2011 bmw g 650 gs fork failure

[slide]

The published weight wet w/o fuel of my bike is 320 lbs. It does feel about the same as my wife's DRZ 400s so it's believable. IIRC, the Husq is 410 lbs. Not sure if that's wet or wet w/fuel, though.

I may be wrong on these but I doubt by much.

I was just at the BMW dealership buying some parts & gave an eye to the F's there. While it's probably silly, I just cannot see myself riding one since I don't trust the fork bosses.

[astroguy]

Originally Posted by slide

I was just at the BMW dealership buying some parts & gave an eye to the F's there. While it's probably silly, I just cannot see myself riding one since I don't trust the fork bosses.

You're likely correct Slide about this concern being 'silly' because it is far more likely that a car will try to off you! We maybe worrying about the wrong things.
I've 10's of thousands of km on my 2001 F650 with the old style fork boss and occasionally I do get that little feeling of wondering what might be happening in those fork sliders but it quickly leaves my mind. Like I mentioned....probably worrying about the wrong stuff but it does seem to be one extra dumb 'risk' thing that I wish didn't exist.
Evey time I let a friend take it for a spin they peek down at the fork bosses before jumping on!! I don't know if they do this to joke with me or because they actually want to see that there isn't any oil seeping!!
Oh well. I would ride with more peace of mind if BMW/showa had not taken it upon themselves to retool the design at likely great expense in 2004 for simply asthetics! What's up with that?

[slide]

The problem, IMO, is mostly in BMW 's silence. Lets the mind run wild.

[madeouttaglass]

Hope this isn't a repost.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...h&summary=true

[reenmachine]

Originally Posted by madeouttaglass

Hope this isn't a repost.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...h&summary=true

It is. Nothing new there. Hope it doesn't reignite this thread into the flaming shitstorm it quickly becomes every time it gets dragged back up.

[GS-A-Day]

When I was at the dealer today, I noticed that the forks on the new BMW F700GS now look similar to the forks on the G650GS. The forks of the F650GS Twin were a different design.

FWIW, it seems that BMW has a good deal of confidence in the G650GS design, as the forks on the F700GS are equipped with two disks and the bike has a good deal more power that the G650GS.

[Davidc83]

32,000+ miles on my 2009 g650gs, no problems or other issues of any kind.

[nomad5326]

Own three Dakars (01, 02, 03). Over 40k, 35k, 25, respectively on each and never had a problem with the forks on/off road. They are ridden equally hard between myself a 220lb rider, my brother a 210lb rider and my GF a 125lb rider on/off road loaded/unloaded. I think a few isolated incidents have created a windstorm for those ambulance chasers or BMW haters. Either upgrade to a YZ front end (which I have on one) or move to the Terra. The bike is excellent in it's purpose.

[twinjet]

Originally Posted by nomad5326

Own three Dakars (01, 02, 03). Over 40k, 35k, 25, respectively on each and never had a problem with the forks on/off road. They are ridden equally hard between myself a 220lb rider, my brother a 210lb rider and my GF a 125lb rider on/off road loaded/unloaded. I think a few isolated incidents have created a windstorm for those ambulance chasers or BMW haters. Either upgrade to a YZ front end (which I have on one) or move to the Terra. The bike is excellent in it's purpose.

I really hate to drag this thread back but when you Google "motorcycle fork failure", only BMW and KTM come up. And KTM did a mandatory recall to fix their forks.

[stromsurfer]

Originally Posted by twinjet

I really hate to drag this thread back but when you Google "motorcycle fork failure", only BMW and KTM come up. And KTM did a mandatory recall to fix their forks.

Does anyone have an actual count of failures. Seems to me we have 656,499.0 comments with only a few actual confirmed failures. Just wondering.......

[Got2Moto]

Looks like eight reported failures

http://www.crossroadz.com.au/F650GS/FFNHTSA.html

[reenmachine]

Originally Posted by stromsurfer

Does anyone have an actual count of failures. Seems to me we have 656,499.0 comments with only a few actual confirmed failures. Just wondering.......

Originally Posted by Got2Moto

Looks like eight reported failures

http://www.crossroadz.com.au/F650GS/FFNHTSA.html

Not on a 2011 G650GS, which is what this thread is supposed to be about. Nor a 2012 G650GS. 2013 G650GS...nope.

The older failures are a different fork design.

The one late-model failure that sparked this thread (and which is the only one seen all over the Internet) was most likely caused by a pre-existing condition stemming from shipping damage or improper assembly.

We'll never know for sure, because no helpful information was ever posted and OP disappeared, moving on with her life. The tinfoil hat crowd says this is because she was silenced by BMW in a grand cover-up of a defective fork design that continues to be foisted upon the public because human lives are cheaper than redesign costs.

The other 99.9% of us are too busy out enjoying our bikes for thousands and thousands of rough miles to pay them any mind.

This thread has been dead for a long, long time.

That's all I have to say about that.

[Got2Moto]

Yep, I didn't see that this thread was titled 2011.
Just one in U.S. Out of a few thousand made thereabouts.
Wish the OP would have some consideration to update us
fellow riders with some pertinent details to the outcome.

Put the scare into a couple thousand riders and then go quiet.
Weird.

[WayneC1]

Nothing weird, she let us know what happened, Insurance Co wrote machine off, she bought a new machine and moved on in life

[ratze]

DAM, thats the first time ive seen such a thing. been around to.