I have had a catastrophic failure of the front end on my 2001 BMW K1200LT.
I recently had the bike into the local dealer and when I got it out I ran over to Lake Charles and back and found about 2/3 of the screws in the Tupperware loose. I tightened them after adding a little thread lock to them. I went ahead and went to Florida for the IBA and MTF Ride In at Daytona Party during Bike Week.
My most recent problem was much worse. In fact it scared the hell out of me and I don't scare easy. The ball joint that is connected to the bridge assembly above the front wheel came loose. And it looks like it was loose for a while.
I was inclined to place the blame on the dealer. They had just finished replacing the upper and lower fork seals and I don't know if the ball joint was removed or loosened to do this. It looks like this has happened over a period of time. I put over 3600 miles on the motorcycle in the last three weeks since the service. I mention this as I look at the amount of debris collected in the threads where the ball joint has came loose.
The joint broke loose as I was bumping the bike off the center stand. When the front tire hit the floor, the bike collapsed to the left, landing on the J-Peg and bending the hell out of it. I thought at first I had did something stupid, and got the rest of the way off the bike and tried to stand it up. I t was immediately apparent that there was something wrong. The bike felt heavier, if that is possible, and the angle of the bike was all wrong. I struggled to upright the bike and when I got it up on the side stand I could see that the front end was lower than the back. I tried to get it up on the center stand and couldn't do it by myself. I had the ladies of the house help me get it up on the center stand and I got down on my knees to look at the front end.
At first I couldn't see what was wrong so I grabbed a flashlight and took another look. The pictures that I'll attach will show what I have found. As you will see the ball joint assembly has failed, not in the ball joint where you would expect it to, but the assembly has backed completely out or was never fully installed. I believe that if this had failed while out on the interstate, a fatality would have occurred.
I got the word from the dealer, Gulf Coast BMW in South Houston, TX, on this at about 6 pm Thursday April 6, 2006. According to the service manager, A.J. Laird, a BMW representative has looked at the bike and said that the ball joint backed out over time and that it is not their responsibility and that they can offer no assistance with the repairs. This would be a critical design flaw. I believe that this ball joint should never back out on its own. This is what I was told by the dealer's service manager. There is nothing in the maintenance schedules that would lead the rider to inspect these parts and the rider would have no warning that a catastrophic failure was imminent. There is nothing to prevent this from occurring, but if it had been installed and had proper torque applied during installation, it shouldnÔÇÖt ever come to the position that an incident like this could occur.
I would advise everyone who owns a K1200LT to check this ball joint. There is no way that this should ever just back out. I really don't believe that is possible. I personally believe that this is a faulty installation. Maybe the faulty installation was by BMW, maybe by a service man, but a faulty installation at any rate. And since the BMW dealer serviced the front end after inspection less than one month ago, the technician in charge of the service should have caught the problem.
Lewis Stephens
I recently had the bike into the local dealer and when I got it out I ran over to Lake Charles and back and found about 2/3 of the screws in the Tupperware loose. I tightened them after adding a little thread lock to them. I went ahead and went to Florida for the IBA and MTF Ride In at Daytona Party during Bike Week.
My most recent problem was much worse. In fact it scared the hell out of me and I don't scare easy. The ball joint that is connected to the bridge assembly above the front wheel came loose. And it looks like it was loose for a while.
I was inclined to place the blame on the dealer. They had just finished replacing the upper and lower fork seals and I don't know if the ball joint was removed or loosened to do this. It looks like this has happened over a period of time. I put over 3600 miles on the motorcycle in the last three weeks since the service. I mention this as I look at the amount of debris collected in the threads where the ball joint has came loose.
The joint broke loose as I was bumping the bike off the center stand. When the front tire hit the floor, the bike collapsed to the left, landing on the J-Peg and bending the hell out of it. I thought at first I had did something stupid, and got the rest of the way off the bike and tried to stand it up. I t was immediately apparent that there was something wrong. The bike felt heavier, if that is possible, and the angle of the bike was all wrong. I struggled to upright the bike and when I got it up on the side stand I could see that the front end was lower than the back. I tried to get it up on the center stand and couldn't do it by myself. I had the ladies of the house help me get it up on the center stand and I got down on my knees to look at the front end.
At first I couldn't see what was wrong so I grabbed a flashlight and took another look. The pictures that I'll attach will show what I have found. As you will see the ball joint assembly has failed, not in the ball joint where you would expect it to, but the assembly has backed completely out or was never fully installed. I believe that if this had failed while out on the interstate, a fatality would have occurred.
I got the word from the dealer, Gulf Coast BMW in South Houston, TX, on this at about 6 pm Thursday April 6, 2006. According to the service manager, A.J. Laird, a BMW representative has looked at the bike and said that the ball joint backed out over time and that it is not their responsibility and that they can offer no assistance with the repairs. This would be a critical design flaw. I believe that this ball joint should never back out on its own. This is what I was told by the dealer's service manager. There is nothing in the maintenance schedules that would lead the rider to inspect these parts and the rider would have no warning that a catastrophic failure was imminent. There is nothing to prevent this from occurring, but if it had been installed and had proper torque applied during installation, it shouldnÔÇÖt ever come to the position that an incident like this could occur.
I would advise everyone who owns a K1200LT to check this ball joint. There is no way that this should ever just back out. I really don't believe that is possible. I personally believe that this is a faulty installation. Maybe the faulty installation was by BMW, maybe by a service man, but a faulty installation at any rate. And since the BMW dealer serviced the front end after inspection less than one month ago, the technician in charge of the service should have caught the problem.
Lewis Stephens
