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The King is Dead! Long live the King! By Wes Fleming #87301 MY BLUE ’05 GS HAD 52,000 MILES ON IT
when I became its third owner. A friend bought it new, traded it in after a couple of years, and the second owner—also a friend—bought it a few weeks later. Unfortunately, he wrecked it twice, once into a deer and once into a tree, so it was fully repaired but a little worse for wear when it came into my life. The ‘05 R 1200 GS came standard with the first-generation partially integrated servo-assisted ABS system, which many of us call “whizzy” brakes. There wasn’t much else in the way of tech-forward rider aids on that bike, though from a technological standpoint, it was a big leap forward for BMW, what with the CAN bus electronics and overall improved designs of the cylinder heads, six-speed transmission and the more robust final drive with its “lifetime” lubrication. I liked the Vario side and top cases, but eventually replaced the side cases with Jesse aluminum panniers to take
2015 R 1200 GS in the foregreound, 2005 R 1200 GS in the background.
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BMW OWNERS NEWS | June 2021
advantage of their top-opening convenience and rugged good looks. Between 2010 and 2021, I put a mere 38,000 miles on the bike, but it seemed like the bike was always breaking down. A few months after I bought it, the drive shaft came apart, destroying the final drive in the process. It leaked fuel, first from the top (main) pump assembly and then from the side pump assembly— both faults later addressed by recalls. The aluminum rear wheel carrier cracked on both my original final drive and later on the replacement final drive as well. I went through several fuel strips before getting one that never went bad. I can’t use fifth gear for more than 30 seconds because the computer freaks out and requires a reset before the bike will start again; it only ever starts in neutral despite my replacing every ignition-related safety sensor on the bike. One of the shocks exploded, which led to an Öhlins upgrade. The clutch also failed, leading to the most extensive, expensive,
