Is it me? Is my French so bad? Are dealers down here really so busy with winter coming that they don't need work coming into their workshops to keep them going? Here's the story.

A week ago I decided that to try and make my K1300GT look a more attractive proposition as a purchase, I'd need to get the 90,000 service done before I advertised it for sale. I duly sent an email to three local BMW dealers asking for a quote for this service, which I know is likely to be at least €500 as it's a major service where the valve clearances are checked. Here is the convoluted story of how this simple request fared in the wonderland that is BMW service .


We start with a positive note as Dealer #1 replied to my enquiry the next day with a quote which was in line with my expectations at €464, but when I looked at it in detail I realised that most of the work quoted for had been done very recently at the 80,000 service (done late at 83,000), and that the radiator purge and refilling with new antifreeze had been done in July this year at 88,000 when I'd had a problem with it overheating. Not wanting to pay out again for work done quite recently, and given I'm selling it, I wrote back the following day with full details of the work done, and asked if they would give me a revised quote, but ONLY for work that they considered necessary, given the proximity and timing of the previous jobs and the fact I was going to be selling it. I guess I expected that they would drop the brake fluid and antifreeze, and maybe even the oil change, leaving the plugs and valve clearances, but still, they're the experts, I figured they'd know best which elements were critical?

A simple enough request you would think, but it then went deathly quiet and I after hearing nothing for a week, I went back to them asking if they were going to reply or should I consider their silence an expression of their disinterest and that I should take my bike elsewhere? This elicited a response, but not in the form of the quote I was expecting, but a demand that I send them copies of the previous work I had done so that they could prepare an accurate quote. I sent these by return, but wondered why it was strictly necessary to do so, given that they had already had the same information in writing a week earlier!

Expecting a reply that afternoon, guess what, I didn’t get one, so I chased again, and received a new quote, this time for €628!!!!  So after 9 days I'd now got a quote that had increased by €164 +35% over the original, which only differed from the first quote by definition of the exclusion of the brake fluid change, but now contained five jobs which had increased in price, the oil by +70%, and the addition of four items not even quoted for in the original quotation.

I wrote back telling them this quote was a joke and how was it possible that the original quote had been so inaccurate? I was left seriously unimpressed when I was informed that the original quote had been done by somebody else and contained errors and omissions, no kidding!!! It seems that I was expected to just suck it up and accept that the previous quote had been worthless and that I shouldn’t balk at having to pay 35% more because they can’t quote correctly.

I gave them one last chance, and asked for a quote for valve clearances and plugs only, and ended upo with a price of €403, plus €50 for a loan bike, which incidently had previously been quoted as being €25. Unbelieveable. The words piss up in a brewery spring to mind.


So would Dealer #2 be any better? The request for a quote was sent on the same day as to Dealer #1 . They replied two days later advising that their service manager wasn't there and that they would reply at the end of the week. I then sent them the same mail I'd sent to the other dealer explaining about the prior work I’d had done, the fact I was selling it and asked if they would send a quote allowing for these items. I  received their confirmation back immediately that when their service manager came back he would quote allowing for these issues. Looks like they might be a bit more on the ball?

Of course it turns out I was to be disappointed again, so the following week having not received any quote and knowing the service manager was back, I chased again and received a reply which apologised for the delay, but then asked what bike the work was required for? They also wanted a copy of the carte grise (registration document) so that they could quote correctly.

In a bid to expedite the receipt of a quote I sent copies of the previous service invoices and the carte grise along with a note stating that the work was required for a BMW K1300GT, as per the heading of my previous two emails!!!!

Finally, 8 days after my initial enquiry I received a quote for €571, which was €107 more than the original quote from Dealer #1, and they hadn't removed any of the options I'd thought they might. Admittedly they had included an air filter, which to be fair I forgot to tell them wasn't required, so this reduced the additional amount to €62, although this appeared to be the cost of two joints(?) which had been omitted from the initial quote from  Dealer #1(but which subsequently were added to their revised quote). The big issue with the quote, apart from the price, was that they were unable to offer a courtesy bike and wanted mine the night before so that they can work on a cold engine. This is impractical and adds substantial costs and time as I’d then need to make multiple trips there and back by both car and bike to get the work done.

