Engineered like no other…
After suffering all week from
On Saturday afternoon after replacing my KTM fork springs at Tom & Andi's place for lighter ones, I crashed my KTM on a dirt track near the Eastern Freeway at 70 km/h. I rode back to Tom’s place where Andi performed first aid on me while Tom performed first aid on the bent KTM. I returned home slightly bent and battered and with a little bit less skin than I had when I started the day
On Sunday morning I treated the R1150GS to a quick wash before leaving for the Thorpdale ride. It was a welcome, cool and pleasant morning after the week long heatwave. Not long after departing Berwick I noticed the clutch slipping in top gear when accelerating hard and this problem only got worse as the ride continued. By the time we got to Drouin I feared the usually super reliable GS was going to leave me stranded. I notified rear rider Dave Ward that I was going to withdraw from the ride. While returning I tried different gears at different revs but always the same effect: as soon as I got into the meaty part of the power band, the revs would increase but not the speed of the bike. With no visible sign of a fluid leak and only 40,000 kms on the clock it I thought it was very unusual that the clutch plates would be worn out.
After phoning several long term GS owners, some with over 200,000 kms on their bikes, no one had experienced a similar clutch failure. My final call to long time ago MTCV member Neville Borgelt hit pay-dirt. He had a similar failure when the seals on the clutch slave cylinder, located deep in the bowels of the engine, failed and allowed hydraulic fluid to leak onto the clutch plates ruining them in the process. The bad news was the cost of his repair was $1400 and the bike shop was unable to start work on his bike for four weeks. With the Tassie trip less than month away I had no time to spare.
The following morning I rang Southbank BMW to book my bike in for new clutch plates but was told the job would now cost $2000 comprising $1100 in labour and $900 in parts with a four week wait before they could commence work. After pleading my case for urgency because of my upcoming trip I am now booked in on 26th February. The job will take two days to complete and involve dismantling the entire rear of the bike from the engine back including removal of the rear wheel, battery, swing-arm, drive-shaft, diff, gearbox, rear sub-frame, air-box, exhaust system and centre stand.
Oh well, as I always say, "What can ya do? At least things can only get better." Now I know what BMW mean in their advertising blurbs when they state, "Engineered like no other."
Rob
(still love my GS) Langer