Fork Stanchion recall?

Did the check on my bike today, peeled back the pieces of old inner tube they appear to have used to cover up ( more like hide ) the absolutely piss potically stupid and amateurish way they have secured the top fittings to the fork tubes and carried it out as per the bulletin.

Thankfully mine appears to be fine after 12,000 (road ) miles , but looking at the manner of fixing it reminds me of the some of the crap there was on cheap import monkey bikes or mini motos , definitely not a well engineered or apparently tested method to successfully secure the forks on a premium expensive rufty tufty round the world ready adventure bike
 
Did the check on my bike today, peeled back the pieces of old inner tube they appear to have used to cover up ( more like hide ) the absolutely piss potically stupid and amateurish way they have secured the top fittings to the fork tubes and carried it out as per the bulletin.

Thankfully mine appears to be fine after 12,000 (road ) miles , but looking at the manner of fixing it reminds me of the some of the crap there was on cheap import monkey bikes or mini motos , definitely not a well engineered or apparently tested method to successfully secure the forks on a premium expensive rufty tufty round the world ready adventure bike

You really are falling out with your WC aren't you?
 
All LC bikes. Previous gen GS wasnt crimped, but used a thread. Seems that those GSs subjected to rough roads such as Africa and Oz seem more prone to failure.

hexheads are crimped, my 05 had a loose top on one stanchion, could of easily dropped out,Geoff at Hilltop spotted it when it was on his dyno,
i drilled and tapped an m4 bolt either side where the crimp mark is.
 
Sensible man, I don't think I'd want to to take the risk...............say you hit a big pothole at speed, causing the forks to compress and then what??


I think this is all a storm in a tea-cup, I am on my second LC, 27,000 miles on the first and 25,000 almost on my current one - it 99% road riding and both bikes have been brilliant - I have always moved the rubber sleeve at the top of the forks when cleaning the bike to make sure there was no rust and that all was well, takes 2 mins to to. I have absolutely no qualms about riding my bike at speed and two up fully loaded and doing my daily commute.

I am sure that if you clout the bike hard enough then it is possible to do some damage, but if your bike has suffered a big knock then any biker with an ounce of nous would check it out as a precaution - just check your bike and stop fussing. If BMW do a recall then just get the work done and stop being a bunch of girls.
 
I'm going into Alan Jeffries tomorrow about another issue, so I'll raise this issue and see what they say.
 
I think this is all a storm in a tea-cup, I am on my second LC, 27,000 miles on the first and 25,000 almost on my current one - it 99% road riding and both bikes have been brilliant - I have always moved the rubber sleeve at the top of the forks when cleaning the bike to make sure there was no rust and that all was well, takes 2 mins to to. I have absolutely no qualms about riding my bike at speed and two up fully loaded and doing my daily commute.

I am sure that if you clout the bike hard enough then it is possible to do some damage, but if your bike has suffered a big knock then any biker with an ounce of nous would check it out as a precaution - just check your bike and stop fussing. If BMW do a recall then just get the work done and stop being a bunch of girls.

I think the point is that it's sold as a capable off roading bike for extreme conditions, yet the forks arent build for it. You sound like you know your onions (I've read a lot of your posts), so would you consider it OK to crimp such a critical component of an off-road bike?
 
Pot hole

I hit a feck off big pot hole in maroc a few years back at 70mph , i thought id killed the 1150 with the bang it made, but only the rear mudguard dangly bit fecked off into oblivion, never to be seen again,and there was no other aparent damage,everything bottomed out ,but even the wheels are straight.So i stopped, checked it over, found it all good and so carried on.I doubt the WC would have survived that, i get the impression even the rims are thinner.Theyve tried hard to make the thing lighter, and done a fair job, but i think the forks were a tad too far.By the way there is an industrial fix for it, a guy in the states made a gizmo which clamps on the legs to hold the fitting solidly in place, 140 dollars... Stanch hes called it i believe.
 
I think the point is that it's sold as a capable off roading bike for extreme conditions, yet the forks arent build for it. You sound like you know your onions (I've read a lot of your posts), so would you consider it OK to crimp such a critical component of an off-road bike?

I know that and if you use any vehicle off road then it is common sense to check it if it's used hard - how many LCs have been sold and how many have had this problem? Can we have some accurate figures before jumping to conclusions?

As far as the crimping goes, the original 2013 didn't even have that and had been through all of BMW's testing, they found just before the launch that a few of their test bikes had loose forks, so they sent technicians all over the world to modify all the bikes by punching indents into the place where the crimps are now - I guess the current crimps are just the production way of doing that original mod. Everything was fine until this latest issue with South African bikes, many, many thousands of LCs have been sold and used with no issues - so the way of fixing the forks can't be that bad, but to really understand the significance you would need to understand all of the engineering involved.
 
I know that and if you use any vehicle off road then it is common sense to check it if it's used hard - how many LCs have been sold and how many have had this problem? Can we have some accurate figures before jumping to conclusions?

