Re: R1100RS

[Paul Cassel <pcassel2@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rob,

What you write and experienced goes to confirm a belief I've had for a 
few years now. BMW seems to produce bad bikes individually. The overall 
BMW experience depends on the bike so one bike will have no issues and 
another nothing but issues. Overall the failure rate isn't higher or at 
least much higher than other bikes, but if you get a bad one, you're in 
for hell.

Your bike seems to be the champ of bad. Clearly there are lemon bikes or 
cars. In the old days, wrenches used to ID them by saying such vehicles 
or other mechanical items were plagued by gremlins. This is a derivation 
of the fairy folk common to European myth. Whether it's hell beings or 
just a bike that got tweaked somehow along the way, isn't the issue. The 
issue is that clearly there are bikes which can't be made right. We've 
all heard of bikes that have gone through 2 or 3 final drives and then 
seem to disappear from the radar. I'm guessing the owners sell them and 
then we don't hear from the new owners beause they're not on the boards.

Valve burn if caused by owner error in maintenance (or any error) is 
clearly identifiable.  I'm a bit bothered by BMW here in that you have a 
bad bike so IMO, it should have evaluated the valves and if it was't 
poor maintenance, then done something. If I, a no issues bike, showed up 
with 44k and burnt valves, I don't think BMW had any obligation to 
investigate at all.

Personally, were BMW to be a decent company, I think the right thing to 
do for you is for BMW and the dealer to share expenses and offer you a 
new bike at a deep discount. I know my dealer did that with BMW when an 
owner bought a used bike from the dealer and suffered catastrophic 
failure within 30 miles. Both entities participated and got the fellow 
quite satisfied and thus loyal to the BMW brand and this dealer.

I commend you on your patience. After transmission #2 failed, I would 
have demanded a new bike. Oh, my guess is you have a bad main engine 
casting, but what the hey do I know.

- -Paul

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