2012 BMW G650GS Sertao Owners

[Cal]

Anybody know rules about warranty if I take it out of the US?

Congratulations on the new bike. Where are you going? Its not a case of honouring the warranty its a case of getting the bike to an official dealer. When riding in Mexico there are not many dealers and when I replaced my water pump at a regular dirt bike shop BMW would not honour the labor charge at the shop in Puerta Vallarta they said I had to take it to Mexico City or Guadalajara(sp) a 1000kms trip with a bum water pump! In the end when I got home they made good on the water pump kit and gave me a new one to replace the one I used which I was carrying with me.

Ridng a BMW to out of the way places does have its problems.

[mimo523]

Originally Posted by Cal

Congratulations on the new bike. Where are you going? Its not a case of honouring the warranty its a case of getting the bike to an official dealer. When riding in Mexico there are not many dealers and when I replaced my water pump at a regular dirt bike shop BMW would not honour the labor charge at the shop in Puerta Vallarta they said I had to take it to Mexico City or Guadalajara(sp) a 1000kms trip with a bum water pump! In the end when I got home they made good on the water pump kit and gave me a new one to replace the one I used which I was carrying with me.

Ridng a BMW to out of the way places does have its problems.

Thanks! The plan is to leave May/June to ship across the atlantic and ride the summer in Europe, I plan to be in Germany so obviously wont be a problem for service there, then through eastern Europe down to Turkey and then shipping to India and into Nepal. After that is TBD. Maybe riding from Nepal into China and down to SE Asia depending on how money holds outs and if its even possible to enter China from Nepal. I have seen reports where people say yes and others said no. Researching this stuff every day. I just made the deposit Friday so it does make for more planning to get it serviced at the proper time.

[Cal]

Cool! Did you look into buying in Germany?

[GSBS]

Originally Posted by twinrider

What didn't you like about the ABS? I find it to be non-intrusive on road even under aggressive braking, and I can switch it off when I ride dirt.

Well... where to begin?

Disclaimer: this is my experience with my bike... maybe it wasn't working as designed, dunno...

1. The only time it ever engaged for me was in situations when the rear wheel slipped and then I simply no longer had rear brakes. Like you're going across an area with wet grass and try to brake, the tire wants to slide, then there's no braking at all there... Scary.

2. Bleeding the brakes was a major PITA cuz you had to activate the ABS modulator to flush any air from the unit. So what I had to do was to bleed the lines as best I could, then ride the bike on grass or gravel or whatever would make the wheel try to slide to engage the unit, then bleed the brakes some more.

3. Riding with others... We'd come to where the trail begins and the pavement ends. All my buddies would tear off down the dusty track. I, however, had to come to a complete stop, hold down a button for several seconds until the ABS off light flashed before I could take off. By the time I got going I was always the one to eat roost and dust. And at every stop when the key was switched off I had it to do all over again.

4. I don't want a 10-pound brick deciding how much braking I need for a given situation. I prefer to judge that for myself. YRMV.

I will say that I did like the active ABS on my 1200GS because I could do all the braking from the handlebars (front brake lever) on the road. And it was even okay on gravel roads.

But the system on my Dakar simply SUCKED (IMHO).

My 2¢

[mimo523]

Originally Posted by Cal

Cool! Did you look into buying in Germany?

Not really, I wanted time to ride it and break it in and farkle it the way I want before embarking on this trip.

[SafteyCushion]

Originally Posted by GSBS

Well... where to begin?

Disclaimer: this is my experience with my bike... maybe it wasn't working as designed, dunno...

1. The only time it ever engaged for me was in situations when the rear wheel slipped and then I simply no longer had rear brakes. Like you're going across an area with wet grass and try to brake, the tire wants to slide, then there's no braking at all there... Scary.

2. Bleeding the brakes was a major PITA cuz you had to activate the ABS modulator to flush any air from the unit. So what I had to do was to bleed the lines as best I could, then ride the bike on grass or gravel or whatever would make the wheel try to slide to engage the unit, then bleed the brakes some more.

3. Riding with others... We'd come to where the trail begins and the pavement ends. All my buddies would tear off down the dusty track. I, however, had to come to a complete stop, hold down a button for several seconds until the ABS off light flashed before I could take off. By the time I got going I was always the one to eat roost and dust. And at every stop when the key was switched off I had it to do all over again.

4. I don't want a 10-pound brick deciding how much braking I need for a given situation. I prefer to judge that for myself. YRMV.

I will say that I did like the active ABS on my 1200GS because I could do all the braking from the handlebars (front brake lever) on the road. And it was even okay on gravel roads.

But the system on my Dakar simply SUCKED (IMHO).

My 2¢

On my 07 F650gs, I had pretty much the same on-trail experience as GSBS. But out on the pavement, I still want the ABS. I really wish BMW had a better "on the fly" solution or setting.