In desperation I asked for a quote for the valve check and plug change only, but as of this post I’ve not had their offer.

Wondering if all BMW dealers are so poor I tried to cover all bases by sending the same request to a third dealer. This is probably the biggest of the three but is an hour and a half away. Their reply? After several days they want to see copies of the last invoices of work done. I GIVE UP!

I hadn’t realised that asking for a quote was so difficult. I hadn’t expected that the first quote I received would have comprised so many errors that it wasn’t worth the paper it was sent on. inattention to detail when a dealer replys to you with an incorrect spelling of my name, and asking me what bike I want serviced when it is clearly indicated at the head of emails addressed to them, professional, I think not!. Frankly it’s an appalling indictment of BMW service, and clearly if three dealers are showing the same ineptitude and delay in responding, it’s not an isolated incident.

I’d write to the dealer CEO of each establishment to complain but frankly I can’t be bothered, and I've pretty much lost all interest in BMW. Shame, as it's been a good bike with the odd fault, but BMW can say goodbye to another long term owner. I imagine they think there will be loads along to replace me, but I wonder how many others have given up too?


PS- If you're wondering what I did in the end? I decided to discount the price of the bike and let the next guy run the gamut of inefficiencies of BMW and their weird and wonderful world of customer service.

Over the years I've posted several times about my K1300GT, it's performance and issues, but given the recent costs and issues I've had with it and after an article recently published in MCN saying that the K BMW bikes are practically disposable items due to high cost of repairs and depreciating value, I thought it would be of value to share with others my experiences regarding running costs, outlay, and residual values, ie the true monetary outlay required to keep it on the road. I've not included costs for insurance or petrol as these will vary massively dependant on the rider, their experience and where they live, neither have I included petrol expense, although with the bike averaging 55mpg over 56,000 miles, a simple calculation shows that  I would have used around 1019 gallons.

I've also not included around €725 of extras I chose to add (including derestricting it) as these are very specific to my bike and others will be unlikely to add the same parts.


Here then are the figures:

Purchase cost new in July 2009                                           €19500

Owned 2556 days    Current kms 89,678  = ave 35 kms per day


TYRES

15 pairs of tyres: ave life front 7484 kms, rear 6387 kms

TOTAL                                                              €3329

 

SERVICING every 10,000kms – 8 to date costing €3071

but next service due NOW with likely cost of €500

TOTAL  (incl. 90,000 service due now)                 €3571


REPAIRS             

Switchgear (L)  at 70,000kms                              €343
Switchgear (R) at 87,000kms                              €161

Radiator overheating & oil leak

at 88,000kms                                                    €457

TOTAL                                             €961            


CONSUMABLES

Battery at 73,000kms                                           €121

Brake pads ( ooriginals plus 2 replacement sets)     €295

Air filters (2) at 40,000 and 83,000                          €73

Clutch at 80,000                                                    €739

TOTAL                                                               €1228




GRAND TOTAL                                  €9089 equiv 47% of purchase cost

Current book value                                              €8780

Remaining value in bike today                             €1631 equiv 4.1% of purchase cost


Daily running cost equiv.                                        €3.56

Running cost per km                                              €0.10


Looking at the book resale values it would have been better had I sold it in 2012 after 3 years of ownership as at that time it would still have retained 75% of its value. After 4 years that drops to 68% then plummets after year 5 down to 55%, although in years 5, 6 and 7, annual depreciation has droopped to just a few hundred euros per year compared to the €3000 it lost in year 4. I should also quantify my specific bikes value which is around €500 less than bikes which would have covered only 10000kms p.a, mine has done nearly 13,000 and is valued accordingly.

