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Dealers not servicing older bikes?

Motodan said:
Like the 1923 through 1969 Harley bikes? Those machines seem to have survived to a satisfactory degree, be it in a museum or at bike week. Perhaps our old BMW bikes will follow the Harley lead and just become more exclusively rare, but accounted for.
Click to expand...

For the older bikes I doubt the values will be affected much. My thoughts would be more concerning bikes that have passed the end of their warranty by five or ten years. Bikes that should be retaining good value but may not due to lack of support from BMW.
 
Motodan said:
Like the 1923 through 1969 Harley bikes? Those machines seem to have survived to a satisfactory degree, be it in a museum or at bike week. Perhaps our old BMW bikes will follow the Harley lead and just become more exclusively rare, but accounted for.
Click to expand...

Well, remember that 90% of all Harleys are still on the road. The other 10% made it home. ;)

On a more serious note, my guess is that within a decade or two, all our bikes will be obsolescent, as electricity supplants gasoline (and diesel) as the primary energy source for our vehicles: motorcycle, car, and truck.

So, if I buy a new bike this year, it may be my last ICE bike. My current car may be my last ICE car, or maybe I'll buy one more ICE or hybrid. Time will tell.

I am neither opposed to this, nor eager to jump into it. On the car side, EV cars do not yet do what I want a vehicle to do, so I do not yet intend to buy one. At some point they will, at which point I may consider such a purchase. Ditto EV motorcycles.
 
BC1100S said:
You might consider one of these.....

https://www.lucidmotors.com/en-ca/
Click to expand...

LOL. Let me amend my statement: On the car side, EV cars do not yet do what I want a vehicle to do, at a price point that I can justify to myself.

I started to go into more detail, then caught myself. This is a motorcycle forum, not a car forum. LOL at myself.

I hadn't heard of Lucid. Is this for real, vaporware, or something in between? Do they make motorcycles?
 
Regarding autos, I'm waiting for the solid state battery. Regarding motorcycles, like some of you have written, I may be on my last BMW. I'm seriously looking at a lighter bike from a company that has more dealerships for long-trip convenience, that doesn't mind servicing older bikes, has repair manuals, etc.

E.
 
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easy said:
Regarding autos, I'm waiting for the solid state battery. Regarding motorcycles, like some of you have written, I may be on my last BMW. I'm seriously looking at a lighter bike from a company that has more dealerships for long-trip convenience, that doesn't mind servicing older bikes, has repair manuals, etc.

E.
Click to expand...

Huffy?😄
 
Motodan said:
Huffy?��
Click to expand...



I already have two Specialized bicycles. That's why I have a broken hand, bruised ribs, and a bad bruise around my left eye - two days in the hospital. You should see what it did to my helmet. A little girl jumped from behind her two parents in front of me. I could have run over the girl, or gone off the trail and hit some boulders. I chose the boulders. Next time, I'm going to brake harder, and keep my course. I'm getting too old to compensate for bad parenting.

To quote one of our friends, "Be safe out there."

I apologize in advance for diverting the thread.

E.
 
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I do not live near to them, but I do as much business as I can with Max BMW.
I have older BMWs, and they are knowledgeable, helpful, and courteous.
Joe
 
glenfiddich said:
... but have been hearing reports of dealers no longer working on bikes over ten years old. (Not only BMW; other brands as well.) Just how widespread is that?
Pete
Click to expand...

Quite honestly, if my local dealer told me they wouldn't service my BMW anymore I'd sell or trade the bike ASAP. But I would not buy another BMW at that point because BMW chose to not support their customer, therefore I would no longer support them. Sorry BMW, I'm not buying a new bike on YOUR schedule. You cannot expect me to be a "loyal customer" when you are not loyal to your customers. In my mind there is nothing about BMW that is so superior to other motorcycles that I will keep buying new ones on their schedule - there are plenty of other fish in the sea.

That said, a lot of dealerships (cars and motorcycles) don't have "mechanics" anymore - you know, people who can actually troubleshoot and fix vehicles. They have "technicians" - people who can only hook it up to a computer and then replace parts the computer tells them to. If the computer can't tell them what's wrong they are worthless. So, of course they cannot fix a ten year old bike. I probably don't want those types working on my bike anyway.
 
joe garski said:
I do not live near to them, but I do as much business as I can with Max BMW.
I have older BMWs, and they are knowledgeable, helpful, and courteous.
Joe
Click to expand...

I love Max. It's a five hour ride each way for me to get there, but they are head and shoulders better than the dealer we have here in Vermont.

My concern, however, is running into mechanical trouble a couple thousand miles from home during our summer adventures. There are parts of the country where the nearest dealer is 500 miles away...and if they refuse to work on my 2012 GSA I'd be in a tough spot.
 
How I Feel About BMW Customer Support. Exactly.

zimmermanj said:
Quite honestly, if my local dealer told me they wouldn't service my BMW anymore I'd sell or trade the bike ASAP. But I would not buy another BMW at that point because BMW chose to not support their customer, therefore I would no longer support them. Sorry BMW, I'm not buying a new bike on YOUR schedule. You cannot expect me to be a "loyal customer" when you are not loyal to your customers. In my mind there is nothing about BMW that is so superior to other motorcycles that I will keep buying new ones on their schedule - there are plenty of other fish in the sea.

That said, a lot of dealerships (cars and motorcycles) don't have "mechanics" anymore - you know, people who can actually troubleshoot and fix vehicles. They have "technicians" - people who can only hook it up to a computer and then replace parts the computer tells them to. If the computer can't tell them what's wrong they are worthless. So, of course they cannot fix a ten year old bike. I probably don't want those types working on my bike anyway.
Click to expand...

For me, this could not have been stated more perfectly.
 
glenfiddich said:
I love Max. It's a five hour ride each way for me to get there, but they are head and shoulders better than the dealer we have here in Vermont.

My concern, however, is running into mechanical trouble a couple thousand miles from home during our summer adventures. There are parts of the country where the nearest dealer is 500 miles away...and if they refuse to work on my 2012 GSA I'd be in a tough spot.
Click to expand...

That is compouned by the fact that some dealers do not like at all to work on sidecar rigs.
 
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