General topics » Conundrum

Hello,

Similar post to the “What to by next one” just posted, but here goes anyway…..


I hope you can help advise me with a “conundrum”……

I have a 2016 Lupin Blue RS which I LOVE, have “made mine”, and tour on in Europe (EU). It came with a 2 year BMW UK Approved warranty - 2 years warranty and breakdown cover (worth buying from BMW for this alone - and it worked for me in rural Spain last year when I STUPIDLY filled with Diesel by mistake - back on the road within 3 hours).

I bought the bike with 12k miles on it. It now has 20k (I have another bike for more “local’ stuff). My warranty runs out in early December and I’ll have 25-27k miles on it by then. I can extend the warranty for £400-ish, but the ESA shock is ONLY warrantied until 30k miles. As they DO FAIL, and I’m no mechanic and I would be worried about a potential £4k bill for a new one, as well as all the other things which can start to fail on a bike with over 30k miles on it (it is serviced by BMW). As the bike itself is probably only worth £4k-ish as a trade-in with that milage on, and I have a LOT of stuff I could easily shift over to an R1250 RS (bar-risers, exhaust, topbox, panniers, Nav 5, carbon bodywork etc) should I bite the bullet with a (low milage this time) 1250 BMW Approved and get the 2 year EU warranty again (I can afford this, I wouldn’t want to afford (or finance) a NEW ‘23 bike), or should I “take a chance” and continue on with the old bike hoping the worst doesn’t happen ?


Thank You so much for your input.
LJJ

Take a chance.

I really smiled reading this as I was in exactly the same position as you last autumn; I could almost have written your post word for word. I hummed and haaed for months over the decision (even factoring in some test rides of non-BMW RS bikes as well, just in case!)

I had a 2017 Lupin which I also LOVED; I also used the BMW UK approved warranty once, to have it shipped back from Spain, and eventually offloaded it last autumn at 28K miles.
Mine had been out of warranty for some time, so (rightly or wrongly) I was even more twitchy about stuff going wrong after around 30K. Anyway, I finally grew a pair and made a decision, took the plunge and bought a 5,000 mile 1250RS, and happily transferred over my bar risers, exhaust, topbox, panniers, Nav V (but not carbon bodywork as I didn't have any!).

As for the $64,000 question, did I make the right decision? No idea. Still don't know. I would say it's definitely not worth making the change just to gain whatever improvements there are in the 1250 over the 1200, but that's not really the reason for either of our conundrums, is it? My only point of interest is that I took the new bike on a 3,000-mile tour in September and burned through 800 mL of oil, which was a bit of a shocker after my old 1200 never having used a drop between services...

Thanks Freddy,

Parallel Universes ! And you’re right - there’s no “right” answer.

I too have even arranged some test rides on other bikes (GS - too big tall and heavy for me, MG V-100 Mandello - yet to ride, but less Torque, less features, less dealers (my BMW dealer is 4 miles away), no proven longevity, only 2 yr warranty - and I don’t really want “new” anyway). Plus I can’t shift over my RS bits & bobs, so would have to sell……

I’ll see how I feel and take account of miles done this year in Sept/Oct. At least there are always plenty of BMW Approved RSs around, so I think I will deff go 1250 at some stage.

Many Thanks for your response.

LJJ

I’m in the Wessie camp.

I taxed my bike yesterday and the cover will come off soon.

Summer Euro trip is planned, hotels and ferry booked.

Clock reads 42,001 miles and I have every confidence in the bike seeing me through another year.

I’ve never lost any sleep over “reliability” in 7 years.

I’ve never needed to look for an excuse to buy a newer bike. Better the devil I know.

No reason a well looked after machine won’t keep on keeping on.

Zitat von wessie im Beitrag #3

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I have the same model, bought new in 2016 and I have been taking a chance since the warranty expired in 2018. That's £2000 in my bank account rather than in the pocket of the underwriter of the BMW extended warranty. You can buy an annual standalone Euro breakdown policy for under £60.

ESA units can be refurbished - many GS owners are well ahead of us on this as their ESA bikes have been around longer and some have done starship mileages.

Keep the lupin.

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Zitat von Boxerboy55 im Beitrag #6

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I’m in the Wessie camp.

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