Looking at the costs above it seems that the repair element is pretty low with the bulk of these costs taken up by switchgear replacements which BMW declined to assist me with despite me writing to them and complaining. They replied that the bike had been out of warranty since 2011 (only 2 years given in France) and had high miles, however should I choose to buy another new or used bike from their dealers within the next year they will look sympathetically towards the cost of that purchase or trade in.

The bike has been run without extended warranty and has had the suspension relay brace recall, one set of switchgear, an ECU and two rear driveshaft bearings replaced under warranty.

I leave you to make what you will of the above, clearly any future costs could potentially be high, the ESA suspension and driveshaft are a worry and I know others with lower mileage bikes have already had these replaced.

My view is that the more you ride these bikes the better they perform and the less problems you have, keeping one as a weekend toy may keep daily running costs down but parts may not react well to being stood for long periods. I rode mine 1161kms within 3 days, 2090 within 7, 5140 in 28 days and 9091 within 60, not the norm by any means but its been ridden long and hard with huge amounts of time in the mountains in low gears driving out of hairpins so overall I reckon it's not done too badly, trouble is I haven't found anything I'd like to replace it with so maybe I just have to steel myself to potentially big future bills and run it into the ground, after all, don't we buy these bikes expecting trouble free reliability and big mileages?

Since the advent of time, or in the context of this article, since the creation of the motorcycle, for every product invented, there have always been companies and individuals who have striven to improve upon the standard item. In the case of motorbikes this has generally been by way of performance in either handling, weight loss, or power output. The goal of making a good thing better isn’t unique to motorbikes of course, it's a methodology applied to virtually everything you care to mention, and is the driver for the world and how its technology advances. Take an idea and improve it, and over time we get better and better machines (motorbikes in this case), and our life becomes easier and better as we take advantage of these advances, but in France, there has been a limit to how far that advancement has been allowed to progress. I’m talking here about how the French government has stifled the motorcycle industry for over three decades through the imposition and enforcement of its iniquitous 100bhp limit for motorcycles.

For those of you who don’t live in La Belle France and have been riding for years on machines of ever increasing horsepower, you may not be aware that up until this year, those of us who do live in France, have been deprived of the “right” to ride a motorbike with a bhp figure greater than 100.  The H2 Kawasaki and it's 220bhp has been but a dream for us. IF we could buy one here it would only have 100bhp. Imagine that if you can? Buying a rocketship but only being allowed to ride it with less than half its power. Take that back a step and it gets worse when you consider that we can't even have a full power relatively small engined 600 like an R6, as its 120bhp has been verboten. We can buy one and will pay the full retail price for it (another bugbear as the French don’t seem to understand the concept of discounts), but it will have been restricted in performance by any number of mechanical or electrical means. “Why would you pay full price for a castrated bike you ask?”  Well simply put, there hasn’t been any option. Back in 1984 the French decided that speed was a major influence in accidents, deeming that the more powerful the bike and the faster it went, the more likely you would be to be involved in an accident, so they decided that if they restricted power to 100bhp, and consequently speed, this would help prevent accidents.

In the UK if you’re old enough, you may remember MAG lobbying Brussels to ensure that the UK didn’t implement the same policy? They were successful in halting the implementation of this hated legislation and you should be grateful to them, as for the past 32 years the French have been forced to ride bikes that might on paper make 160bhp, will cost them the same as your identical bike with 160bhp, but are only allowed to have acceess to 62.5% of that power, because somebody decided long ago that it was good for you and the French accident statistics. The Swiss for a time also had restrictions on power but later revoked the limits, an action that unfortunately wasn't replicated across the border here.

