May 2013 issue of CR has short but good article on most reliable motorcycles. Bottom line, Japanese bikes have far fewer problems than BMWs or Harleys. Also has some good maintenance tips.
I wrote a letter to the editor expressing my shock and delight that they finally acknowledged the existence of motorcycles in their pages. (I also offered to help with motorcycles testing, if they decided to start publishing test results.) :yesnod:
I've owned one Harley, two BMW's, and six Japanese bikes. The Harley was the worst, followed by one BMW, not one of the Japanese bikes needed any work. Just regular maintenance.
5 BMW's, from 1984 to 1994, both R's and K's. Only one of the older ones had problems...drive shaft splines were too soft on the 84. Had three Harley's from 1990 to 1996; not one ever had any problem. Had a Kawasaki KE 175, 1973, great bike, but the reed valve went bad early on, and the clutch needed stronger springs. Had a Yamaha that was a dud from the get-go...gave it back to Yamaha as a lemon. Honda Shadow 700, 198?...can't recall the year...never a problem, sold it to my brother who had a regulator he replaced. He sold it to his son, and it has nearly 100K miles...no other problems. Honda VFR in the mid-90's; no problems. Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 Classic and Vulcan 2000 in the mid 2000's: no problems. '06 Kawasaki KLR650...no problems other than the pro-active replacement of the Balancer Lever (aka Doohickey), and a rub-through of the stator wires over the rear engine mount. '09 KLX250, which I turned into a 331...great bike, no problems. '94 DR350...no problems. '90something XR650L...no problems. '90 Honda Pacific Coast 800...needed a new rectifier at 35,000 miles, which is fairly common. Heck, I'm sure I'm forgetting some other bikes I had...Oh, like the '07 CB 919...no problems. Current '12 G-strom 650...no problems.
My list means very little, though. It's just one person's limited experiences.
No major problems with any of my Hondas, or Suzuki's Only two Harleys have been problematic out of many, but they were both high mileage, and except for some inlines back in the '80's, our DL1000 has required the most ongoing maintenance adjustments.
Of course this disussion should also be based on mileage otherwise the data is somewhat worthless
I've had 100's of thousands of miles on BMW's and had few failures that would put me off the brand.
My Honda got super sucky milage. My Kawasaki ZR7S was brilliant and so is the Wee.
My current BMW has no problems that aren't readily corrected, Fork seal on Warranty.
Most modern bikes regardless of manufacture are really pretty good and ridden and serviced reasonably will give miles and years of satisfactory riding.
It's called the Unscheduled Adventure Effect Like the time I broke down in Tampa and I ended up staying at the same hotel as that of a Hawaiian Tropics model's bachelorette party.
After owning all of the major brands and over 44 years of riding I could care less about stuff like this.
Riding a bike isn't like buying a blender. I want to be care about the bike I'm riding. I want to like it enough to give it one last look in the garage when I get home. If it happens to be Japanese , Euopean or HD I could care less and i could care less if it needs a certain amount of work along the way.
The last bike that stranded me along the road was about 4 years ago, a 1974 BMW R75 that i bought from an acquaintance in Indiana and rode back to Oregon. Other than that I don't recall the last time it happned so to me its a non issue. Actually the break down on the BMW was a great experience as it allowed me to meet some great people who helped me out and made the ride a true adventure.
Actually the break down on the BMW was a great experience as it allowed me to meet some great people who helped me out and made the ride a true adventure.
Owned a Yamaha. No problem. Owned a Victory. Problems ! And it was a brand new one. Bike looked amazing, but every time i get on it i was not sure what will strand me.Kind of hard to enjoy riding like that.
Owned a Victory. Problems ! And it was a brand new one. Bike looked amazing, but every time i get on it i was not sure what will strand me.Kind of hard to enjoy riding like that.
while I'm not disputing the reliability of japanese motorcycles (I've owned a large pile, as well as Italian and British bikes-----{modern Ducatis and Triumph were reliable} ) but Consumer Reports doesn't really know jack about motorcycles. as a bicycle mechanic, their reviews of bicycles are hilarious, measuring stopping distance, etc with unskilled riders and perhaps poorly set up bikes. I trust moto mags a little more, but mainly rely on people I know or friends of friends who actually ride and break the stuff. forums like this are also great because recurrent issues can always pop up.
while I'm not disputing the reliability of japanese motorcycles (I've owned a large pile, as well as Italian and British bikes-----{modern Ducatis and Triumph were reliable} ) but Consumer Reports doesn't really know jack about motorcycles. as a bicycle mechanic, their reviews of bicycles are hilarious, measuring stopping distance, etc with unskilled riders and perhaps poorly set up bikes.
