...but it could have been much, much worse. 
I had a 2:00 appointment in SLC this afternoon to spoon some new tires onto "Pig". Since I just bought it this spring, used, I also asked the tech to give it a good look-over for any problems. There was a commotion in the garage area, several people were looking at something on my bike, and the tech motioned me over.
The rear subframe of the BMW R1200 GS is bolted to the engine block in four locations, two on each side. On my bike, both bottom bolts... weren't there!!
When I installed a set of bottom crash bars on my bike a few weeks ago I noticed that one arm attached to the block had a hole drilled in the center. I thought that was a bit odd so I checked the other side, it also had a hole, so I figured that's how it was designed and didn't give it further thought.
The shop owner told me he could trailer the bike back to my place, but he would not let me drive it; had the shoulder on the arm slipped out of the cast collar on the engine block, the bike would've snapped in half, not cool on the interstate (I've put over 2,000 miles on Pig since getting her). The threads in the left-hand hole were completely destroyed, and its obvious the previous owner sold the bike knowing of this fault; I'm considering legal action.
After working on the bike another hour or so the tech was pretty confident they'd be able to heli-coil the holes and restore the bike without too much effort. I've got a non-refundable $300 hotel room reserved for next weekend in Jackson Hole (was gonna ride the Beartooth Highway) but there's no guarantee the bike will be ready by Wednesday next week (they had to order the two bolts).
Today was a bad day. But I'm alive. Damn.
I had a 2:00 appointment in SLC this afternoon to spoon some new tires onto "Pig". Since I just bought it this spring, used, I also asked the tech to give it a good look-over for any problems. There was a commotion in the garage area, several people were looking at something on my bike, and the tech motioned me over.
The rear subframe of the BMW R1200 GS is bolted to the engine block in four locations, two on each side. On my bike, both bottom bolts... weren't there!!
When I installed a set of bottom crash bars on my bike a few weeks ago I noticed that one arm attached to the block had a hole drilled in the center. I thought that was a bit odd so I checked the other side, it also had a hole, so I figured that's how it was designed and didn't give it further thought.
The shop owner told me he could trailer the bike back to my place, but he would not let me drive it; had the shoulder on the arm slipped out of the cast collar on the engine block, the bike would've snapped in half, not cool on the interstate (I've put over 2,000 miles on Pig since getting her). The threads in the left-hand hole were completely destroyed, and its obvious the previous owner sold the bike knowing of this fault; I'm considering legal action.
After working on the bike another hour or so the tech was pretty confident they'd be able to heli-coil the holes and restore the bike without too much effort. I've got a non-refundable $300 hotel room reserved for next weekend in Jackson Hole (was gonna ride the Beartooth Highway) but there's no guarantee the bike will be ready by Wednesday next week (they had to order the two bolts).
Today was a bad day. But I'm alive. Damn.