Over the years French bikers protested against this restriction and had a strong legal case, as it was in effect a restriction on the passage and sale of goods within the EU, and contrary to one of the supposedly fundamental benefits of EU membership. The motorcycle manufacturers argued that there were additional costs incurred in restricting the power of bikes sold in France and that those bikes would be unable to be sold outside that country, as no-one would buy something inferior to the same item sold elsewhere in Europe. Indeed, such was the furore that Brussels told France to drop the restriction, but the French government  basically said screw you, and happily paid the fines Brussels subsequently imposed on them, in order to keep the law on their statutes. Despite countless studies done throughout the world showing that speed was NOT the main cause of accidents, and that there was no correlation in the power of a motorbike and speed related accident statistics, they buried their heads in the sand and ignored everyone and everything and continued paying the fines, whilst the public continued to lobby for equality and legality in application of a supposedly Europeanwide law,which would have rid them of the unjustified horsepower shackles.

The whole situation is made even less understandable when you realise that in France it’s legal to ride a moped from the age of 14. This creates a youth who become mobile at an extremely early age, but whom also become accomplished riders very early in life compared to other nationalities. Ride or drive in France, and you will find car drivers move over to let bikers pass. This is something seen in very few countries as elsewhere bikers seem to have developed an unwarranted bad boy image, perhaps harking back to the bad press of  the mods and rockers days in the UK, and the gang activities of the Hells Angels. The likelihood in France though, is that this courtesy comes from drivers having started their own mobility as a youth on a moped and knowing what it takes to ride bikes and to stay alive, so they look after their own, and it’s something that ought to be recognised, applauded, and copied worldwide, in order to promote better understanding and safety on our roads.

Back to restricted power outputs, and here’s a great example of how crazy things used to be. I worked in Germany for a couple of years and owned a ZX10R which I loved. Knowing I was returning to France and wanting to keep my prized low mileage bike, I went to the Kawasaki dealer and asked him to restrict it so it conformed to French law. He thought I was crazy but nevertheless purchased the relevant restriction kit, fitted it, charged me €300, and off I went back to France where I expected to be allowed to ride my restricted bike without any problems. In France I went to the sous prefecture, which is I guess the equivalent of the DVLA in the UK, and presented the paperwork from the German dealer which showed the cost of the kit, the invoice for fitting it, and a re-registration document from the German TUV confirming it was now a 100 bhp machine. After some head scratching the lady says “your frame and engine numbers aren’t on our database”, unsurprising since it was a German machine. After hunting round for 10 minutes she called someone higher up the ladder whom she passed to me and who informed me “you cannot register your bike in France.”  No I can I replied, the bike has a Kawasaki supplied and fitted restriction kit, has been re-registered in Germany as 100bhp, and I have all the documentation. “It doesn’t matter” the guy told me. “We don’t know what kit they fitted?. You have to take it to a French Kawasaki dealer, they will review the bike and fit their restriction kit ”. Knowing this is likely to mean the replacement of the ECU at a cost of several hundred euros, it's difficult to comprehend that this guy expects that I will now pay several hundred euros more to basically do exactly the same job the German dealer did, but this time they will keep my parts and refuse to return them to me " in case I refit them as soon as I have regisitered the bike" . Surely this is banditry under any other name and all done in the interests of safety, allegedly!

So here I am having paid €300 to have a bike officially derestricted with an official Kawasaki kit at a Kawasaki dealer, and they wouldn’t accept it. Madness! I ended up taking the bike back to Germany to the original dealer, getting him to take the kit off, pay another few hundred for the privilege, get it re-registered there as being a full power bike again, and having no option other than to sell it. With this experience of the legislation here, it became obvious that the government was doing absolutely everything in its power to “dissuade” riders from buying anything other than a “genuine” French supplied restricted machine.
One thing the French are is militant, so it perhaps won't surprise you to learn that it was largely believed that 90% of French bikers rode full power bikes after derestricting their machines so they could enjoy the power as the manufacturers intended. The downside? Well if you had an accident and the bike was found to be have been illegally derestricted your insurance would be null and void, and the police and insurers would be having words with you, and god forbid you had killed anyone as you’d be left open to punitive costs and no-one but yourself to pay them, a chilling thought, but nevertheless, many made that choice and derestricted their machines and gambled.