I agree with respect to many of their product performance ratings. Your bicycle example is perfect. They do a better job on cars because they employ a staff of experts. But this was not a product review, so expertise is not an issue. The article was simply a statistical analysis of repair frequency. Sometimes they try to compare product performance, sometimes they report reliability data and sometimes they do both.
This came from their annual reader survey with responses from 4424 owners of 4680 bikes. They reported percent of bikes with a significant repair in the previous 4 years. They mentioned adjusting the data somehow to account for the age and mileage of the bike but presumably not for annual mileage ridden. Given the wide range of miles ridden by individual owners, I suspect this could skew the data quite a lot if some makes tend to be ridden more than others.
Their report said the results have a margin of error of 4 percent. Here's the outcome: Yamaha 11%, Kawasaki 13%, Honda 14%, HD 24% and BMW 30%. They said that although they didn't get enough responses from Suzuki to include it in the report, the responses they got suggest it's similar to the other Japanese brands. So statistically speaking, your odds of a repair are roughly double on a HD compared to a metric bike and 2-1/2 times higher for a BMW.
Interesting article with breakdown by type of bike and most common repairs too. You can probably find it in your local library if you're not a subscriber.
They said that although they didn't get enough responses from Suzuki to include it in the report, the responses they got suggest it's similar to the other Japanese brands. So statistically speaking, your odds of a repair are roughly double on a HD compared to a metric bike and 2-1/2 times higher for a BMW.
It's wonderful to see the sheer devotion to a brand that people will have! When something they love breaks down and leaves them stranded at the side of the road it becomes an "adventure". Now that's funny!
It reminds me of my neighbour in the 90's: he loved his Honda cars. At the time I sold VW's. His Prelude had only about 110,000 km, or about 75,000 miles. His timing belt broke for the third time and took out the motor. I asked him if he was a little pissed over it. His reaction was "I know Honda's are good cars so this must be a fluke." I'm thinking that my customers are chewing me out if a light bulb burns out, and he is saying his third timing belt breaking is a fluke even when it took out the motor.
Can't speak for others but if you do enough riding a break down is inevitable. Bikes are made up of a lot of parts any of which can fail.
When a breakdown does occur you could stomp around, bitch and yell and rant and rave.
In my case I wasn't overly surprised when the 74 BMW had a problem. You buy a 33 year old bike then try to push it 2500 miles, yeah, something could happen. So what? Its not like you broke down in Afghanistan or something.
In fact it was 60 miles outside of Sioux City Iowa in southern Nebraska. Stopped dead, I knew it was a charging system problem because of how it manifested itself. Last town was 6 miles away, population 6.
So what happens is that of the very sparse traffic just about every person stopped and offered help. One guy took me up a road so I could hit a cell tower and call the BMW shop in Sioux City. They found a customer who was also a BMW MOA member who had a trailer and came out to get me, one Chuck Swenson. He hauled me and the bike back, naturally would take no money, the shop fixed it the next day and I was on my way.
So yes, I consider it a minor adventure, in the best possible way. I met a lot of really good people and sometimes these things are an opportunity for people to show the best of what they are made of.
There was a lot more that went into that story and that trip and I consider it one of the best I've ever taken. May sound funny to some I guess but I have always been of a mind that if you're not prepared to deal with a little adversity in your travel you're probably not really cut out for motorcycle travel.
In its May issue, Consumer Reports dives into the topic of motorcycle reliability, and confirms what many of us already knew: bikes from BMW and Harley-Davidson were reported to be less reliable than those from the Japanese OEMs.
My vstrom is only the 2nd Suzuki I have owned the other been a gxr600 and both bikes are built well and reliable.
I've owned several Hondas mostly cbr600s from early 1990s to 2000's then a couple of st1100s,all of them were built well and very reliable.
Then the dark days descended on me....I bought my dream bike.
I had liked these bikes since I was a young boy,I had the posters on my wall,when watching the bike racing I followed the bikes not the riders......then 1 day I found I could afford to go and buy one!
I bought a new red 2005 Ducati 749s.
On leaving the shop on the day a picked it up, I got a speeding ticket!
Within weeks I was having trouble starting it if it was left more than a few days.
I had electrical issues every few months, from the transponder key not working,the fuel pump relay filling with water,front ignition coil failing twice,Lights not working and the engine management light came on nearly all the time at idle!
I owned this bike for nearly 2 years and clocked up a fair amount of miles on it, and to be honest I loved it, it was the best handling bike I've ever owned and would still buy another but it would have to be the multistrada.
In short yes jap bikes are the most reliable but they don't all rock your soul like a Ducati.
