Today I headed out for a ride on a beautiful day in Michigan - one of few we've had this spring. I had the 6,000 interval service completed at my local BMW dealership at about 13,500 miles in March. Check oil every time I ride, and at every fill up - no issues with burning oil or leakage of any sort.
I was at a stop sign, took off in 1st gear to cross the intersection, and as I went to shift to second, all I got was a bad whining toward the front of the bike - definitely not toward the rear hub. The transmission would not go into neutral unless turned off, then shifted easily. I tried restarting a couple of times and jostling the bike a bit to see if something was stuck, but just had the same whine, along with a bit of a hot oil smell. If I restarted in neutral everything was fine - engine running perfectly, no warning lights on.
Fortunately I was about a mile from home so just pushed it on back - thankfully a level road. BMW comes to pick it up tomorrow for a diagnosis. I'm hopeful of a clutch but worry it is transmission. Most clutch failures I've had just free revved and didn't make a bad noise - but those weren't on BMW's. This bike has been babied since day one I purchased it with 11k miles from someone I knew - so I'm pretty disappointed in this type of failure at what I would see is low mileage. Was considering a new BMW - but after searching various threads, Quality doesn't seem the strong point I thought it was. Will update the situation once I hear the damages. I do have a good dealer locally so am hopeful.....
I was at a stop sign, took off in 1st gear to cross the intersection, and as I went to shift to second, all I got was a bad whining toward the front of the bike - definitely not toward the rear hub. The transmission would not go into neutral unless turned off, then shifted easily. I tried restarting a couple of times and jostling the bike a bit to see if something was stuck, but just had the same whine, along with a bit of a hot oil smell. If I restarted in neutral everything was fine - engine running perfectly, no warning lights on.
Fortunately I was about a mile from home so just pushed it on back - thankfully a level road. BMW comes to pick it up tomorrow for a diagnosis. I'm hopeful of a clutch but worry it is transmission. Most clutch failures I've had just free revved and didn't make a bad noise - but those weren't on BMW's. This bike has been babied since day one I purchased it with 11k miles from someone I knew - so I'm pretty disappointed in this type of failure at what I would see is low mileage. Was considering a new BMW - but after searching various threads, Quality doesn't seem the strong point I thought it was. Will update the situation once I hear the damages. I do have a good dealer locally so am hopeful.....