Getting a BMW?

[Sharribee]

drive shaft twice? Pete (VADER) has had 3 final drives in 28 thou but loves the beast

[Shep]

3 drives in 28,000 should NEVER EVER HAPPEN

Can only point to poor design and materials.

Personally i hate BMW,s overpriced rubbish in my opinion, just dont see the whole BMW thing, i have ridden nearly all the adventure bikes this year, the ones i liked were.

Honda Transalp 700 - Fabulous bike

KTM 990 Adventure - Best Of The Lot

Varadero 2008 - Better than any of the other earlier varas i have ridden

New Tiger - Great bike but i felt the engine was not right for this type of bike, real hooligan though.

GS1200 - Ok bike, but vibey it shakes a lot , average wind protection and poor seat and expensive. Also reliable?

GS800 - Oh dear !!!! easily in last place had a 1 hour test ride gave it back after 20 minutes, huge dissapointment.

HOWEVER i understand and accept that everybody is different and maybe you will all think i am mad and love the bikes i did not.

That is fine by me because we are all bikers

[j]

like you say Sheep every one is different and likes different things about bikes. Spoke to many people about adventure bikes, @ good bike but dated for some people, KTM bonkers bike, big grins after riding, BMW great for loading upto the nuts and two up touring, Vara big smooth soffa. I just love BM'S @'s and KTM I must be perfect

[Annette]

When it comes to BMW there are 2 types of rider. You love them or hate them.

In my opinion:

Honda Transalp 700 - Fabulous bike - A lot uglier and more road biased than the old 650

KTM 990 Adventure - Best Of The Lot - Mental bike and it scared me stupid

Varadero 2008 - Better than any of the other earlier varas i have ridden - I know Robster has done it but it's not really an "adventure" bike

New Tiger - Great bike but i felt the engine was not right for this type of bike, real hooligan though. I think this is too road biased to be any good offroad

GS1200 - Ok bike, but vibey it shakes a lot , average wind protection and poor seat and expensive. Also reliable? Yes they have had reliability issues which BMW are addressing and sorting for the future. Perhaps this is because they are doing more adventurous things with their bikes. Also out of the hundreds of thousands they have sold you only ever hear about the ones with problems. If you take percentages there's not much difference between bikes. As for the seat, last time I was on the back of one it was so comfortable I fell asleep. Could sit on it all day with no problems

GS800 - Oh dear !!!! easily in last place had a 1 hour test ride gave it back after 20 minutes, huge dissapointment. - I Love It. It really is an adventure bike. Being more biased to offroad it doesn't need wind protection. I found the seat very comfortable. And if I didn't love my R1150GS so much I'd definitely think about one.

All bikes have both good and bad points. But it does seem that BMW get the biggest sl***ing off. They can't be doing too much wrong. They sell more than all the other "adventure" bike manufacturers put together. And no, we are not all middle aged, balding men having a mid-life crisis who just want to pose around towns.

[Recycler]

If we all had the same opinions this site would be a very boring place.

One (wo)man's meat is another's poison.

I still really rate my Transalp. I'm off to work in a mo' and I know it'll not break down. But I love it mainly 'cos of where it's taken me - in comfort - and 5 years of servicing labour costs have been £ZERO

However I know it's not the perfect bike. It could do with another 20bhp - I'm not greedy, but it could REALLY do with a 6th gear - can't believe Honda didn't put one in the 700!!!

Do I ever look at it and want to wheel it out just for the pleasure of taking it for a spin? Definitely not, hasn't got that attraction to it. But I still enjoy riding it and have had it over 5 years so it's got something...

If I had a pile of cash, would I change it?

Probably, but nothing stands out so far and the new SuperTen is rumoured to be a 1200 monster - I'm of the mindset of picking the smallest bike that does all you ask. I look upon a bike as a tool rather than a toy and am put off by complexities such as fuel injection etc. Aside from servicing costs, buggering about to & from dealers and hoping they've done a good job is not for me. I enjoy working on the TA - another way I've bonded with it and I also know it inside out so could fix many things at the roadside.

Crikey I sound like an old git. I'd have another VFR tomorrow though as a second bike - a red 750FR please....

As I said - each to his/her own.

I for one would hate turning up at the National to see 75 black Transalps.

But if you find yourself defending an unreliable bike - then (IMO) there's a problem.

[phil w]

Agree there my TA needed extra 20 bhp with me on it for sure. My BMW is fantastic big wide bars for big wide boy ,comfy, all day comfort even if you do have to stop every 100/150 miles you have still got to get back on.
I do worry about the things I read, especially on GSer but it is a volume thing. I do have a couple of mates with 1200 Gs and never had a bit of problem, one of them on 29k, been a few times around the Alps. I suppose you never see a thread saying "Just been on a long trip and nothing broke"

[stanbloke]

KTM 990 Adventure - Best Of The Lot - Mental bike and it scared me stupid

You still want a "Backie" at the National then .

With all these bikes someone will love or hate them, it's big world and there's room for everybody. .