BMW R1200RT Wethead!

I would have to think this condition is relevant to a FL climate. Good on ya to catch it early!!

Well thanks for the heads up Bernie, I'll be pulling out the Honda Moly tomorrow for sure.. yours looks DRY. You bought yours same time as me, but mine's a '17. I guess everyone came back from the Bavarian summer break a bit rusty... get it.. LOL.

Is that an errant clip or something on the left side of the picture.. the s- squiggle..by the universal bearing there..

It is lithium grease used to seal the boot.

Looked kinda crunchy/chalky to me. Guess it's old cheddar now.

No, the squiggle thing is actual writing of some sort. Someone wrote something on the inside of the swing arm.
I did have a circling for the left rider foot peg fall of during the service, when I found it, it was in two pieces. Strange.
Also the rear drive was supposed to be changed at the 600 mile service, it was cloudy?

I'm wondering how much life your 2017 final drive has in it, given the rusty looking state of them at relatively low miles and age..
I'm really wanting and ready to go for a RT or GS, brand new as I love the bikes and the brand tho seeing those rusty splines I'm thinking I might go for a DL1000, a Super Tenere or a 1200 Tiger!

If you think that is compromised integrity, you may want to stick with cars. That is simply surface rust caught long before any structural integrity has been compromised. Clean it up, lube it, and check it occasionally, and it will be fine. If you neglect to lube the splines on any shaft bike, rust is very likely to form. Unfortunately BMW underlubed some of these.

Fair enough.. Tho compare this BMW setup with the Yamaha FJR/Tenere, the Honda ST1300/VTX1300, Suzuki Intruder shaft drive set up and which will you, in all honesty, feel more confident in? I love BMW Motorrad tho I can say unequivocally that I have complete confidence in a Japanese shaft drive setup whilst I cannot say that about the Bavarian set up. They won't admit to flaws in their system and they won't ever revert to a twin spar set up as the Teutonic arrogance prevents admission of wrong doing.

BMW designed the Paralever suspension to eliminate the shaft drive jacking that every motorcycle magazine in world complained about with BMW motorcycles. They don’t dare to complain about the Japanese bikes, as that you is where there advertising dollars or euros come from. Moto Guzzi eliminated the jacking, by installing shocks from freight trucks. BMW is under the believe tante it is better to have a working rear suspension, that keeps the rear wheel attached to the ground. By using a Paralever rear suspension system, they are able to separate the suspension part from the drive line part and still provide a motorcycle that uses a drive shaft.
Kawasaki did a very similar setup with there Concours 14X.
I have ridden over 300K miles with BMW Paralever and Telelever suspended bikes and I have no regrets.

Do us all a favor and stick with Japanese.

I have no affinity with any brand or nation. I am no 'fanboy'.
I am merely a consumer who works hard and earns my money honestly. I buy a product and I expect it to work as per the advert.. BMW makes out that they are the high point of technology and reliability; they are not. I love their bikes, I'm on my 5th. My first two were twin spar drive shaft bikes, they had solid final drive systems. The current crop of bikes are not as robust. That's a fact.
I may, or may not go with Japanese.. I like their reliable and solid technology so who knows..

Test ride the new WetHeads and I think even you will be impressed.

Yeah, but the first sign of imperfection he will start whining. We have enough of that around here.

I believe you're wrong, but I'll certainly consider your reference data.

He is wrong, they are better than ever.

Are we comparing reliability of a 25 HP /2 with a 2018 125 HP WetHead? Yes, drive shafts and u-joints last much longer with lower horse power motors.
Also drive shafts with a single u-joint last longer then with a double u-joint, less moving parts. The single sided Paralever swing arm safes weight and promotes better handling compared to bikes with double side swing arms. The failure rate of the single side swing arm is null.
But if you compare the reliability of a drive shaft to a chain driven bike, the drive shaft lasts longer and requires less maintenance then a chain does. Also in the average live of a BMW drive shaft will out last any chain/sprocket setup by 4times. Decent chains and sprockets are not cheap either.

My driveshaft failed at 30000 miles, cost over $1000 to replace with no labor involved. My second one has 50000 miles and is still running. I've replaced the differential bearings twice. I see no dollar savings over chain and sprocket, just less incremental maintenance. It hurts worse when the maintenance is required.

You failed to say what year and model.

Just rode my new to me 2015 r1200rt home. 700 miles so. Noticed this morning what appears to be a small weep of FD fluid onto rear wheel. From what i can find it should be allen bolt (8 mm?) for the fill hole and a torx (T-45) for the drain. Seems like they are installed in the correct location; however its a 6 mm fill plug not 8 mm ? Had a 6000 mi service recently. Before i bought it. Maybe overfilled? Did the tech forget a copper crush washer? Bolt seems nice and snug with my Allen wrench in it. If I recall these are only 8 Nm for torque?

I drove from sea level to a mile high but that shouldn’t have any real/actual effect? Its not everywhere but really only on the lower rim as it parked. Although seems pretty wide spread for it to only have happened parked.

Can I peak inside to see the oil level? When its full is the level normally visible? Would rather not have to drain and refill. I don’t think i lost a lot of fluid but perhaps I just didnt notice on the road. I only took the cases off when home but the fact its only on one portionof the rim makes me think it happened after parking at home (I stopped the first night one the way home too).

Thoughts?

Fill plug


Rim


Drain plug






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I tend to keep my bikes a long time and do my own routine services. I will probably put 5-10k commuting miles per year on it. Maybe a couple bigger 1-2k trips per year as well. Wish it was more. I am not sure if te warranty is transferable or not yet.