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How did it start?

Are you OK?

BMW final drive strikes again?
Electrical?
Something else?

You stuck someplace needing help?

That brings back a bad memory. I and my oldest son saw a rider burn to death after a low speed wreck with a car. It ruptured the gas tank, created a lake of gas, then ignited. No one could get close to the kid. My son was 5 years old and remembers it to this day (he's 43 now). So do I, just like it happened yesterday.

Chas.

http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Gone-2NBFG27 ... tinguisher

I need to get one of these for my bike.

I'm OK, thanks. This actually happened to a buddy of mine. We had exactly the same bike back then. We both had the "Quick connectors" of the fuel lines replaced per BMW recall notice, figure that! He just went to the wrong dealership mine never failed but his blew up. Here is the story: Bill went on a trip around the US and Canada. towards the end of the Canada part somewhere in the west he stopped for routine maintenance. Riding gravel roads for two days he constantly had to check tire pressure and re inflate. He used a 12 V pocket compressor to add some pressure to the rear tire and there was just a little leak on one of the fuel line connectors and gas dripped into the housing of the compressor. Bill just rescued the camera bag out of one saddle bag and that's all he could save. Everything happened within seconds and the bike burned down within a matter of a few minutes. The story got even better after that. He was out in the middle of nowhere and walking was not an option. He had to go into survival mode with nothing but his cloth on, his camera and cell phone. As usual, cell phone service was not available in this area either. He was lucky to see a pickup truck passing by after hanging out for two days right next to the "melt down." Here is where the story goes on but don't assume it was easy.
He got a ride to the next village where he found a maned police station to get help. So he reported what happened, the local official filed the report, managed a wrecker to bring the melted bike to town and wrote out a Canada report for a totaled motorcycle. There was also a hotel with telephone service in town where my buddy had to stay for two days to touch base with his family and the insurance company. And here is where it got as ugly as "real bad" can be! The insurance agent told him he did the right thing to report the incident at the closest authority possible and file a claim on time. But they also demanded to ship the leftover, melted bike to "a location" in the US, either his house or a place where he can store it until an insurance adjuster can inspect and decide. This required some fees to pay in Canada for the export of the totaled bike to the US. To get it back into the US he had to pay import tax, without the receipt of both taxes paid no company would have picked it up to bring it across. Now after paying export, re import and bringing the bike and Bill back to Texas roughly $6,000 were spent. This includes hotel, shipping food, etc. etc. and took about ten days. Back in Texas the Saga continues with the insurance company and their known habits. Well, the bike was already 4 years old and the blue book value was at about $9,000, subtract the deductibles of $2,500 and the estimated resell value of $200 there would be $6,300 for the insurance company to pay. That was the assumption to begin with and recover at least as much as possible. Right or wrong?
We all would or could guess the worst! The insurance company stated following: There was a recall on that particular bike and model year which could have eliminated the incident.
The dealership performing the recall said we did it as BMW said, no more and no less. BMW of America said we shipped the proper replacement parts for this particular case to the dealership which performed the proper maintenance based on some written procedures. The customer typically signs a sheet for work performed on the bike!!!! ...... Bill lost the bike, paid to get the bike back into the country, lost a lots of money to get that done to find out he is out of luck. Bummer!!!

bmwrdr wrote:I'm OK, thanks. This actually happened to a buddy of mine. We had exactly the same bike back then. We both had the "Quick connectors" of the fuel lines replaced per BMW recall notice, figure that! He just went to the wrong dealership mine never failed but his blew up. Here is the story: Bill went on a trip around the US and Canada. towards the end of the Canada part somewhere in the west he stopped for routine maintenance. Riding gravel roads for two days he constantly had to check tire pressure and re inflate. He used a 12 V pocket compressor to add some pressure to the rear tire and there was just a little leak on one of the fuel line connectors and gas dripped into the housing of the compressor. Bill just rescued the camera bag out of one saddle bag and that's all he could save. Everything happened within seconds and the bike burned down within a matter of a few minutes. The story got even better after that. He was out in the middle of nowhere and walking was not an option. He had to go into survival mode with nothing but his cloth on, his camera and cell phone. As usual, cell phone service was not available in this area either. He was lucky to see a pickup truck passing by after hanging out for two days right next to the "melt down." Here is where the story goes on but don't assume it was easy.
He got a ride to the next village where he found a maned police station to get help. So he reported what happened, the local official filed the report, managed a wrecker to bring the melted bike to town and wrote out a Canada report for a totaled motorcycle. There was also a hotel with telephone service in town where my buddy had to stay for two days to touch base with his family and the insurance company. And here is where it got as ugly as "real bad" can be! The insurance agent told him he did the right thing to report the incident at the closest authority possible and file a claim on time. But they also demanded to ship the leftover, melted bike to "a location" in the US, either his house or a place where he can store it until an insurance adjuster can inspect and decide. This required some fees to pay in Canada for the export of the totaled bike to the US. To get it back into the US he had to pay import tax, without the receipt of both taxes paid no company would have picked it up to bring it across. Now after paying export, re import and bringing the bike and Bill back to Texas roughly $6,000 were spent. This includes hotel, shipping food, etc. etc. and took about ten days. Back in Texas the Saga continues with the insurance company and their known habits. Well, the bike was already 4 years old and the blue book value was at about $9,000, subtract the deductibles of $2,500 and the estimated resell value of $200 there would be $6,300 for the insurance company to pay. That was the assumption to begin with and recover at least as much as possible. Right or wrong?
We all would or could guess the worst! The insurance company stated following: There was a recall on that particular bike and model year which could have eliminated the incident.
The dealership performing the recall said we did it as BMW said, no more and no less. BMW of America said we shipped the proper replacement parts for this particular case to the dealership which performed the proper maintenance based on some written procedures. The customer typically signs a sheet for work performed on the bike!!!! ...... Bill lost the bike, paid to get the bike back into the country, lost a lots of money to get that done to find out he is out of luck. Bummer!!!

wow. What insurance company? Name names. I looked at bikes like this at the IMS this year. I ride a HD, but could definitely see the
versatility of this style. Cool bikes. They would be perfect for a lot of Alaska travel. (glad your friend is ok).

Surely a very versatile bike but they are expensive too. I had four so far with just one major flaw, a final drive failure. It happened on a like new bike and the dealer gave me a new bike without a question asked. And BTW, I have seen Harleys in Alaska!

bmwrdr wrote:Surely a very versatile bike but they are expensive too. I had four so far with just one major flaw, a final drive failure. It happened on a like new bike and the dealer gave me a new bike without a question asked. And BTW, I have seen Harleys in Alaska!

fd_fsilure.jpg

I was fishing the Upper Kenai last July during the salmon run. I saw lots of HD's too.
But, there's many roads I wouldn't particularly be thrilled at trying to manage a heavy
touring bike. Lots of gravel/rock, dirt/mud, ruts etc.
Insurance Company of your friend? Asking because if he got jerked around I'd like to avoid
doing business with them. Thanks

bmwrdr wrote:Surely a very versatile bike but they are expensive too. I had four so far with just one major flaw, a final drive failure. It happened on a like new bike and the dealer gave me a new bike without a question asked. And BTW, I have seen Harleys in Alaska!

fd_fsilure.jpg

There are a lot of new H-D's sold in Alaska.

Geico if I remember right. But I'll ask him to make sure. And yes, I saw about 6 HD's in Delta Junction last year beginning in May.

Let us know what the outcome is. BMW's are great bikes. Freak accident.