Folks who know about BMW bikes...

Milage?

 

Elwood: It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas. What do you say, is it the new Bluesmobile or what?
[a brief thinking pause while Jake attempts to light a cigarette]
Jake: Fix the cigarette lighter.

 

Don't do it, Dave!

I'm a BMW guy every day. It's my business. The BMW is a good motorcycle. The R1100RT is a good motorcycle. The R1100RTP is a good variant, lots of cool extra stuff. The problem, and I cannot stress this enough, is that it is a RETIRED FRESNO PD bike. The cop bikes are ALL total pieces of shit by the time they auction them off. I have had several pass through my shop, auctioned off by the CHP and various California police agencies. EVERY ONE had major damage to the engine, transmission and wiring harness. When they "retire" a police bike and send it to auction, they remove all the special cop stuff like sirens, radios, computers, etc. They do that by just chopping off the wiring harnesses. In many cases the bikes would not even run. In other cases the auxiliary battery and power system were totally disabled by this butchery.

Specific problem areas on the 1996-2000 R1100RT were transmission shift fork failure (cost to rebuild ~$1500-2500, I do about one transmission (mail-order) a week all year long) and rear drive ring gear support bearing (cost to rebuild: ~$700-1100, I do about one a week, have three apart in the shop today.) and wiring harnesses (BMW elected to use the cheapest crap wire on the planet. After about 5 years, the insulation falls off the wires. Japanese toasters from the 1950's had better wiring harnesses. The harness is over $1000 for the standard RT/ABS, the RTP/ABS harness is almost $2000.

Beyond those little things, the cop bikes are frequently dropped while they are running, (while the coppers chase bad guys just like on "COPS") and left running while laying on their side, starving the motor for oil. Thus, crankshaft and connecting rod bearings are usually toasted. I had one in last month (LAPD auction RTP) with zero oil pressure. The rod bearings were liquefied and spinning on the crank. Estimated cost to repair: $7800. The guy junked the bike to a salvage place.

In general, the R1100/R1150RT bikes are nice (I would avoid any one with the "servo-assisted" brakes) pleasant touring bikes with lots of load capacity and very nice road manners for the secondary roads. Just stay well away from any ex-police RTP.

If you have specific questions about any other BMWs, look me up, my website URL is posted below.

 

Hey Dave,
I got a 04 R1150R Rockster and I have put 69,000 on it . I have had no big problems with it, I get service done every 6000 by Touringsport BMW in greenville SC. Great bike!!!!!

 

I used to work at a Euro-bike shop and we used to refer to the RT as a "sport sofa".We loved those bikes.

 

Dude, go out to the Cali CHP, you can buy a '04 1150RT for $2500. My buddy picked one up for $3400 and then they dropped the price to $2500. He has put a ton of miles on it with no problem. I rode the bike all over while I was visiting last Christmas - it is a tone of fun. I would pick one up for myself, but have other things going.

 

Thanks for the info everyone!

Hey, question for Rubber Chicken: I really appreciate all of that info. Given what you said there, if I inspect it and a) the motor is quiet and free of crash damage, b) the wiring isn't butchered, and c) all systems (charging, etc) are in tact, does that make it more palatable of a buy, or would you just stay away on principle?

Thanks!

 

If you don't know what a BMW Boxer is supposed to sound like, you won't be able to know if it is quite.

 

You might have a point there...I was assuming that anything sporting the roundel would purr like the proverbial kitten with no discernible mechanical noises. Apparently not so much?

 

Day-YUM! :wow: Your cops are a lot harder on their bikes than our cops. Could it be because our cops buy their own bikes (from an allowance)?

 

If it was ACTUALLY a cop bike, I'd stay away. I've seen too much bad hidden stuff.

I have some photos of the inside of an RTP gearbox on my flickr site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubberchickenracinggarage/148388728/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubberchickenracinggarage/148388838/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubberchickenracinggarage/148388885/in/photostream/

The owner bought it at auction in Miami and rode it home to North Carolina, then pulled the transmisson and sent it to me. We had to replace that box.

 

They are not my cops! They are LAPD and CHP bikes that go to auction all the way across the USA. My shop is in PA.

 

Not the R1100/R1150 models! My R1100S sounds like a garbage can being dragged behind a cement mixer full of stainless steel cats in heat. I use a tight helmet AND firm earplugs.

 

LOL

My R1150RT sounded like I should hit the kill switch immediatly after starting it. After the cam chain got tensioned and stopped rattling it was better...but still.

 

Dave, sorry for the threadjack but I've got an 02 1150rt in Murfreesboro for sale here. It's more than you're probably wanting to spend. I've got Ohlins (@ $7,500)on it that were just refreshed at Hendersonville. I just have the bug for a newer 1200rt. fwiw.

Bob

 

See the February Motorcycle Consumer News article on the Cam Chain Tensioner Kits*. Notice who's selling them? Small world, huh?

*Reprint at http://www.mklsportster.com/Articles/mcncct.pdf

 

Yeah, my `94 (built June of `03) has the early "floating gears" tranny. Still rattles at idle like the day I picked her up (Sept. of `03). But the tranny has never let me down. The `95 I bought last month had the tranny rebuilt and relatively quiet at idle.

 

I've kind of developed a niche market rebuilding the M93 and M94 gearboxes from the older R1100 models. Some guys advertise that I rebuilt their gearbox when they sell their bikes. If you need a transmission rebuild for either the 94 94 or 95, ping me.

 

Will do.Thanks.

 

LOL yeah...nice. And now I know why they did that.