My R days are back and the GS is in the shop.


[ Wednesday - March 24, 2010 ]

4:45pm.  It's cutting it a little close, but I'm finally at Brown Motor Works doing the paper work to pickup the Alpine White R1200R.  2K down, a lot of signatures, and I'm out the door at about 5:50pm with a brand new 2009 R1200R that needs some serious breaking in.  Boy oh boy, baby is rough.  With only 8 miles on the bike, the boxer is really boxing.  Despite what others think, I'm breaking this baby in hard.  Just like the last 12R.  The bike strains to get up to 5K RPM, but that is to be expected with so little miles on the odometer.  Premature waring?  Maybe, maybe not.  It's all in what you think is appropriate for your machine.  As for me, my mind set says these machines aren't as fragile as one might think.  I find myself fumbling a bit with the 12R because I haven't ridden this type of beast in a year.  I keep on trying to use the rear break when I know this bike has linked breaking when just the front lever is used.  Daggonnit, where is that shift lever?  Wow, this bike's geometry is completely different than the 8GS.  That's alright, I'll get use to it soon enough.  Speaking of which, the 8GS is currently sitting at Brown Motor Works pending a BMW NA decision as to do with the bike.  You read it right folks, I haven't traded 8GS in for the 12R.  In fact I'm waiting until the day when the 8GS is fixed so I can ride it once again.  What happened?  To my untrained eyes it appears the 8GS suffered a catastrophic computer failure.  Of course it could really be something else.  All I know is that when I put the key in and turn the bike on, nothing appears on the screen and hitting the start button results in ... NOTHING.  Right now, the Brown service manager has been told not to do anything with the bike.  BMW NA wants to examine the bike to see what happened to it.  I told Brown to go ahead and hold onto the bike as long as they need so BMW NA can perform whatever analysis they need to determine what happened.  I'm hoping my 8GS's failure will be the light at the end of the tunnel for so many of my brethren 8GS owners who's suffering stalling problems.  Perhaps the second generation 8GS will be better because of my 8GS.  Who knows.  In the meanwhile, I'm breaking in the white thing.


I'm told the white R12R is a limited run.  I'm lucky to get one.
All of the AW bikes are produced in a 30 day period.


[ Sunday - March 28, 2010 ]

Well I can't say that I'm an ironbutt type of guys because I've only managed to put on 201 miles after 4 days of owning the bike.  This is mostly because two of those days are work days with the standard commute.  Two of the remaining days are spent with the family and cleaning the garage so I have room for the 8GS whenever it gets home.

After 125 miles of heavy accelerating and decelerating, the bike feels much better and is no longer boxing itself when idling.  200+ miles, baby is nice and smooth.  The way I expect an R bike to be after it's been through a good break in.  Now I don't have to convulse any more and can ride the bike like normal.  That is until the 600 mile service.  After that point I get to do the extended break in and take the bike up to red line.  Until then, I can at least enjoy the next several hundred miles of regular city driving.

BTW, the Captain thinks I'm stupid for buying another BMW.  So be it.  It's my money.  Sure the 8GS has some rough spots.  What do you expect for a first generation.  But can you say that Honda will tow your motorcycle to the nearest Honda dealer at no charge the same day you take the bike home from the dealer?  Will Honda perform a warranty fix after a year of ownership?  If one says that Honda's are adverse to mechanical problems and shouldn't need that type of service, I say you're dreaming.  Looking at the new Honda VFR 13 with automatic transmission, it looks like the bike has even more gadgets than a Swiss Army knife.  Not to mention it's much more expensive than a R12R.  At $20K for the automatic bike, that means you're paying at least $2K in taxes.  That's not mentioning licensing and other wonderful fees.  That's gotta sting a little.



Written on: March 25, 2010
Last modified:  March 28, 2010