My BMW was a bit crap, despite not having one of the bigger "common" faults (Final Drive / Dropped Valve / ABS Control unit) it still had a myriad of smaller issues well before 20k and I just felt I could not trust it - plus forking out about 50% more for servicing AND feeling I had no option but to pay another £350 (About $600) each year to extend the warranty in case of a big ticket failure.
The LC GS also had more recalls in the UK before the first container landed than the S19 has in four years.... and it seems issues and recalls are still coming in, BMW have replaced at least one complete bike and a number of engine / gearbox units under warranty for customers, and there are several reports of bikes being stuck in dealers for weeks because they cannot solve the problems....
Of course this is still a small percentage, however it must be a much bigger percentage than Honda / Yamaha / Suzuki / Kawasaki, I know the BMW fanatics will say it is because they sell so many more, however...
Firstly the BMW had several recalls before a single owner had taken delivery
Secondly by the time the first reports of gearbox and clutch issues appeared there was only a handful of LC GS owners, and the S10 had been available in the UK for almost 3 years with no problems (maybe 1 or 2 headlight harnesses)
Thirdly, even now the S10 has had 3+ years of sales compared to six months of BMW sales, despite the sales phenomenon the GS is, there is probably a similar amount of S10's as there are new GS' out there - and the S10's will have covered a lot more miles as some are now almost 4 years old, many here have topped 50k now, and at least one has reached 100k....
Fourthly, as the LC GS is so new most will be low mileage, and already there is a fair few common faults - all far more severe than an easily replaced headlight harness or fuel tank O-Ring (which I believe only affected a small number of machines).
Now I am not all about bashing the BMW, and I loved my GS, if anyone asks me I always tell them BMW build some really nice motorcycles, but they are not as reliable as many people assume, I had no idea of all the problems until I bought a GS and found GS OWNERS telling tales of failed FD's / FPC's / ABS / Shaft / Gearbox / Clutch / Dropped Valves etc etc etc - an d not one or two, but some of these faults were reported in their hundreds.
I thought I was buying a relatively low tech machine which would last forever with some TLC, of course it had a load of issues and for me the BMW bubble burst really quickly, I got out and will not be going back.
I will always offer an honest opinion, and I really did prefer the last of the Aircooled GS models to the S10, and I am sure the latest WC is fantastic to ride - but test ride and ownership experiences are very different - otherwise I would have bought the Stelvio.
The Yamaha is far from perfect and some things I think Yamaha really got wrong such as the spokes and restrictions in first 3 gears - but these are simply enough to deal with for me, what is obvious from poking around here is these bikes do not f**k up badly, I can just ride, and ride, and ride without worrying about what is going to fall off / blow up / seize solid / piss slippy stuff on my rear tyre.
As for the dealers, I think the UK ones are OK, they all come across a bit smarmy, but generally seem to provide pretty decent aftersales support, it is just I would rather have a bike that does not go wrong in the first place than one that the dealer is very good at fixing for free.....
.... especially if you want to keep it past the two year warranty period, once that BMW warranty is up the thought of a major failure (along with the likelihood of one) scares the hell out of my credit card.