As far as the crimping goes, the original 2013 didn't even have that and had been through all of BMW's testing, they found just before the launch that a few of their test bikes had loose forks, so they sent technicians all over the world to modify all the bikes by punching indents into the place where the crimps are now - I guess the current crimps are just the production way of doing that original mod. Everything was fine until this latest issue with South African bikes, many, many thousands of LCs have been sold and used with no issues - so the way of fixing the forks can't be that bad, but to really understand the significance you would need to understand all of the engineering involved.

Certainly is a storm in a teacup. 4 years that the LC has been out and only now there is a 'recall'.

IMO, just get it fixed by BMW at next visit. Personally I am a few months away from that and don't really want to be part of the initial 'test' bikes that the service techs work out how to apply the fix.
 
? Explaineth Nutty

I find it quite odd that people are coming on here saying they're cancelling their orders, just because a recall is issued. The way some folk respond to these issues is truly laughable. Find a manufacturer that doesn't have issues with any of their bikes. Ain't gonna happen.
 
I find it quite odd that people are coming on here saying they're cancelling their orders, just because a recall is issued. The way some folk respond to these issues is truly laughable. Find a manufacturer that doesn't have issues with any of their bikes. Ain't gonna happen.

You nearly cancelled your KTM order because there was a wheel problem :)

Only a few months ago
 
I find it quite odd that people are coming on here saying they're cancelling their orders, just because a recall is issued. The way some folk respond to these issues is truly laughable. Find a manufacturer that doesn't have issues with any of their bikes. Ain't gonna happen.

Ah I see. I'm sort of guilty of that too, in a way. I almost bought a second hand 911 once as a bucket list thing. I was a hairs breadth from signing on a 2003, until I found out about the IMS failure problem. AFAIK Porsche never did admit there was a problem or recall any cars, just made subtle revisions until it was engineered out, some 15 years later. Left a lot of people many thousands of pounds out of pocket apparently. It was enough to stop me getting involved in the used 911 market anyway. I believe thats a big factor in why some 911's are now so cheap (sub £15k).

At least BMW have issued a recall. I can understand why it might give someone the willies though, especially if they are new to the brand. These issues are kind of fundamental and you do have to wonder how they dont come out in testing of these supposedly high performance premium machines...
 
I know that and if you use any vehicle off road then it is common sense to check it if it's used hard - how many LCs have been sold and how many have had this problem? Can we have some accurate figures before jumping to conclusions?

As far as the crimping goes, the original 2013 didn't even have that and had been through all of BMW's testing, they found just before the launch that a few of their test bikes had loose forks, so they sent technicians all over the world to modify all the bikes by punching indents into the place where the crimps are now - I guess the current crimps are just the production way of doing that original mod. Everything was fine until this latest issue with South African bikes, many, many thousands of LCs have been sold and used with no issues - so the way of fixing the forks can't be that bad, but to really understand the significance you would need to understand all of the engineering involved.

It would be very interesting to see if BMW issue figures for these failures thats for sure.

I don't understand the engineering except that crimping *feels* like it might be a bit weedy.
 
I know that and if you use any vehicle off road then it is common sense to check it if it's used hard - how many LCs have been sold and how many have had this problem? Can we have some accurate figures before jumping to conclusions?

As far as the crimping goes, the original 2013 didn't even have that and had been through all of BMW's testing, they found just before the launch that a few of their test bikes had loose forks, so they sent technicians all over the world to modify all the bikes by punching indents into the place where the crimps are now - I guess the current crimps are just the production way of doing that original mod. Everything was fine until this latest issue with South African bikes, many, many thousands of LCs have been sold and used with no issues - so the way of fixing the forks can't be that bad, but to really understand the significance you would need to understand all of the engineering involved.


Obviously using this logic BMW don't seem to understand 'all of the engineering involved' , the early bikes left the factory with no punchings or crimps and were an interference fit (this did not work), modified by technicians putting dimple punch marks into the stanchions to stop them fretting and failing (this did not work either ) , subsequent production models were modified with the punched dimples being replaced by the factory crimping the stanchions to the top fixing (the ones that are now failing).

This problem has been rumbling on now since 2013/2014 , yes it is causing more problems in areas of the world where the bikes are being used as they are intended (off road) and not in the UK/Europe where most GS/GSa's are glorified 2 wheel Chelsea Tractors .

What makes it worse is BMW have covered the crimped joint with a rubber boot so on doing a casual pre ride check on your bike unless you remove it you will not see the initial tell tale marks of failure.

BMW have had 2 attempts at fixing an obvious engineering fault ( one failure like this is too many) that should have been picked up in pre production testing , this is now the 3rd attempt to fix the problem rather than re engineering the fixing of the parts ( ie a screw thread )
 
At least BMW have issued a recall. I can understand why it might give someone the willies though, especially if they are new to the brand. These issues are kind of fundamental and you do have to wonder how they dont come out in testing of these supposedly high performance premium machines...

They don't come out in testing, because only a tiny percentage of bikes are affected.

Which is why I'm baffled as to why people that have gone through the test ride process, worked out the figures, made the decision that this is the bike they want, then cancel because they've seen a picture of one bike with a fault.

Quite odd really.
 


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