Roadwolf Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Hey guys, I have a question about the Do-It-Yourself mechanics on the board... what or which service manual have you personally used or could recommend to an aspiring grease monkey who wants to shave off some of the costs of ownership on my new 06 R1200RT. Would love to hear what you guys use or suggest... in trying to find out about Haynes and Clymer manuals, I see that they don't have manuals for the new hexheads yet, one scheduled to come out this Spring... what else is there out there to use (including the BMW shop manuals)? Thanks for the input! Love the bike, BTW! Chris Link to comment
russg Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I use the BMW R1200RT official service manual and this board. Service manual is ok but this board has never failed. Link to comment
ScottT Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Only one available right now is the BMW service manual on cdrom... as far as I know. I've not seen any third party manuals for hexheads out yet. I have the BMW manual and it's quite usable. Better than others I've used in the past. It is expensive though. As far as I know you're only choice right now is the BMW manual. My RT has 30 thousand + miles and it's only trip to a dealer was for the 600 mile service. I've done it all since. If you're going to do your own work get the cdrom... sure, shop around for the best price but get it. Link to comment
Roadwolf Posted February 27, 2007 Author Share Posted February 27, 2007 Thanks for the advice... the CD-ROM is not an option for me as I run MacOSX and the CD-ROM is Windows only... Chris Link to comment
johnlt Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I have the official CD ROM and it is quite complete but I find it difficult to use. Very hard to "brouse". I also had the official CD for the 1150RT and was able to print it out so I could have a complete hardcopy in my shop but the new 1200RT manual does not lend itself to printing. Not user friendly at all IMHO Link to comment
Albert Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I agree John. I did hear from Haynes that April 07 was their target date for manuals to cover hexhead RT's. I assume Clymer will be on a similar schedule. Link to comment
bobbybob Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I have the official CD ROM and it is quite complete but I find it difficult to use. Very hard to "brouse". I also had the official CD for the 1150RT and was able to print it out so I could have a complete hardcopy in my shop but the new 1200RT manual does not lend itself to printing. Not user friendly at all IMHO I beg to differ--I have the complete CD rom for R1200RT Jan 05 and up--and it has an icon at the top of each page for printing. And it cost me $8.00 on E-bay. It is also very easy to navigate--the index is great. The only thing that would be different for the 07 is the brake system. All the other stuff you need every day (torque values, how-to instructions for oil change, valve adjust, etc) are all right there for you and easy to find. P.M. me if you want any details. Link to comment
Albert Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I suppose ease of use is like art, it's in the eye of the beholder. I realize you can print etc. but I find the layout to be cumbersome for printing. For instance, you can click on graphics to enlarge the picture but I haven't found a way to get the larger pictures into my printouts so if you've got the method for that it would definitely help. Also, you have to go through and expand all the subtopics prior to printing or all you get is the titles. In general the printouts seem very inefficient in (over) use of paper. Maybe I just haven't found the right way to print from this application so I'd be more than happy for any pointers. I personally wish they'd just gone with some standard format (PDF, HTML, etc.) instead of the proprietary system they did. Again just my impression, but if it works for you that's great. Link to comment
Roadwolf Posted February 27, 2007 Author Share Posted February 27, 2007 I personally wish they'd just gone with some standard format (PDF, HTML, etc.) instead of the proprietary system they did. Yeah, that would have been great for us Mac users as well. Link to comment
riding4work Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Thanks for the advice... the CD-ROM is not an option for me as I run MacOSX and the CD-ROM is Windows only... Chris Me too! I use Vritual PC for Mac v.7 and it opens and prints BMW's service CD manual ok. Link to comment
Roadwolf Posted February 28, 2007 Author Share Posted February 28, 2007 I run VPC 7 at work on my G5, but I have a Mac Pro here at home and VPC won't run on the new Intel chip... don't want to have to use XP and Parallels or BootCamp just for the CD... Does BMW offer the service manual in book form, like Honda did for my ST1300? Chris Link to comment
bross Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 I use the BMW R1200RT official service manual and this board. Service manual is ok but this board has never failed. Yep same here. Link to comment
ggfossen Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Al, I'm pondering mightily, and not really remembering. Problem is, I'm not home, and I don't have the desk top/printer in front of me, but I did enlarged (or portions of pages) prints from the web on my '56 John Deere project. I think I used the software on the older printer, and not actually WinXP. I think there is a way, but it will take a lot of fiddling. It also might be possible to push a page onto one of the simpler photo editing programs. All just rambling thoughts...from a distant laptop. gary Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.