F650GS owners please read.
Discussion
Issue with F650GS, apols if repost but I did search and nothing came up.
bikegirl post said:
This is a pure public service announcement
I know that some of you lovely ladies may ride or know other people who ride Early F650GS machines. If you do, you really need to see this...
Yes, the wheel did just fall off. At 85mph...
Yes, that is what it looks like. The front wheel fell off at 85mph. Fortunately the lady who was riding it was halfway across the Canadian wilderness at the time on the way back from an expedition to Alaska, and not in rush-hour traffic on a busy Seatle freeway. Unfortunately, she sustained multiple nasty fractures to her left arm and had to be air-lifted home for surgery. This was at the beginning of August and she is still in a cast and recovering now.
More pictures and information here:
http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/newsresults... /September/Anybody-who-rides-an-early-F650GS-needs-to-see-th is/?&R=EPI-102854
The full story from the horses mouth, plus all the pictures, plus all the other crash stories and pictures are here:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37...
In summary, it turns out that this isn't the first time this has happened by a long chalk, and that after a guy had an almost identical crash in Argentina on January first 2001 and sustained very serious injuries, then discovered that BMW had redesigned the fork castings to beef them up for new production but had not recalled existing bikes, he sued BMW who admitted that they had known of four almost identical crashes before they redesigned the forks to beef them up, and later bikes (we thought it was all F650GS & Dakar bikes built after June 2003, but it seems that also some bikes built earlier than that had them) had the new much chunkier fork castings fitted. The decision not to recall would appear to have been financially driven.
We are now up to about ten of these incidents documented, and that must surely be the tip of an ugly iceberg. At least four of the incidents have resulted in serious or very serious injuries and it is only a matter of pure luck that the injuries in the cases we know about were not fatal.
So, if you have an early F650GS, or you know somebody who does, you may want to inform yoursaelf and/or warn them.
If you look here: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39... there is a thread that will help you identify what kind of forks are fitted to your F650GS, and also to work out what date your bike was manufactured. Your brief contributions to that thread with your build dates and what kind of forks you have would be most welcome.
Note that the older, pre-2000 Aprilia built F650 Stradas and Funduros are not affected by this issue!
Trace I know that some of you lovely ladies may ride or know other people who ride Early F650GS machines. If you do, you really need to see this...
Yes, the wheel did just fall off. At 85mph...
Yes, that is what it looks like. The front wheel fell off at 85mph. Fortunately the lady who was riding it was halfway across the Canadian wilderness at the time on the way back from an expedition to Alaska, and not in rush-hour traffic on a busy Seatle freeway. Unfortunately, she sustained multiple nasty fractures to her left arm and had to be air-lifted home for surgery. This was at the beginning of August and she is still in a cast and recovering now.
More pictures and information here:
http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/newsresults... /September/Anybody-who-rides-an-early-F650GS-needs-to-see-th is/?&R=EPI-102854
The full story from the horses mouth, plus all the pictures, plus all the other crash stories and pictures are here:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37...
In summary, it turns out that this isn't the first time this has happened by a long chalk, and that after a guy had an almost identical crash in Argentina on January first 2001 and sustained very serious injuries, then discovered that BMW had redesigned the fork castings to beef them up for new production but had not recalled existing bikes, he sued BMW who admitted that they had known of four almost identical crashes before they redesigned the forks to beef them up, and later bikes (we thought it was all F650GS & Dakar bikes built after June 2003, but it seems that also some bikes built earlier than that had them) had the new much chunkier fork castings fitted. The decision not to recall would appear to have been financially driven.
We are now up to about ten of these incidents documented, and that must surely be the tip of an ugly iceberg. At least four of the incidents have resulted in serious or very serious injuries and it is only a matter of pure luck that the injuries in the cases we know about were not fatal.
So, if you have an early F650GS, or you know somebody who does, you may want to inform yoursaelf and/or warn them.
If you look here: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39... there is a thread that will help you identify what kind of forks are fitted to your F650GS, and also to work out what date your bike was manufactured. Your brief contributions to that thread with your build dates and what kind of forks you have would be most welcome.
Note that the older, pre-2000 Aprilia built F650 Stradas and Funduros are not affected by this issue!
Ace-T said:
The full story from the horses mouth, plus all the pictures, plus all the other crash stories and pictures are here:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37...
What a rubbish design...the front wheel is bolted an aluminium angle bracket...not bolted directly to the bottom of the folk leg like other bikes.http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37...
I'd be extremely nervous about riding something with such an obvious design flaw!!
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