Anything is better than nothing. In forty odd years of riding, the longest I've been without a bike is three months. It was a very long three months.
Why did you decide to say farewell to the 850?
I have to disagree. My dealer went to extreme measures to quickly fix my 310GS because (1) I carefully manage my relationship with them, (2) it died unexpectedly 114 miles away, and (3) I (truthfully) told them I needed the bike in seven work days for an no-refund off-road event. Also worth noting are the many stories in the BMW MOA magazine about dealers quickly getting tourers back on the road. Of course, a lot of this is situation specific. The loaner concept is a liability issue and, more recently, an availability issue.
My last non-BMW bike was my Suzuki TS250 sold in 1986; before that, I have to go back to my Honda GL500 Silverwing sold in 1984. I've had BMW's continuously, except for the three months when I had no bike, since buying my 1977 R100/7 in 1984. I did consider several non-BMW dual sport bikes before deciding on my 310GS, but the test ride feel killed the Husky 701 option and the premium above MSRP that the Honda dealer wanted killed that option. My reasons for going BMW through the years were initially my father's valid 1970s era opinion on their reliability and later/still, their continuous innovation. Other brands have caught up reliability-wise thanks to modern manufacturing methods, but, in my opinion, BMW is still leading the way on motorcycle innovation.
It took several months, think they suffer from the traditional BMW bias toward Boxers (having owned several I get that) and reluctance to buy models not produced in the Fatherland. I’ve owned many other brands but always seem to gravitate back to the Roundel.
That’s heartening to hear. It no doubt helps that you have bought several high-end bikes from the same dealer (I assume), so they should be doing their best to keep you happy. My experience has been rather different, though I don’t know whether that’s because I only have a 310 or because the dealership that’s closest is understaffed. I’m planning some longer trips for this coming summer and have been wondering what I would do if the bike broke down 2,000 miles away, when It would be imperative to get on the road again as quickly as possible. I guess it all depends on the dealership.
Bad assumption: The only bike I bought from them was the 2022 G310GS itself, hardly high end. I bought my RR in northern Virginia (used with just 680 miles on it) and I bought my XR new from Charlotte BMW because at the time, it was the first fully optioned 2021 Motorrad colored XR inbound to the US. In fact, other than knowing it had Motorrad colors, I had to buy the XR without knowing what it would look like because BMW had not yet announced the 2021 model year changes and all pictures were still embargoed. Most of my relationship with my dealer comes from having them do all the service work on the RR, XR, and GS and I buy all my BMW OEM parts and accessories through them.
The nearest dealer won't be 2000 miles away, at least not here in the US. Pretty much every person I've spoken with who broke down during the trip had a good story about how quickly the nearest dealer was able to get them going again and/or a good story about how someone from the BMW Anonymous Book recovered them, got them to a dealer, or got them going themselves. Before your trip, get the Anonymous Book App on your phone and make sure you have BMW Roadside Assistance or roadside assistance from your insurance company or through BMW MOA. BMW Roadside Assistance transported me and my G310GS 114 miles back to my dealer at no cost to me. It took them awhile to find a provider, but they got it done in the end.
Sorry, but I'm going to call bull on this one: Unless your trip was an unplanned emergency (like my breakdown and non-refundable event), expecting a dealer to have or make an opening with just couple of days notice is poor planning on your part. Expecting him to bump a customer who got in line before you is not reasonable. What about that customer's plans? As the saying goes, "Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine."
You’re right about that, and I wouldn’t disagree with you on this point. But there’s a larger issue at work here. If you sell me a new bike and you expect me to do a 600 mile service, but then you can’t offer that service within 5 weeks of me buying the bike, then that’s just not a great customer experience. (I got the bike on a Friday, called first thing the following week for a service appointment.) Granted, maybe that’s just what being a motorcyclist entails, and maybe I’m being unrealistic in my expectations, but it certainly doesn’t make it easier to use a motorcycle as serious vehicle rather than just as a toy that you may or may not be using on weekends. Just my two cents as someone who’s new to this world and who uses a bike as a daily driver.
I get your frustration and I agree re your experience point. An interesting aspect of service wait times is that if your service capacity equals your service demand, service wait times become infinite. So, service providers have to buy excess capacity if they want to maintain reasonable wait times. However, motorcycle service demand is seasonal, so they can size their service staff for the height of the riding season and pay for excess staff during off season or they can let wait times wax and wane seasonally. They cannot afford to pay for excess staff off season, so we all get wait times that wax and wane seasonally.
True words. I’ll have to do some thinking on this. Maybe the takeaway really is that it’s best to have more than one bike, given that the turnaround for bike repairs tends to be longer, for all of the reasons you mention. I’m privileged in that my job and location don’t require me to have a car, and now that I’ve gotten a taste of what it’s like to live with a bike, I don’t really want to get one either. I really like the solution that Bob’s BMW came up with. They seem to be a quality outfit, from all I can tell. I bought some riding gear from them and they were excellent.
Being dependent upon a single point of failure is problematic. In the Army, I was trained to have backups for your backups. You need one backup, whether it's a second bike, a friend, public transportation, etc.
Bob's is a well run business; this reflects Bob's laser like focus for efficiency and profit.
I think relying on a auto mechanic will only go so far, but certainly worth cultivating. If there is an independent motorcycle mechanic nearby, it couldn't hurt to cultivate him or her for some things.
Not sure where you live, but I've spent many years in the US with a bike as my only transportation and had plenty of friends like that too.
