Good morning Rocksters,
I'd like to offer a little clarification on a few comments in this thread.
First, I did have a FD failure on the 2007 Iron Butt Rally while riding a very well prepared R1200RTP. This happened on the second leg of the rally outside of Edmonton around 11:30 on a Sunday morning. I was doing a walk around every gas stop, out there I was burning through 10 gallons in 225-250 miles. The mileage was low not because of a heavy load but because the police models are geared lower so at elevated pace the RPM's are up. I was doing walk arounds at every stop and the fluid was checked 36hrs previously at the checkpoint. My theory is the seal went, I lost fluid and poof goes the drive.
I also had a drive go bad but not leave me stranded on my 07 GSA with no apparent fluid leak. It got all "notchy" and it was replaced before it failed.
As far as the famous porta potty incident it was a chain of events that lead to an epic f***up. Here's the condensed version.
I have been the co-chair of the Yankee Beemer's Damn Yankees rally since 1999 with my good friend Dana Lewis, aka the Savant of the Pavement. As we grew the rally another good friend who is a NETRA Senior Enduro champion and I decided to take a page from the 49er rally and have a "trials" event, in our case we call it the Scottish Trials. Doug would set up the course and I would pre-ride it as a safety check. I'm no NETRA champ so the idea is if I can do it you can do it. We had been making the same course the same way for about 6 or so years. For background we also host a pretty good dual sport ride on Saturday morning.
Two years ago we had a bunch of NETRA riders who had migrated to F800GS and other larger dual sports and we invited them to join us for the rally.
As a result Doug wanted to increase the degree of difficulty for the trials and we changed out the jump which was a 24" 2.6 on a log to the tailgate of some Guzzi guy's trailer on a stack of logs. This is located at the crest of a rise of about 5' or so. Previously at this part of the course you do the jump, land the bike and go right around a manhole cover. this time Doug tightened up the course to we'd do the jump and go
left around the manhole cover. The distance from the crest to the cinder block bathrooms is about 40'. On the previous course if you overdid the jump you would simply go straight and have no issues. (see what's coming?)
This was also the year that the AG (operator of the fairground) nailed the stalls in the men's room shut and told us we had to use additional porta potties which were placed behind the building.
I made a few runs and Doug decided it wasn't difficult enough so we set up some stakes and ribbons to make a pause and go at the bottom before the jump.
Next pass I stopped (standing on the pegs) at the pause n go and then got too hamfisted on the throttle and while the jump was great the moment I landed I knew I was in trouble. I got about 45 degrees of a 90 degree turn before bailing and watching my bike smack the porta pot to the right and bonce off the cinder block. There were tents and people to the right so I had no escape route. Within seconds of this happening for every person who wanted to check on me or lend a hand two or three more wanted to come in close and start taking photos. Kinda ghoulish don't you think? Fellow riders racing to photograph someones less then stellar moment isn't something I'd do so I asked them to please stop which most folks were happy to do. The photo here is the first I've seen.
We changed the course and 40 minutes later I rode the trials on Max's R80GS.
If you come to the DYR this year you might even see a porta pot incorporated into the field events; I figure I'm the one guy who can get away with turning this near tragedy into a humorous moment as well as a cautionary tale.
Back to the subject at hand I have not heard of any drive failures on 2010 or later GS'es but I still hear of leaky seals. Perhaps the increase in fluid quantity provides a larger margin when the leak starts. At the press launch of the F800GS in South Africa I had a chance to discuss this in depth with some BMW engineers and at the time the percentage of failures was low enough that it wasn't triggering BMW's QC system but the negative press from a few high profile failures (including my RTP) was getting their attention.
I love the bikes and I tell my friends not to hesitate on buying one over FD stores. I suggest you check the seal every time you get gas and enjoy the ride.
Best,
Rob Nye
