General Discussion

Seems to be the trend in the business. I had this discussion w Bob of Bob’s BMW at the rally. His take was that a dealer is free to make whatever excuses they want but that there are 2 possible legitimate reasons: the “ liability “ angle is that older bikes and parts may be more fragile due to age wear/corrosion/UV exposure/etc and odds of the technician damaging something while performing the work increase. This can/should be addressed by an honest discussion and possibly disclaimer before starting work. Second is that the technician needs to be BMW certified to work on each series of models and that certification is property of the dealership - not the tech. Given turnover and new hires, a dealership will invest the time and money to certify their techs on the most common bikes first and less common ones later, if at all. Supply and demand. As far as what age they draw the line, that is dealership choice but from what I see 10-15 years seems to be a growing consensus. Encourage the customer to trade in more often!

Mancuso is the closest dealer to me, and I too was surprised when they would not work on my 2005 K1200S (which is all stock except for the exhaust), explaining they no longer work on bikes more than 10 (!) years old. They said it was a liability issue, I think that an authorized BMW dealership should support the bikes they sell for more than 10 years. Certainly BMW bikes are meant to me owned and operated for more than 10 years. Gulf Coast BMW ended up doing the work instead.

I'd like to se BMW do more to ensure its authorized dealers are supporting the motorcycles they sell.

I used JJ at Cycle Shuttle to transport a GSA from downtown to BMW Woodlands last year. Good service and as I recall the price was reasonable. Truck he had at that time had a box body which gave an added sense of security.

There was an upside though, other than knowing who NOT to go to in the future.

While at Mancuso, I met with a guy from "Cycle Shuttle" ... they generally operate within a 50mi or so radius of Houston, and his truck was very utilitarian. It had a pallet / frame to which the bike is strapped to, and that in turn is hydraulicly raised and lowered onto the truck bed.

When standing on the side of the road we take our best shot to get out of that situation. Glad to hear that when your Plan A didn’t work out Plan B should and get you back on the road soon! Having dealt with all (once 4) dealers in the area, Wild West has given me the best results over time. My own experience dealing with customers has been that telling the truth to start with is best - may get an initial chewing out but trying to BS through it never ends well.

Wild West is the only place to have your BMW motorcycle dealer for maintenance or repair because of Dave, their long-time mechanic. Dan, the service manager, retired but the remaining service manager is getting more familiar with BMW and does a good job. Guess he was trained well by Dan.

I was in there a few weeks ago and the service manager told me that Wild West will work on BMWs up until they are 15 years old and will consider older ones on a case by case with exception of the old C models that that will not touch because of limited parts and fairings that are prone to cracking and breakage with no replacement parts in inventory. Service manager said that Dave reserves the right not to work on some older bikes if have had lots of modifications and other "mickey mouse" work done on the bike.

Wild West is very good on the service side. No experience with their sales or parts though.

Sadly this is all too common in many businesses. Whether it's the company coming out to fix your ice maker or car repair, pool repair, roofer... Even having windows replaced on your vehicle. There are more excuses than there are positive results these days. I'm glad that I'm not very far away from Wild West. I've used them multiple times in the past for service and inspections and have even bought a bike from them and never had any issues. Good luck with your repairs and hope to hear soon that you're back on the road!

Two weeks ago, while returning from the breakfast meet in Pearland, my travel cover blew out from underneath the bungee-cord cargo net on the passenger seat and got wrapped around the rear wheel and final drive. After cutting the remnants loose (on the side of the tollway, not an enjoyable place) and finding oil dripping out of the final drive, I decided to go straight a dealer. I chose Mancuso as they were only 1 mile further from me than home was.

On dropping the bike off that Saturday, I was told they wouldn't be able to look at it until the following Tuesday or Wednesday. No surprise or disappointment there, shops tend to be backlogged.

Flash forward a week, after no calls from them I call them and get various stories; 'need the wrench to remove the wheel', 'need a specific wrench to disassemble the final drive', 'the wrench was lost as they 'just moved from their old shop'.

Flash forward another week (yesterday), and I call them and it's the same song and dance ... with no, NO, estimate of how long the diagnosis will take.

So, this morning I saddle up the trailer and go pick the bike up and transport to Wild West. Got a call from them just a few minutes ago with a tally of the damage.

Draw your own conclusions on where you want to have your BMW serviced.

PS - On researching a worst-case scenario (and also because I have multiple PhDs in bullshit detection), the BMW microfiche shows the final drive being bolted together with ordinary torx bolts.