New Owner - wow!

[John Lyon]

Just took delivery of a black 2000 R11S (delivered from a dealer in LA to CA), which unexpectedly came with high windshield, raised bars and luggage mounts (not too bad looking). I accidently took it on a 100 mile ride coming home from the dealer. My last bike was an '83 Guzzi LeMans III, and my impression so far: This bike does not vibrate, has no flywheel effect, is rock solid in corners, is perfect in every way (except maybe the seat) and is very, very beautiful (children gathered). To other potential buyers: Any "complaints" you may read about this bike are simply small deviations from perfection.

[roger albert]

Well, though I really like mine, and tend to agree somewhat, what advice are you really going to buy? Someone who's lived with the bike for a year or two, or someone who's ridden 100 miles and was, afterall, previously calibrated by a guzzi



just a friendly jab. I have a guzzi too.
For whatever reason, I'll strongly agree that the flywheel effect is negligble on the S compared to any 80's guzzi I've ever ridden
(mostly Lemans-s and SPs etc)

later,
and glad you're enjoying the S
regards
roger

[Greg G]

While the R1100S is not perfect, many I owners I know tend to keep feeling the way you feel about over time. After 2200 miles in my last month of ownership, I'm a happy camper. My wife has 1200 on hers and loves it too.

Greg G.

[pdonnell]

The S is not perfect. Until I've owned several bikes across all manufacturer lines I doubt there is a perfect bike. But if it floats your boat...more power to you!! Oh BTW let us know when you hit 20,000 miles whether you still think its perfect

[YAHBO@webtv.net]

20K? Imperfections will appear and recall notices will flood your mailbox way before 20K. The S is a great machine but it falls short of perfect. If it was $7K cheaper? Perfect!!!!
I don't want to rain on the new guy's parade, so I will say this: I find myself choosing my 28 year old two stroke Suzuki over the S quite often!
uh...wait...what I meant to say is, I lost track of all the recalls! Damn...no...wait...um, the tranny is actually a 9 speed if you count all the false neutrals!!

Anyway, enjoy it. It really is a great bike. I only have 7500K on mine so I am looking forward to next spring and putting to rest these reliability issues. Get yourself in with a good dealer (read the archives) and good luck.

------------------

RW
LI,NY

[Pete Osta]

Is the S perfect? Depends on your definition of perfection. As delivered mine was not perfect. My butt and the stock seat were not going to get along for more then 200 miles so I put a Corbin on. Big improvement in comfort and long days in the saddle are long but not uncomfortable. Next was to add a Throttlemiester so my right had could get a break when riding the interstate. Next came the wide rear rim and tire. Next came a Staintune to get better sound. Then Ohins shocks when the stock ones wore out. Lastly a BBPower chip to get a tiny bit more horsepower. I have now done all I am going to do to it. Is it perfect now? No, it could stand to loose about 50 pounds but I have neither the inclination nor the knowledge to remove 50 pounds from the bike without screwing something up. If yours is perfect to you that is all that matters.

Pete

[turnerm]

After 15K miles, the R1100S is PERFECT for me.
I picked up a K1200RS 6 mos. after I bought the R1100S, and I still choose the R1100S to ride 9 out of 10 times.
Yes, it is a personal preference and everyone's opinion differs.
But after reading BBS', email lists, magazines, emails about motorcycles, I realized a few things about most riders.
Most will complain about their bike eventually. Whn this BBS first started, the attitude was much more positive about the bike. Then, because of recalls, problems, boredom, the attitude changed.
No matter what bike people have, they will always find something wrong with it. R1100S owners complain about lack of power, Hayabusa owners complain about other things.
On the K12RS group, people change everything about the bike: more comfortable seat, bars, pegs, screen, etc. Then after all that, they complain that the bike is not sporty enough.
And some R1100S owners buy the bike, claim it is perfect, and change everything on the bike except the frame.
I am in the minority here and think the bike is perfect in stock form. I like the seat, although it takes a few miles to break in. I tlike the stock low bars.
I even took off the case mounting hardware because I like the look without it.
Go to every bike owners forum and I'm sure you will see a similar pattern.

[jgrm1]

John,

Welcome to the Bulletin Board. I have put 8K miles on my 2000 model and am still in love with the R1100S. This BB consists of great people giving great information on a great bike. Gain what you can from other's experiences, but do not let those that had teething problems on early examples dampen your enjoyment of your new toy.

Maybe because I am new to BMW, I can still view my bike for what it is - a machine. Maybe I am an optimist. Maybe I just got a good one. Maybe I have not learned how to complain like a good BMW owner.

Some would feel better if they paid only $7000 to have their windshield crack. For those, the windshield did crack on my father’s GSXR-1100. I could justify the price premium for the R1100S because the lower insurance and maintenance costs will make it the cheaper than any other bike I considered buying after a couple of years of ownership.

Enjoy your new baby.

-Jeff

I agree with the last couple of replies too.
Stop moaning and get out there and ride, that is why you own a bike, is it not?
False neutrals are caused by incorrect gear changing, pressure must be applied to the gear lever until the clutch is released.
Look within for some improvement rather that blaming the bike. Do a advanced riding course. I love my S and I have clocked up 37,000 kilometres and I am still laughing.

