Not Quite Stranded

Yup Murphy's Law has struck again. My 2005 R1200RT is 32 months old but has 43,600 miles on her. My starter dropped dead today but not before I made it to my bike mechanic. For the past few weeks starting has been questionable with the bike hesitating when the starter button was depressed. I thought it was the battery so I bought a brand new gel battery. I barely got the bike started after a stop on an errand today so I rode straight to my mechanic at D&S Cycle in Beaverton, OR. These guys do great work at super fair labor rates. They do all the work on the police R1200s. I actually saved myself money by turning them on to Chicago BMW for the starter. They sell new BMW parts for 20% off retail. Saved myself $60 there. I'm just grateful I got the bike to my mechanic before I found myself stranded somewhere. Even though the warranty is for 3 years I don't qualify since I've put 43k on the bike already. It would seem BMW's starters are good for that amount of use. My mechanic says the police bikes, because of their riding habits, don't last that long.

I still think a starter should last longer. Of course it depends on how many start cycles it's gone though.

Carry an extra. (Joke.)

Fred

FredRydr said:

Carry an extra. (Joke.)

Fred

Click to expand...

Don't have room, I'm already carrying a final drive.

I've had some trouble with the starter switch . . . . possibly corroded contacts? When my 'starter' started to struggle, I did the same thing you did and buy a new battery, but it still had the problem. I've learned to depress the starter switch from the side rather than head on. I have 80K miles on an '00 RT and use it to commute, so it gets plenty of rain on it . . . . possibly contributing to the switch problem.

Pete