[fitsman]

I am a current BMW LT owner and I am tired of the fixing and costs of this bike..its been in the shop for a month becuase of long waits for the parts and extended warranty battles. HUGE repair bill at 24k miles that should not be there. Radio is out, not covered, they want 900 to fix it...just plain tired of it.

Looking at a new 2010 Wing..just looking around and want to see what you guys think..will I be happy?

One thing I do notice is that even though there are MANY less LTs on the road than wings, the BMW forums seem to plagued with people talking about how to fix this and that on bikes 7 years or less. On this forum, its 20 years old and older..

I think I know the answer but are wings reliable? Like the Honda cars I own?

 

[billcarr_]

Hi

You'll be so happy you will grow a third leg so as to skip faster! BMW are nice but expensive bikes. First, they get their HP from fine tuning and RPM vs. a Wing which draws from displacement. The Wing service intervals are at 7500 and 15K. Valve inspection( plus major service) is at 30K and does cost $450+ or so. Elite 3s are always on sale somewhere and I get 20K miles a set. I change oil at 3000 miles no hedging, no exceptions. I run quality oil and Fram filters (3$).

BMWs just look complicated. I dont like the way a Beemer dealer smacks his lips and rubs his hands together when a customer walks in the door. The service interval is a killer. The cash register has no bell.

BTW there are a sxxt load of unsold ( new ) 08s and 09s around and deals to be had. Shop carefully. You ought to be able to get a fine used Wing for 12 - 15 $ I mean really nice, with extras, low miles, cared for, recent edition. Why blow 25 K if you dont have to?

 

[Two Wheel Wing]

First, welcome to the forum from Pa. I think you are going to find that he vast majority of folks on here love their Wings. I have a friend who has a BMW, I think the sport touring model, and he seems to like it, except for the cost of repairs. I test drove the touring model and it was smooth, like the Wing, but for me it was too high. I had to be on my toes just to hold it up and it seemed to be top heavy compared to the Wing.

Go for a test ride and I'm sure you will like the Wing. Plus, there are a lot of "farkles" you can buy to make it unique... Ride safe and enjoy the site..

 

[detdrbuzzard]

hello and welcome to GWOF fitsman. other than normal maintanance my 84 wing has never been down. yes the stator was replaced by the po but the cassette player, cb radio, and everything else still works

 

[joe in calif]

Like anything else you can get a bad one, no matter if it's a car, truck or motorcycle, but you chances of getting a bad Gold Wing is very slim. If you consider the number of unit sold against the number of complaints than you can see it's very small. And some people complain about anything, If you are concerned about it it comes with a 3 year unlimited warranty and you can get an extra 4 years from Honda Direct Line for $499.99. That's 7 years of coverage. And if you do need service or anything while your on the road there are a bunch of Honda all over, finding a BMW is another story. I have owned 6 Gold Wings from 83 to an 08 and the only repair I have ever done is brushes in the alternator on my 92. And that was at about 70,000 miles, treat them right and you can get 300, 000 miles from one.

 

[billcarr_]

ext warranty

Yes the Honda extended waranty it is valuable! If you buy a new wing or a newish (08 09 unsold) wing from a dealer be darned sure to buy the extended warranty at about 600$. You can buy it any time the original 3 year warranty is in effect. So the total warrany period is 7 years and unlimited miles! I have 115K on mine and it is still under warranty and i recently had the electric motor that drives the headlighhts up and down replaced part and labor was ....heck I dont know, Honda paid for it! The worst part of the warranty is ...it expires, mine this september .

120$ for Oil change is a pure rip off. Mine was 60$ at the dealer and I said to myself - hmmmm, 3.91 quarts of oil and a small can full of paper for 60$. I can do this myself....and i do. Yes its 3.91 quarts, I dunno who thought that up. Why not 4.0? Becasue every thihng else works so well they had to screw someting up.

Cheers and enjoy your new Wing.

 

[budoka]

Welcome fitsman. If there is a 'bullet proof' bike it's a Goldwing. Although I've never owned one, I know the LT is a fantastic motorcycle, sorry you have the infamous BMW service woes. That goes way back and includes the 7 series autos. If you think you have $$ issues, try on a $100k car and extrapolate the figures from there. Although I've owned a multitiude of bikes since the 70's, most have been Hondas: 400, 750's, St, GL's, VF, and add to that 8 automobiles, and if Honda would build a full size diesel powered truck I'd have one of those too. That doesn't include the hundreds pf hours I've used Honda power equipment in my yard (mower, tiller, snowthrower and almost a dozen atv's over 25 years). Never a moment's grief with any of them (I had the 1200 stator woes like everyone else, but it was liveable and Honda did pay for most of it). There's other manufacturers, but none of them can claim the reliability record of a Honda.