[D.Carmichael]

Well,
It is my belief that most people that talk negatively about the S really haven't put much time if any in the saddle of one.
Actually that's the worst thing about my precious metal, the saddle.
Anyway I had my first S stolen with 17,260 grinning miles on it, and it was smooooooth. No real complaints except for the seat, which actually gets a little better with miles.
Well after the disgruntled insurance settlement and a slight monetary lost.
There I was again with the option to buy another bike, and a good time to pick another mount.
To make a long story short I'm now riding a Black 2001 R1100SL .

Thumbs up,
DC

I was a motorcycle courier for 10 years.
Putting crazy miles, wear and tear on just about everything I could ride.
And to this day I feel the S is truely a real world bike. It tends to take care of everything above average, Not the best @ anything in particular but the overall package is hard to beat.

Waiting to exhale,
DC



[This message has been edited by D.Carmichael (edited 12-05-2000).]

[JeffD]

John, enjoy your new bike, great choice, I love mine, I put 24,000 miles on in its first year and if I was given a choice of another new bike I would have a hard time picking anything else. Cheap to insure, easy to maintain and if you want you can ride a thousand miles in a day and ride it on a race track the next. DC's story is a testimonial to the S. ride lots and enjoy Jeff

[YAHBO@webtv.net]

Hey Fastfrank...
I'm sure people that are on their third transmission will appreciate your "look within" jive.

------------------

RW
LI,NY

[Spiralgalaxy5]

Originally posted by YAHBO@webtv.net:
Hey Fastfrank...
I'm sure people that are on their third transmission will appreciate your "look within" jive.

Couldn't resist responding: I'm on my second gearbox as I was convinced that the first had a fault. Now I'm not so sure - I think the 6-speeder is less happy on the Boxer than on the K1200RS and I actually miss the 'clunky' 5-speed transmission from older bikes. I find that if I don't ride for a while the gearchange is awful, a couple of long trips and I think it's great again so perhaps the key is to ride my bike all the time... Problem is the weather in this part of the world is completely f*?^ed-up at the moment and it kind of gets me down when its wet all the time.

Tim

UK

[pdonnell]

I too look within many times to see what I do wrong with the bike. But so far, the first 2 gear-boxes, missing cowell screws, rusting headers, and torture chamber like seat all had very little to do with me. P.S. Anyone who presumes complainer's tend not to ride a lot are full of ****. I know's its obvious but I wanted to go on record to rebut a prior assertion. T-YOU

[Greg G]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by pdonnell:
...so far, the first 2 gear-boxes, missing cowell screws, rusting headers, and torture chamber like seat all had very little to do with me...[QUOTE]

While your complaints are valid and should not be dismissed in any way, I would ask that you consider that those of us that purchased the bike after the first year or so have not had the all the issues of the earlier versions. I'm not all that thrilled about my cracking windscreens either. In fact, to be perfectly analytical about this after having put many kinds of bikes through hard use over the years, I'm pretty high on Triumphs.

After purchasing and riding four Triumph sport/sport touring bikes of the last year and putting 34,000 miles on them (both my wife and I), there is little that could convince me that anyone, even Honda, has an overall tougher, more reliable, better performing product than the Triumph Speed Triple, Sprint RS or Sprint ST. These are outstanding, rugged products in most ways.

BUT, no matter how good they may do what they do, they cannot match the utility of the BMW in some critical areas that simply matter more to hardcore riders like my wife and I. I will spare you from expanding at length on those critical feature unless you ask, but it is my personal opinion that the BMW R1100S is a rare, unique, and beautiful product that does a lot of things others cannot, starting with the shaft drive, life-saving ABS brakes, and saddle bags that can actually be removed and replaced daily without little plastic/rubber parts falling off in the process. Add to that the fact that BMW is among the few (only) manufacturers that can get you parts reliably and quickly, and the scale starts to quickly tip in the direction of BMW.

Greg G.



[This message has been edited by Greg G (edited 12-06-2000).]

[turnerm]

Good post Greg C.

I think there are definitely some bad trannies out there. But all in all, I think it is a great transmission. I have 2 bikes with the same tranny and they are perfect. This transmission has had tremendous success with the R1100S, K1200RS, R1150GS.
BMW must have some quality control issue since there are some bad apples out there. To those that have had more than 1 bad tranny, thats bad luck I guess.

[pdonnell]

Greg,
Good points made in your post. However the issue was about perfection o.k. Or looking "within". Or as someone commented "...complainer's tend not to have too much time in the seat". Whatever the topic digressed to my post addressed the issue of perfection. If I didn't feel over-whemingly happy with this bike I would've dispatched it like my R1100RT I had for a brief 11 months. To those that know me I do not own a car. Just this bike. I know about utility, good looks, good engineering. For the money though its not perfect by any stretch. Its just a well balanced (yuppie) bike. If I were less Yuppie-ish and not stuck on name brands such as "BMW" (oh-boy!!) the Honda VFR or ST1100 or other Triumph models would be much superior bikes for the money. But I like the stature of owning a BMW. So $5600 for the BMW roundels and $10,000 for the good looking bike was worth it for me.

[turnerm]

Wow! We really have a lot of differences here.
The roundel and "stature" is the last reason I got mine. In fact, I wish my bike didnt have the roundel. Its pretentious.
When I had my F650, I liked the tank bag straps because it blocked the roundels.
I love the bike, and other BMW bikes because of the quality and ruggedness. I do think the quality is superior, not perfect, but high.

[D.Carmichael]

Does anyone have a mood ring?

[pdonnell]

hahaha, I love it! But Turner, gotta admit...its not $5000-$7000 more rugged and engineered than its competitor's?

[This message has been edited by pdonnell (edited 12-07-2000).]