A few years ago it was rumoured that the French would be forced to backtrack and allow the sale of full power machines. Originally slated for 2014 they managed to hold out until 2016, but as of Jan 1st 2016 it has been possible to buy a full power bike, if it were new. That of course is great news, but what about the millions of used bikes that are restricted? How can you have new bikes full power and not allow all bikes to be full power? So the next great idea was that if a used bike conformed to Euro 3 it would be allowed to be derestricted, but since a good part of the Euro ruling is pollution based, that got dropped in favour of a bike having ABS, good news you would think? Of course there was even more prevarication and the March deadline for the legislation to have been agreed soon passed with its eventual approveal coming in April 2016, and two weeks after that agreement I was at the BMW dealer having my K1300GT derestricted, so am I a happy bunny now? The answer is both yes and no.

Yes, the power increase from 100 to 160bhp is fantastic, the bike has come alive and I now see what all the fuss was about. My perception of my 285kg behemoth as a workhorse with its lowly 100bhp, has changed to a fun bike which elicits whoops and hollers as I have found new and powerful acceleration which has introduced the missing fun element I’ve not had for the past 7 years and 87,000kms, it’s been a long time coming, and it’s been worth it, BUT.

There’s always a but. The process to have my 60bhp liberated is not without issue. I had to take the bike to the BMW dealer and then hand over €250 for them to spend 20 minutes, tops, loading a new engine map to the ECU, sending the details of my bike to BMW France, who will create a new European certificate of conformity, in order that I can go to the Sous Prefecture with this document and get the bike registered as a full power machine. This will entail an hour and a half round trip and circa €36 in their admin fees. OK, so at least it’s all legal and above board and there is no risk of the insurance company dobbing out of their liabilities because it’s all legit, BUT, and here we go again, they’re not so keen on the idea of us now having access to all this power and it seems they’re not going to make it easy for us.

I had asked my insurers as far back as October last year (2015) what they would do when all their customers came to them advising them their bikes were now full power, and I was told there had been no word from the top as to their response, so clearly there was little advance planning being done here.

I duly advised my insurers by mail once the work had been done, and that I would forward them the new certificate of conformity and registration when I have it. I told them the dealer had told me to expect a delay of up to 5 weeks for the paperwork as everyone is getting their bike derestricted and they’re swamped, in fact my BMW dealer had done 28 bikes in 2 weeks, not a bad little earner at €250 a pop!

I hadn’t heard back from the insurers until this week when I spoke to them on another matter, and this time they demanded the paperwork. I told them it would be forwarded to them as soon as I had it, and I thought she was going to have a heart attack when I informed her that the power had increased from 100 to 160bhp. I was stunned when she told me that the company had no tariff for full power bikes, would likely decline to insure them, and even if they did the premium would likely increase. This was like a red rag to a bull, and I told her that since 1984 the insurers had based their tariffs on the full power output figure of non restricted bikes regardless of the fact French machines could never exceed 100bhp. The reality being that for 30+ years they had charged premiums assessed on the risk of theoretical outputs (160bhp on my bike as an example) and now that the bike is actually legally able to be ridden with that figure, they want to charge more??? Outrageous!

The bike magazines had speculated that the insurers would wait a year to see if the accident rate increased dramatically before hiking their premiums. If the rate doesn’t go up in that first year  the government will have been proved wrong, but it seems the insurers aren’t prepared to take the risk and want to hike the prices immediately. I find this morally reprehensible. The motorcycle forums are awash with bikers claiming their premiums have increased by up to 40%, and my dealer says all the insurance companies have jumped on the bandwagon and are increasing prices, which just goes to show that insurers are the leeches we always knew they were, onto a good thing in the past 30 years and now a chance to increase profits even more. If the accident rates don’t increase you can bet they won’t drop their prices, they never do, instead French bikers find themselves royally screwed yet again.

