Ten+ years with my GS Adventure

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My GS Adventure turned 10 years old last year. The bike had been great and very reliable and I was at a crossroad.

The shocks were shot and I had to decide whether to invest $$ in new shocks for a ten year old bike or save up for a new one. In the end, I decided to buy a new set of Wilbers shocks.
2017-12-22%2005.38.59-L.jpg


Here is a pic of the new and old rear shocks.
2017-12-24%2019.34.34-L.jpg


I even bought a new mud guard to protect the new rear shock.
2017-12-22%2005.33.15-L.jpg


The new shocks were great and the bike handled better than ever. Then I started hearing a strange noise from the final drive but only upon light acceleration. I change the final drive fluid about every 10k miles and it has always been relatively clean. This time I got black oil with silver glitter.
2017-03-28%2003.32.39-L.jpg


Well that's not good.
2017-03-28%2003.41.47-L.jpg


I removed the final drive and opened it up to take a peek.
2017-03-30%2003.58.23-L.jpg

2017-03-31%2003.18.55-L.jpg


I suspected a bad pinion bearing but wasn't sure so I sent it out to be rebuilt.

I put it all back together and rode the snot out of it. Until I started getting a bad vibration. Great.

Bad front u-joint in the drive shaft. Here is what was left of the bearing.
2018-02-22%2007.32.34-L.jpg


But remember, BMW stands for "bring more wallet" so you can't just buy another one at Autozone. So I ended up buying a new aftermarket drive shaft instead of spending $1200 for one that had BMW stamped on it.
2018-03-03%2003.46.57-L.jpg


So the last year has been eventful but I love the bike and I have nearly 70,000 miles on it. I have never put 100,000 miles on a single bike and I'd like to accomplish that with this one. I'm in way to deep at this point to consider anything else. This is a pic from a few days ago.
2018-03-30%2019.17.58-L.jpg
 
Originally Posted By: Ausfahrt
My GS Adventure turned 10 years old last year. The bike had been great and very reliable and I was at a crossroad.

The shocks were shot and I had to decide whether to invest $$ in new shocks for a ten year old bike or save up for a new one. In the end, I decided to buy a new set of Wilbers shocks.
2017-12-22%2005.38.59-L.jpg


Here is a pic of the new and old rear shocks.
2017-12-24%2019.34.34-L.jpg


I even bought a new mud guard to protect the new rear shock.
2017-12-22%2005.33.15-L.jpg


The new shocks were great and the bike handled better than ever. Then I started hearing a strange noise from the final drive but only upon light acceleration. I change the final drive fluid about every 10k miles and it has always been relatively clean. This time I got black oil with silver glitter.
2017-03-28%2003.32.39-L.jpg


Well that's not good.
2017-03-28%2003.41.47-L.jpg


I removed the final drive and opened it up to take a peek.
2017-03-30%2003.58.23-L.jpg

2017-03-31%2003.18.55-L.jpg


I suspected a bad pinion bearing but wasn't sure so I sent it out to be rebuilt.

I put it all back together and rode the snot out of it. Until I started getting a bad vibration. Great.

Bad front u-joint in the drive shaft. Here is what was left of the bearing.
2018-02-22%2007.32.34-L.jpg


But remember, BMW stands for "bring more wallet" so you can't just buy another one at Autozone. So I ended up buying a new aftermarket drive shaft instead of spending $1200 for one that had BMW stamped on it.
2018-03-03%2003.46.57-L.jpg


So the last year has been eventful but I love the bike and I have nearly 70,000 miles on it. I have never put 100,000 miles on a single bike and I'd like to accomplish that with this one. I'm in way to deep at this point to consider anything else. This is a pic from a few days ago.
2018-03-30%2019.17.58-L.jpg




Pardon my ignorance here; but which BMW bike was this on? Thank You
 
Looks like a great bike and I like the idea of riding it for 100,000 miles. That's quite a milestone. I always thought BMW stood for break my wallet not bring my wallet but I am probably wrong. Keep on racking up those miles and ride safe.
 
Nice bike. I think an older GS is preferable to a new GS.

My sister recently picked up an '18 R1200GS, while it's nice enough, I don't know that I'd feel comfortable taking it too far off the beaten path, what with it's raft of high tech 'features' waiting to fail.
 
Originally Posted By: webfors
Love these posts!

Makes me appreciate my chain drive
grin.gif


Keep it twisted!


Lol. I understand and I like chain drive as well. BMW shaft drives were bullet proof for many decades in the airhead era. I think the combination of more hp and single sided swingarms in the newer bikes is causing the problems.

The past year has certainly been an expensive learning experience but I've been riding the snot out of this bike for over ten years and until recently, it has been great. For me, the crown jewel of this bike is the engine. It's certainly not a sportbike but it does everything well and 100hp is enough to keep me entertained.
 
NO the old airhead finals were not bullet proof. They had too small splines, and has to be repaired and lubricated. The final would also fail at times. And it only had to take 75 Horsepower. For the day they were way better than anything else. That is not longer the case.

Rod
 
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