Most and Least Reliable Motorcycle of All Times

[MichiganBob]

Good Evening.

 

TEWKS recent post about his GS made me wonder what have been your most and least reliable motorcycle. My most reliable was my 71 R75/5 which I bought new and passed it on to a collector with 150K. There were surely some annoying issues (balancing carbs, bad switches), but all in all, a solid bike with no major failures. My 2002 RT however was not so generous. Leaky slave cylinder ruined clutch, ABS controller brake issues, headlight wiring issues ... it seems like I was having to attend to it a lot more than I should have had to. It was not all problematic like my carefree 5k+ ride to Alaska and  most Western state but still it was a pita. Non-BEEMER  most reliable was my Honda Superhawk. Too bad I got old and had to sell it. Least reliable was my 68 BSW Victor 441. Don't get me started.

 

How about you? 

[Hosstage]

I've only owned 4 street legal motorcycles since 1991 (no Beemers), all dead reliable, even through some pretty extensive performance modifications. My current bikes are both Harleys, the oldest 21 years old with 125,000 miles, and I beat hell out of it on a regular basis. I would have no hesitation going on a 2 week cross country ride with it. The only time it has stranded me was when it broke a belt, and it was not the belt's fault, I was pounding it like it owed me money. For some reason I have always lucked out with vehicles and motorcycles.

[DakarTimm]

The least reliable ? Easiest question I've ever answered . My 1995 Buell S2. On the way home from the dealer the headlight fell out and bounced off the front fender ! Several weeks later,

the speedometer cable from the front rim got caught in the wheel and locked up threfront end ! Fun times.Everytime I hit a significant pothole here in the land of the perpetually frozen the carbon fiber

back fender would come up and hit  the subframe and continue to crack. 

There was that time I rode up to my friends place in Greenbay . I failed to notice locks on the saddlebag vibrated off and the lid openedalong the freeway..

 Then there was the time the drive sprocket from the output shaft of the transmission sheared off and left me stranded ..

anytime I ran over 3000 rpm the oil breathers in the heads would overflow oil back in the the aircleaner 

Edited July 22, 2022 by DakarTimm
misspelling

[MichiganBob]

That's a nightmare DakarTimm. How did your dealer respond?

[Hosstage]

33 minutes ago, MichiganBob said:

That's a nightmare DakarTimm. How did your dealer respond?

They all do that.

[MichiganBob]

Well then maybe they should go out of business (LOL)

[Hosstage]

3 minutes ago, MichiganBob said:

Well then maybe they should go out of business (LOL)

Buell has. Multiple times! They're back, again. 

[MikeB60]

Between 1979 and 1990 I had a Kawasaki Z1R, 2 Honda 900Fs and a Kawasaki ZX10 Ninja.  All ran hard and nothing outside of steering head bearings went bad. Though not much in the way of technology involved.  My 2011 RT outside of switch issues was trouble free for 40000 miles. My K1600 has 55000 and I've had three coils go bad and a water pump. All three Harleys were problem free as well. 

 

I had a 2004 Rt for about a year.  Developed a missfire and the dealer had the bike for about four months and couldn't fix it.  Frustrating as hell. Finally BMW bought it back.

[MichiganBob]

Good Morning MikeB60. Do you know if the K1600 troubles were a design flaw or just bad luck?

[MikeB60]

Water pump leaks were an issue. Supposedly BWW made a change to improve the reliability. Mine didn't leave me stranded but definitely was leaking to the point where it required replacement. Coils are a frequent issue as well after having to replace one during the Un I am keeping one on the bike as insurance. 

[DakarTimm]

How did the dealers handle the myriad of issues? Well the selling dealerr was "only a Harley Dealer" not a Buell dealer .So no support there . None of the Buell dealerships would help because I didn't buy the bike from them. I ended up trading the bike into the dealership I bought it from at a pretty hefty loss.Ironically none of the five dealers involved are in business anymore due to Corporate Harley's business plan

[Ponch]

I've heard of a few bikes getting crazy mileage on them. Motohank has a R1100GS with over 500k on it. I've seen a few gold wings with nearly that much. A K75 that had over 400k and a Vulcan Voyager 1700, 2009 that had over 700K KM on it. Something like 400K+ miles.