1200 I Give Up! Hello Ktm My Dear Old Friend.

Have done, big time.

 

I find myself looking at KTM, nice looking bikes. I will bite that bullet someday, but I do like my F800gsa. I know its not what you are thinking of getting, but touch wood not cloth, its been a bloody reliable bike with 8k miles so far.

Its a nice decision to have to make. Either way, can't be worse than your recent bike.

 

Sorry mate wasn't really meant to be for you as i know how you must feel. had an Aprilia Tuono once that blew the engine and the bike was off road for 4 months due to Aprilia's ineffective warranty and spares back up. Never again.

 

I sold my 2010 multi as it was graunching into second gear and the dealer was next to useless in fixing it and scratched the frame and then tried polishing it (Matt grey!).

I've had an XR since March. Just done 1900 miles on it in a week. It's a great motorcycle and no issues to date, handling, brakes, engine all 10/10 plus it sounds amazing. It will take a bit of adjusting to if youre used to twins. The quick shifter is seamless and the engine howls, and there is the odd pop and bang from the engine through towns, kinda cool. BMW dealers are really good.

I still love Ducatis, they have soul like nothing else, but the continual problems can wear you down. Some of the repair bills for my 748 in the service folder were into the thousands.

 

I've just been on tour with a lad on the XR and the vibrations through the bars were a deal breaker for him, particularly after long motorway blasts his hands were numb. A shame because he loves the rest of it, the quickshifter and auto blipper are amazing. As for your statement "BMW dealers are really good" I can assure you that my local one is dreadful, having had two bad experiences buying bikes from them, which is why I bought the Multi, and I love it.

 

Have you had a test ride on the GT yet JH?

 

You deffo need to ride this bike, its fecking awesome 320 miles yesterday to get some running in done and it really is the bo11ox .

 

I bought a 1290 SDR in March and I've just gone past 5000 miles..
Warning: these bikes are seriously addictive. Please ensure you have adequate provision for petrol and tyres before purchasing.

There's something about fourth gears wheelies that never gets boring..

 

That's funny, when i test rode one about a month ago the dealer told me he could get me one in a week!

 

Yes.

There are a few low mileage nearly new ones around with a reasonable saving if you don't mind going a bit further afield.
Be interested to hear your thoughts after you have test ridden one. I quite liked it but found it incredibly busy after the Multi and didn't think in the real world it was any quicker than my 2012 single spark.
Decided not to part with money at the moment, but having said that I haven't had half the problems you have.
Oh and don't assume BMW means peerless quality and reliability, one of my mates F800GS was the only bike I have ever known to come home on a trailer plus the various recalls for fuel senders, rear sprocket etc. Sound familiar? Except BMW don't call them recalls they call them campaigns.

 

Mine doesn't do that, he might need to try heavier bar ends. No numb hands for me. You wouldn't find BMW shafting someone for a second engine rebuilt on a bike with only 20 thousand odd miles.

 

I do agree, and I too have had a brand new engine fitted to a BMW bike that was a couple of months out of warranty, the fault was not what they would expect at the mileage the bike had done so honoured to fit a brand new engine as a gesture of goodwill and another thing to take into consideration if you contribute you get 24 months warranty so I opted to pay 1 hrs labour and got 24 months warranty on the new engine.

 

Not quite the same thing though - JH's bike is 4 years out of the manufacturers warranty even if mileage is similar.

 

Hope you've got mine in your dossier