not read German click on Bilder to take you to the image gallery.

Now I've eaten all my popcorn reading this

I still keep coming back to have a ironic laugh at the BMW-hate club, the myth-advertisers.

It's all been intensly discussed and agreed before, in multuple threads, it's not about the makes, bikes, reliability etc, it all lives inside the people, the riders themselves. Yet some of them keep coming back to bash BMWs again and again.

What does it really mean? ...think!




















Cheers, Margus@off to ride his trusty BMW

Amen!!!!!!!!!!

Hello fellow hubbers,
I'm looking at a few m/c this week and they are: BMWs, KLRs, KTMs & the DRs/Stroms. The ages are ranging from 97' to new and the size of cc's are 625 to 1100. Ideally, it would be wonderful to have a bike custom built(may happen one day); however, other priorities seem to get on the front burner. I have a couple of bikes I could ship overseas, but the shipping is way more than what the bikes are worth. Renting is another option available and I have corresponded with a pleasant outfit in Germany. This has been an interesting thread to read/website, with lots of opinions on different bikes. Like the last post,"Get one and Ride It".

Cheers hubbers, sincerely rio_perros
Sorry Grant, I made an error here so I deleted the urls. Cheers and thanks

------------- edited by Grant to remove the email address link above-------------------
Comment:
No problem, though we do have a list of known good shippers on the Links page. ALso DON'T put email addresses in any webpage ever, as it exposes them to the spambots that just love plain text email addresses to add to their spam database.
---------------end Grant's edit-----------------

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"The only thing that needs constant adjustment on a motorcycle is, the biological linkage between the handgrips and the footpegs" <*)))>{

And how many world championships have HPN won? Or BMW for that matter?
In any Catagory? The Japanese have hundreds...in every class of racing that
exsists.

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Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!