Broken Rock

[DTK]

Bought my 05 Rock about a year ago it had 6k and now has 14k. While riding to work today I lost the tranny / output shaft. Here is what happened while upshifting from third to fourth at about 5k rpm; when I let out the clutch it sounded like "bone in a meat grinder". As I coasted to a stop and searched for a gear...nothing and even with the clutch in it was still grinding and the final act...smoke started to come out of the gear box...shut it down and did the walk of shame. I hve not pushed a motorcycle off the road since 1984. Sorry; my real question is; when the repair is made do they use different / better parts to prevent this from occuring again? Or do you just ride another 14k and hope for the best. If anyone can offer any insight i would be grateful. You know what they say..."a bike that leaves you stranded is like a cheating spouse...never to be trusted again" Thanks for the help.

[AndyRR]

You've likely lost the input shaft to the transmission, not the output. You get the same bad parts back in the same (likely) misaligned case. Don't believe I've heard of this failure happening so early on a non-RT. I had a lengthy writeup on my input shaft inspection / replacement. You will also find an excellent writeup by Boxermania. Both in the R1150R forum. I intended to have improved parts made, but the machine shop I was working with was taking WAY too long and I gave up and installed the BMW parts after correcting the misalignment.
You'll need:
input shaft - $250
clutch - 150
all the transmission seals - around 70
maybe a bearing or two in the tranny - 60
Not sure how much BMW charges by the hour or how many hours they charge for this repair. Expect around 8 hours. They will not correct the misalignment unless you opt to have the transmission cases replaced. Even then, you can't be 100% sure that the replacement of the trans case would correct the problem.

So sorry this happened to you. It should never happen at any mileage, but to have it happen so early is shocking. Are you particularly hard on your bike?

[DTK]

Hey thanks for the info. I do have some good news; I have 30 days left on my warranty; turns out it did not go into service until 7/1/06. And to answer your question; I do not condsider myself to be hard on the bike been riding over 20 years and realy enjoy the other half of motocycling...repairs and maintence just as much enjoyment as riding in my opion...the one lurking question for me is that this bike was a loaner bike at a local well known shop. Has it seen some hard riding before me...I would say so and to be honest I would have never bought it if I would have known that upfront...sales guy did a great job..after I test rode it was easy to convince myself that being a loaner bike is no big deal....lesson learned. Also wanted to share the BMW roadside did a great job...had a tow truck in under two hours and the new phone number here in the US is 877-680-2176. It is sad to say but I am sure I will be selling my rock and BMW has lost me as a customer to many good bikes to be wasting my time worring about the next time this may happen....motocycling is suppose to be a fun way to relax and enjoy....Shame on BMW

[sweatmark]

Please post the result of dealer investigation and confirm our guess of clutch/transmission input splines. The info helps those of us that will face this problem sooner or later.

That's great news about your warranty! Let BMW fix the result of their own poor design.

[fnfalman]

Same problem with mine and it's a high chance that the spline was the issue. At least yours blew while you were in warranty. Mine went at around 29,000-miles.

This Rockster is the last BMW that I will ever own. None of the newer models have shown any improvements in quality, if anything BMW is hell bent on putting more electronic gadgets on the bikes than focusing on the ride and improved performance. Same goes for their automobiles. It's like they forgot what makes them famous and stand out in the first place.

[sweatmark]

BMW is hell bent on putting more electronic gadgets on the bikes than focusing on the ride and improved performance. Same goes for their automobiles. It's like they forgot what makes them famous and stand out in the first place.

Heartily agree. That's why I stopped buying Bimmers after the E36 series.

[vas2grny]

I wholeheartedly agree guys!!!!
Awesome bike the Rock.
The look, the ride.
Everything about it screams individuality...
But, the reliability issues are just crazy.
I have experienced every single problem on my bike that's been posted on this forum.
Sorry BMW but never again will I own one until you regain some of the quality you were once famous for.

Cheers,

P.S. I still own my Rockster and I really don't want to part with it... It's truly one of a kind my little pig of a bike.
I've even had the rear rim bolts cease up on me and snap off...
Unbelievable.

[fnfalman]

And the last of the original white signal light just broke off mine. Apparently the white ones had some sort of manufacturing quality issue and tend to break off due to vibration. I've replaced them as they broke off with amber signal lights. For the last several thousand miles, I've had three ambers and one white and the white just broke off now and I'll replace it with another amber light. At least now all four of the signal lights will match.

A recap with my Rockster: ABS pump conked out (thank goodness that happened at the last month of the warranty), spline done grinded itself off, slipping clutch, white signal lights breaking, engine valves keep going out of adjustment every couple thousand of miles, throttle synch keeping going off synchronization. The worst one is starting up - it cranked and cranked and cranked and cranked even in hot weather and bike was recently ridden. Thank goodness my best friend is a master BMW mechanic who charges me very little or not at all for labor, or else I'd be dead broke by now. As good as he is, he still can't figure out why the bike doesn't want to run but instead crank over a lot.

[riceburner]

And the last of the original white signal light just broke off mine. Apparently the white ones had some sort of manufacturing quality issue and tend to break off due to vibration. I've replaced them as they broke off with amber signal lights. For the last several thousand miles, I've had three ambers and one white and the white just broke off now and I'll replace it with another amber light. At least now all four of the signal lights will match.

You mean the indicators?? Mine have been fine for the past 60,000 miles... never heard of any issues....

[DTK]

Update...I spoke to the owner of the dealership on Saturday and his first question was "how is the bike stored"; he seems to beleive that this somehow effects the input shaft becoming dry! My response was it is stored in my garage but ridden outside!!! It is a motorcycle and the last time I checked this was not some OCC crap bike that is going to fall apart and rust if it gets exposed to the weather....I ask him what the chances of this happening again are and he tells that once it is greased properly it should be fine but to be fair he has moved ahead and ordered the parts without getting the bike on the bench which currently is a 3 week wait....so to sum up to date..the bike sucks and broke but BMW roadside was excellent and the dealer has jumped all over the problem....I keep you all updated.... anything else I should have the dealer do while it is apart? Thanks again for all the information....

[iowabeakster]

How was the bike stored? ...sheesh... I don't believe that nonsense at all...

If it is at all possible...ask to have the clutch and input shaft...or at least take some close-up pictures of those parts...and post them here.

[DTK]

Update; I picked my bike up on Saturday 8/29 I was not able to get it while the dealer was still open so I did not get any of the old parts. But they did make one additional repair; the slave clynder for the clutch was replaced. The bike seems to be running good and I would say that the clutch feels completely different along with the shifting of the transmission so it would seem that some early warning signs of this problem would be....enlarged friction zone, hard to get into first when cold..meaning that sometimes you have to let out the clutch some to get it to engage in first gear and also shifting that feels like braking sticks with your foot...I plan to put a few hundered miles on this week and I will let you know how it is doing....Thanks for all the feedback!

[sweatmark]

Glad you're back up & running. And fortunate that the transmission repairs were covered under warranty!

Thanks for the follow-up. Shame you didn't get the broken parts, but the damage was likely the same thing we've seen before.

The slave cylinder replacement is more than a coincidence.