To those of you riding around on your full power bikes with half way decent insurance costs, I envy you, enjoy your bikes and the simplicity of doing so, over here it wasn’t simple before, and it seems it won’t be simple in the future, and we’re undoubtedly going to paying a lot more than you for the privilege of being on two wheels.

C’est la vie!


UPDATE 3/6/2016 - My insurers MAAF have now quoted a new premium 38.6% higher now the bike is derestricted so they've lost my custom and that of my car too when that comes up for renewal

Every now and again I wonder whether it's time to move on from the GT and get something different. With the GT now being 6 years old and with 83,000kms on the clock, I'm considering some options. As it's in for a 50,000 miles service at the local dealer I've taken the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and arranged a test ride on the new top of the range S1000XR to see whether BMW's much lauded new steed is good enough to persuade me to part with "old faithful".

The sales guy isn't sure initially how to set up the ESA for rider and pillion, or whether the quick shifter works on both up and downshifts, but a quick check of the users manual confirms which button to press, and now the suspension is showing the familiar two helmets for rider and pillion settings, which I need as my better half is along for the ride too, as no purchase of a bike will ever go through unless she's comfortable on it!



I don't know the roads or area around by the dealer, but get lucky when I spot that the GPS mount is for BMW's equivalent of my Zumo 660, and sure enough my GPS slots in perfectly. The only negative is that it isn't operable via the thumb wheel on the left bar, but hey, at least I can find my way back now.




Sitting on the XR for the first time I'm taken by how tall the seat height is, I'm on tiptoes to hold it upright. Next to hit me is the bar position,  it feels like riding a chopper in comparison to my GT. The bars seem high and wide, but the benefit of this position is soon evident in the ease with which nudging them drops the front into bends. The bike itself is quite slim, the seat slightly dished and very comfy, and my knees fit perfectly into the cut-outs on the tank, so ergonomically it's ticking all the boxes.




The ride starts with some 40mph limited town roads leading to a roundabout and onto a dual carriageway. Turning onto it, I'm shocked, and so is Sue, with the ferocity of the acceleration as it leaps forward, taking us both by surprise and forcing Sue to hang on for grim death. Taking it up through the gears the speed increases rapidly, but I'm surprised to see that although the red line starts at 11,000rpm, and the shift light starts flashing at around 8ish, at 9000 it's banging into what must be a rev limiter.  I'm going to assume this is because the bike only has 993 miles on the clock and is still being run in, so perhaps limiting the revs during the running in process is the reason for this restriction?

Tired of the limitations of 40mph A roads and lines of traffic, I've overshot a promising looking turnoff down a small country road. Signalling to pull over into a layby to turn round, I'm suddenly faced with a combination of seat height and high bars which make doing a turn back a somewhat less comfortable proposition than it would have been on my lower GT, back pedalling on tip toes doesn't feel very reassuring!




Once onto the small lane I'm immediately comfortable, entering unknown bends quickly but feeling in full control and comfortable with the excellent light handling. The bike turns in nicely and gives a lot of confidence, and it turns out it's wearing the same Bridgestone T30's as my GT, so perhaps this helps? What isn't so great for me is the brakes, or rather the diving on the brakes. I've ridden for 7 years and over 100,000kms on BM's tele and duolever forks which all but eradicate dive under braking, so suddenly finding the front dipping and Sues weight sliding forward is a bit of a shock.

Deciding to switch from Road mode to Dynamic, I had the sensation that the power delivery was smoother, but for some reason the feel and handling seemed to change too, and not for the better. The confidence of throwing it into the bends I'd enjoyed a few minutes earlier had evaporated and I have no idea why, but I felt more at ease once I'd switched it back to Road.

I was finding the suspension more compliant than my GT (which gives the impression of steamrollering over bumps), but it wasn't the case for Sue, the ride translating into a choppy one for her on the back. She also wasn't too comfortable on the seat either, which was digging into her inner thighs a little. Whilst higher speed road suspension for me as a rider is fine, the lower speed isn't quite as good. Round town later on I find the front is crashing over manhole covers, giving another example of how the bike operates better at speed.