After over 20 years of owning all Japanese or European bikes I bought myself one of my dream bikes . . . a brand new first generation 2006 Multistrada 1000. I sold my Honda VFR to get it. I bought it in the winter, and the roads were icy so I paid to have it delivered. When the driver dropped it off he said something like, " its always good to have another bike when you have a Ducati." And he was so right. Among other issues the bike leaked gas constantly from a warped tank, the gauges fogged and shorted, the main ground disconnected when I was 80 miles from home, a piece of the fairing fell off while on the highway, parts sometimes took weeks to get, and the maintenance and valve adjustments were insane. I finally dumped it for my 09 Wee, losing about $4000 in the process. It was the worst experience I've had, and I decided all the handling, braking and performance are useless if every time you leave home you wonder if you're going to get back. Sorry, but I'll take the Wee - for me the Ducati mystique is way overrated.
I too have owned just about "one of each" with honda being the most reliable and requiring the least amount of wrench time...the Harley was required constant attention...one other thing to consider is, when they gather data, are they only considering time owned and not miles ridden, the reason I ask is, I recently went shopping for a replacement for my goldwing, (got a Vee), shopped HD...AMAZED at how many 10-12yr old HDs have 10-15K miles on them....incredible...of course they won't break down or require repair if you don't ride them...by far the goldwings had the highest miles-per-year of any bike I looked at....
If rocking the soul is a quality category, then Harley-Davidson must be the best bike in the world since that marque's faithful are easily the most fervent of all. As for me I'm not sure how much rocking my soul would need on a cold day on the remote Cassiar highway. I believe my soul would prefer the psychological comfort of a predictably reliable ride, in fact, to a good rocking.
There are a lot of bears along that road, some black and some grizzlies. They all look hungry.
I've been lucky. Of all the bikes I've had I've only been left by the side of the road once, that was the VROD with a voltage regulator problem (AMA is nice to have, by the way). The other two Harleys never let me down, so I don't have anything bad to say about them. I didn't make it back with the Triumph once, but that was just because I got hit by a truck. :bom_furious:
This is going mainstream ; noon TV news KCRA reports, consumers reports on the most reliable motorcycles,you know the story by now. Is this an April fools prank?
I've had four Harleys and a Buell and never had a problem with any of them. My VStrom is bike # 50 in my 45 years of riding so I've tried quite a few. I've had a stator problem on a Honda Nighthawk - you'd be amazed how far you can drive with a new Walmart car battery strapped onto the back seat between battery charges :thumbup:.
I also had a 920 Virago that had the dreaded faulty starter. Other than old 2 strokes those were the two worst problems I've had. I've never had German bikes and the only Italian machines have been Vespas and an Areomachi Harley Sprint. The V Strom and my old GS750E have been the most reliable of my foreign machines. They have all been good and the only time I've been stranded for a bit was when I had a valve stem failure cause a flat tire near Sydney NE. It all worked out great - the tire shop guy came out, we fixed it on the side of the road, then went to his shop. Turned out his hobby was making three wheelers out of Triumph or Honda forks on anything from a 850 Fiat convertible to a S10 Blazer to a 55 Chevy. After an hour of talking bikes and bike/car trikes I was on the road again. I always wanted to try a 1200RT until my friend bought one....I decided I couldn't afford the maintenance and repair costs that he had in the two years he owned it.
I chuckle to myself whenever someone says, "I owned a bike made by Brand X and it broke down, therefore Brand X sucks."
Take a statistics class and learn about sample size. There's not a single person in this forum, or anywhere for that matter -- not even Jay Leno -- that has owned enough bikes from enough manufacturers to make ANY kind of conclusion about brand or model reliability, from a statistical standpoint.
"I dated a red-head in high school, and she was a bitch, therefore all red-headed women are difficult to live with."
"Two different buddies of mine own Kenmore washing machines and neither has ever broken down, therefore Kenmores are the most reliable brand of home appliance available."
Having said all that, everyone knows Japanese bikes are the most reliable, you're not a red-blooded American Patriot if you don't ride a Harley, you're stylish and probably have a big penis if you ride an Italian sport bike, and you've got more money than sense if you ride a BMW. Oh, and the Cubs will win the next World Series and the IRS is looking out for my best interest.
Having said all that, everyone knows Japanese bikes are the most reliable, you're not a red-blooded American Patriot if you don't ride a Harley, you're stylish and probably have a big penis if you ride an Italian sport bike, and you've got more money than sense if you ride a BMW. Oh, and the Cubs will win the next World Series and the IRS is looking out for my best interest.
Well I had two Ducatis and I have two Harleys and one BMW. I'm not sure about the money part but the big penis and patriot part for sure.:thumbup::green_lol:
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
StromTrooper
1.7M posts
66.6K members
Since 2003
A forum community dedicated to all Suzuki Strom owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, modifications, troubleshooting, purchasing, reviews, accessories, maintenance, and more!