[GSBS]

Originally Posted by SafteyCushion

On my 07 F650gs, I had pretty much the same on-trail experience as GSBS. But out on the pavement, I still want the ABS. I really wish BMW had a better "on the fly" solution or setting.

Have you ever done a mock emergency braking test on the road? I mean REALLY grab as much brake front and rear as you can with the F650 ABS?

On mine at least once the rear wheel began to slide, that was it for the rear brakes. Nothing. Nota. Just plain scary to me.

I'd much prefer to just back off myself when I feel the wheel slip. At least I'd still have brakes to try again.

But again, that was my experience with my Dakar. Maybe the ABS was screwed up on mine. But it was anything but confidence inspiring!

[twinrider]

I ride my Dakar very aggressively on tarmac and have never had any issues with the ABS. I usually apply braking force about 70/30 percent front/back and on the rare occasions that I have activated the rear ABS the bike still slows down fine.

I can understand you not wanting it if you ride a lot offroad with your buddies. Not many chances for me to ride dirt and I'm slow when I do...

[Yossarian™]

Originally Posted by GSBS

On mine at least once the rear wheel began to slide, that was it for the rear brakes. Nothing. Nota. Just plain scary to me.

I'm pretty sure that's not how it's supposed to function. You may want to have it checked out.

[ehatcher]

I bought a used 2003 Dakar and put over 30,000 miles on it with no issues. For the riding I do, the Dakar is the perfect bike. Mine has been modded quite a bit, new bodywork, Yamaha forks, Ohlins etc, etc. If something happened to mine, I would build another just like it.

Though I really like the Dakar, I can't figure out why BMW is re-releasing essentially the same bike. If BMW upgraded the forks and knocked a few pounds off, this bike would appeal to a lot more riders.




Eric

[twinrider]

Originally Posted by ehatcher

Though I really like the Dakar, I can't figure out why BMW is re-releasing essentially the same bike. If BMW upgraded the forks and knocked a few pounds off, this bike would appeal to a lot more riders.

Yup...

[jnorton1]

I went and looked at one a week or two ago. I liked the look of it with the new plastics and instruments. When I sat on it, it semed like it was a little taller than my 01 Dakar.

I bought my Dakar with 8k miles on it last Jan. I almost doubled its mileage this year. It took some money getting it road worthy after it basically sat for a few yeas. New brakes, coolant, oil, tires. air filter, fork oil, chain, and sprockets. Not all these needed done but I figured it couldn't hurt. I haven't had any issues with mine outside of taking a rock to the radiator resulting in a slow leak.

If I had the money i would buy a new one without a doubt. My brother has a KLR and whenever I hop on it i instantly feel disconnected from the bike compared to mine. Im extremely happy with mine despite being a bit heavy. I wanted something that was streetable and could still take a beating on Colorado's jeep trails. So far so good, its next test will be baja in few weeks. We will see how it handles Calamuje wash.

[Durden]

Originally Posted by jnorton1

I went and looked at one a week or two ago. I liked the look of it with the new plastics and instruments. When I sat on it, it semed like it was a little taller than my 01 Dakar.

I bought my Dakar with 8k miles on it last Jan. I almost doubled its mileage this year. It took some money getting it road worthy after it basically sat for a few yeas. New brakes, coolant, oil, tires. air filter, fork oil, chain, and sprockets. Not all these needed done but I figured it couldn't hurt. I haven't had any issues with mine outside of taking a rock to the radiator resulting in a slow leak.

If I had the money i would buy a new one without a doubt. My brother has a KLR and whenever I hop on it i instantly feel disconnected from the bike compared to mine. Im extremely happy with mine despite being a bit heavy. I wanted something that was streetable and could still take a beating on Colorado's jeep trails. So far so good, its next test will be baja in few weeks. We will see how it handles Calamuje wash.

Thanks for the insight, as a former KLR owner, I'm hesitant to buy what many call 'a more expensive KLR'. Thats why I was looking at the F800, but after hearing so many positive things about the Dakar/Sertao I think im getting close to a final decision. At least I have a few months before the snow melts :)

If you dont mind me asking - how much did you pay for your 01 Dakar?

[GSBS]

Originally Posted by Yossarian™

Originally Posted by GSBS
On mine at least once the rear wheel began to slide, that was it for the rear brakes. Nothing. Nota. Just plain scary to me.


I'm pretty sure that's not how it's supposed to function. You may want to have it checked out.

It's already "checked out" and on the floor of my garage!

I removed the ABS lines and modulator last week. Good riddance!

[Cortez]

Hopefully you don't regret that decision, there was something wrong with that
unit without a doubt.

I've put over 20k miles on my 650cc kawasaki with ABS in just under 5 years
and it has saved my a$$ on the road at least 3-4 times in that period from
certain front wheel lock-up crashes.

Knowing that I had the ABS to rely on I was a bit more prone to going
"over the line" in some situations, but in one or two nothing and
no-one (98% of riders anyways) would have never saved it, and ABS did.

That led to a decision never to buy a non-ABS bike again.