I must admit that I am somewhat with Patrick (fill out your profile, lozza!!!)
I have some experience with a variety of motorcycles under conditions a bit rougher than the usual "commute to work and weekend trips" story.

Bottom line: I really do not understand the reputation of BMW motorcycles as being oh so reliable. Whilst they seemed to have been ahead with reliability some fourty or fifty years ago and some of the famed R75 Wehrmachtsgespann of WWII vintage are said to have travelled overland all the way from Berlin to Stalingrad and back reality has changed quite a bit:

Lucky if you own a R1100 /1150 / 1200 as you deal with BMW's quote: "Crown Jewel" :unquote and BMW seems to spend considerable effort on getting these bikes going and on keeping them going. The 1100 GS at Le Cap is doing remarkably well. Some minor oil leaks, a buggered clutch, a gearbox that shifts with the ease of it's russian army tank pendant, all fine after 100000km. Who needs a fuel gauge showing you w.t.f. as long as the little yellow reserve light works. Once you had the tank off you will also have sealing fuel line couplers installed which only cost a few bucks. Amazing that nobody at BMW seems to care or know about this.
Maybe worse that the brake discs wear into the mounting on the front hub. But BMW assures me that it's no problem - besides the nerve whacking rattle at every bump.

Much worse than the Crown Jewel: The unloved child F 650. After the first series of Funduros were bungled together at some Italian Spaghetti factory and everybody asked themselves if a BMW castrated otherwise fine Rotax 650 ConCam engine qualifies the product to bear the make's logo things could only become better with the change to the GS / GS Dakar and the move of the assembly line to Berlin. How wrong we were! The steering head bearings are as shitty as ever, same for rear shocks and the thing still weights as much as a truckload of bricks.

At the same time Japanese bikes have become boringly reliable. Two of my DR 650's have done more than 100000km and are still going strong. No major problems so far. A full service with valve job takes two hours and a R80 tappet socket is the only special tool you need to service the bike (and you can substitute a pair of nose pliers in an emergency).

But all this will not stop a BMW fanatic to dream on about the world's best bike...