The engine is the thing everyone will talk about. It is a little rough at tickover but will pull from as low as 2000rpm in top. I tried it down to 1500rpm and it didn't like it, but add just 500rpm more and it pulls away cleanly. In fact it runs better at this artificially low 2000rpm in 6th than it does in 4th or 5th, which I reckon is because in the lower gears it just wants to rev its nuts off and disappear into the distance! Late in the ride I managed to set off onto a roundabout in second instead of first, only spotting it when I saw the gear indicator, so more proof it's a smooth and flexible engine. I'd heard some complaints of  vibration, but I only felt this once at around 6000rpm but couldn't replicate it.

One slightly negative point is that at 70mph on the motorway, with the the rev counter showing 5000rpm, the motor feels as if its just coming onto the cam and wanting to pick up and go, so you either need to slow the pace a little or take it past this point to get a smooth ride, either way you're not going to want to hold it at that speed.

Whilst the engines growl and acceleration will keep you involved, there is another noise which intrudes a little. Round town I'm aware of a humming coming from the tank in front of me, which turns out to be the fan which seems to activate at around 90 degrees, which it will constantly run at, or higher, in traffic or moving slowly. In all honesty, town riding isn't where this bike works best. It, and the quickshifter (which does work both ways up and down the gearbox), work better the faster you're going. Using the clutch for downshifts confuses the gearbox, it just take a little getting used to to not use the clutch when going down into first! Generally the quickshifter is great, although I have to say the shifts were not always super crisp or consistent, but the fact you only need the clutch to pull away in first is a real boon, I need one for my R1 racebike NOW!

Finally it would be remiss of me not to mention the ever present wind noise. The low screen does a pretty good job deflecting wind, but it isn't going to offer you a silent ride.

So what are my final thoughts? Well if I were looking for a bike for myself only, I'd probably buy one, but I'm not, it needs to double up for two up riding, and this is where it drops a few demerit points. I have to say from my perspective it was ok, but Sue was less than impressed, a fact backed up by the sales guy who informed us that those who rode it solo raved about it, those who rode it two up universally didn't rate it.

The engine is great, the quick shifter a useful addition, the GPS mount and luggage fittings well made, the plastics a touch thinner than perhaps you'd expect, but acceptable nonetheless, and it handles extremely well. I was very happy riding unknown roads at a fair old lick, which is indicative of the confidence the bike instills.  Overall I'd rate it as an   8 1/2 / 10, but if I hadn't come from 8 years of riding a duo lever suspension bike without fork dive, it might have had a 9!

I can't believe I'm asking this question as I've owned a K1200/1300GT since 2008 and I ought to know the answer by now, but it's a question that bugs me each time I need to change the front tyre, what's the easist way to lift the front?

I should state I never allow a garage to take the bike and do it themselves, I always take loose wheels in, but the process to get the front wheel out is not the easiest. I don't have a low hanging beam to support the front and hold it up, and placing a board on a car jack under the belly/exhaust doesn't work either, so I have to:

Unbolt the rear silencer and swing it out of the way
Remove the rear wheel
Unbolt the front axle
Get a friend to push down on the rear rack to lift the front high enough to enable removal of the wheel
Drop the forks down onto a suitable board/brick to support it

That's the easy bit as the axle is ready to just pull out, it's much more difficult trying to hold the bike up to reinsert the axle, especially if the axle doesn't line up first time.


SO, anyone got any great ideas? How do you do yours? I have a few paddock stands. Can I just change the rear U shaped adapters I use to a pair to match the forks? What type are they? Anyone got pictures? Recommend a brand?

I've discounted the Abba central stand as I'm not sure it lifts the front, or does it?

Looking forward to hearing how it should be done, only 7 years after  I should have found out!!!!!




   

And so the tribe reassembles again one by one.

Good job getting the site up and running again