CCR 2007- Final Drive Failures?

[RVB1019]

With all of talk here and on the BMWMOA site regarding final drive failures at the IBR, I was wondering if we had any failures to or from the CCR? Not that I wish this on anyone but it is a question that seems to be on people's minds.

[messenger13]

Good thread, as I'm kinda curious myself. I hadn't heard of any so far. Maybe BMW placed a gag-order on the guy. ;)

[Rick-L]

This one (http://www.bmwlt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27305&highlight=ralph) is the only one I've seen posted so far.

[Rick-L]

Pretty sad though that we're expecting it and seem somewhat surprised if we don't hear of it...

[RVB1019]

1/327= .003= .3%

327 riders were registered on the curvecowboyreunion.com webpage. It may or may not be 100% accurate but until we hear differently, I suggest we use this number as a baseline. That is assuming 327 riders were all on a BMW bike.

Maybe eljeffe can break that number down into subdivisons LT/GT/GS/RT.

FWIW, if FD failures are running at 4%, than we would have to see 13 breakdowns out of 327 possible.

http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/rha/lowres/rhan448l.jpg

[RVB1019]

I met a guy from Ottawa, Canada at the rally who had drive failure near Columbus, OH. on his way to Missouri. He rented a car and attended while his LT is at the hospital.

In this thread, http://www.bmwlt.com/forums/showthread.php?p=219811#post219811, I count TWO dead FD, Ralph and the LT owner from Canada.

2/327=.006= .6%

[Ted]

2/327=.006= .6%

Thanks - you beat me to this question! Been wondering how this would compare with the 2007 IBR BMW participants - which had 3/42 (or 3/41 if you adjust for the apparent disqualification of a BMW 1200RT).

2007 IBR riders had more than 11 TIMES the failure rate of 2007 CCR riders. However, no LT's failed at the IBR, and only LT's failed at CCR, so...at least as far as the big girl is concerned, "ride her like you stole her" seems to be the way to go!

[Moonshine]

I met a guy from Detroit riding a 1999 LT that had a FD fail on his way to CCR and had Grass Roots tow him in to their shop & repair it so he could complete the trip to CCR. He said that when he got back home he was going to clean it up & sell it and get an LT Trike. That was the fourth time he lost the FD he had 145,000 on the bike if I remember correctly.

[RVB1019]

3/327=.009=0.9 percent

[Rick-L]

Keep in mind that we're talking .9% (or whatever number it ends up being) on a SINGLE TRIP, not the life of the bike! Wonder what the average trip length was?

[dshealey]

Looks like CCR 2007 goes down in history as the year with the least FD failures going to, during, or coming from. (except the first one in Broken Bow which was only a few bikes, no failures)

[eljeffe]

I think there were only a couple last year as well.

[kdog]

Keep in mind that we're talking .9% (or whatever number it ends up being) on a SINGLE TRIP, not the life of the bike! Wonder what the average trip length was?

Exactly. The 4% statistic is a joke anyway. 4% of what? Every drive will eventually fail. It's only a question of how many miles they run before they fail. That is the only interesting metric. Ie, the failure rate.

Cheers,
-joel

[jrlakin]

First of all, there were other bikes at the CCR besides BMW's. I saw Honda, Harleys, Triumphs, and even a Ducati. I doubt if there is any way to know for sure how many BMW's there really were there. Secondly, if there were 13 failures out of every 327 BMW's every week, that would be a lot more than a 4% annual failure rate. I agree with the post above, this statistic means nothing because eventually everything will fail. All I know is there are too many failures!

[bcheal]

I've got 42000 miles on my 2005 LT and have had no problems with the final drive. I've asked my dealer, BMW of Atlanta about the problem and they've seen few if any problems. Maybe keeping up with the scheduled maint. solves the problem.
Bill Cheal