The Tarnished Blue and White Roundel - Iron Butt Rally Epilog

[flash412]

Yep, Flash is back!
Sorry man, no offense...couldn't resist.

No problem. Every now and then der Korporation needs a kick in the adz. FWIW, I currently own five BMW motorcycles. I have owned upwards of three dozen over the years.

Four out of forty is a TEN percent failure rate for BMW rear drives in the '07 IBR.

BMW does NOT have a problem.
"These are NOT the 'droids you're looking for." - Obi Wan

 

[globalrider]

I just reread Tom Austin's reports and he reports 4 FD failures, but it was actually 3:

Rob Nye - R1200RTP
Glenn Pancoast - R1200GS
Gerhard Memmen-Krueger - R1200GS

Chris Sakala (R1150GS) was reported to have a final drive failure but Chris told me at the finish that it was a transmission failure.

Don't look at the numbers, look at the percentage!

Thats an extremely high percentage!

 

[DanGreene]

Julie and I are your average touring riders that attend lots of rallies, camping at most. Previous owned BMWs include '73 R75/5, '75 R75/6, '78 R100/7, '91 K75S, '95 K1100LT...all WITHOUT any final drive issues.

Our current ride is a '02 K1200RS and I replaced the final drive TWICE last year. May '06 at 69000+ miles and Sept '06 at 79000+ miles. Up until the first failure I changed the final drive fluid every 6K. After the second failure I now change final drive fluid every 5K. This is B.S. when the BMW manual calls for a 12K fluid change.

BMW should FIRE the entire final drive design team! What started as only a K12LT issue, like a virus, has now infected the K12RS, R1150GS, R1200GS and even the R1200RTs. BMW should admit their error and FIX the problem. But they won't because WE keep buying their product "as is".

Two very good points and well said. Thanks. Hope all is well with you and yours.

 

[MOTOR31]

Using the link that was provided earlier I decided to do a bit of checking. I am assuming the data on the linked site for the IBR data is correct.

First a proviso, that itÔÇÖs difficult to draw too many conclusions from the data as not all of the reasons for DNF entrants are known. Only in the case of a few BMWÔÇÖs and that number (4 vs. 3) is still in dispute. IÔÇÖll continue to use the 4 FD failures as confirmed by Paul.

Here are the bare total IBR numbers.
(all % rounded down)
97 entrants
33 DNF (all brands all reasons)
34% DNF rate

The Brand participation numbers in decreasing order.

BMW 40
Honda 29
Yamaha 14
Suzuki 5
HD 3
Kawasaki 3
Buel 1
Victory 1
Truimph 1
___
Total 97

Obviously BMW has the highest percentage of entrants at 41%

Of the total DNF there were 16 BMWÔÇÖs or .40% of all DNF all causes.

Only the 4 FDÔÇÖs, all 1200GS model FDÔÇÖs including the one I saw posted was installed in Rob NyeÔÇÖs RTP, are the ones I have any info on and gleaned informally from the BBS. There were a total of seven 1200GS (GSA) models listed. Adding RobÔÇÖs RTP FD to it indicates that of the eight 1200 GS FD equipped bikes 4 failed for a 50% failure rate. Even if it turns out there were only 3, that is still a 37% failure rate.

Other than for the FD issue with the 1200 GS bike there is no real info to draw conclusions from even with the numbers of total entered and DNF by brand.

IÔÇÖve seen things posted regarding a 10% failure rate and what not. Given the info I have seen, comparing only apples to apples (1200GS FD equipment) the failure rate far exceeds 10%.