BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

Hi all Im new to the group and hope to be new to a R1200RT soon Im looking at buying a 2017 model with 29500 miles and would like to know what problems if any I should be expecting with a bike with this miles its a 1 owner from new bike and its being sold by a dealership Any advice would be great
Thanks Joe

Make sure electrics working especially suspension. Paint finish front engine/drive shaft, they changed from silver to black finish after problems. If its good its good either colour after that mileage. Have a good look underneath engine on a few examples thats one way to tell if been looked after as hard to keep clean, same as centre stand cross bar.

Cheers Bob21 I’ve read the drive shaft can give problems could that be a problem with a bike with this sort of mileage

Is the RT coming from a BMW dealer with a 2 year used bike warranty.

joe90 wrote: Cheers Bob21 I’ve read the drive shaft can give problems could that be a problem with a bike with this sort of mileage

Most driveshaft failures appear to be on GSs as far as I can tell. However what most of use with that age bikes are finding is that the shafts are not greased, where they sit on the splines of the gearbox, and more importantly onto the bevel drive. Not a difficult job to rectify in most cases. I've heard of only one completely seized onto the bevel drive, but it might be worth mentioning to the dealers, get them to sort this...? HTH

Warranty claims, viewtopic.php?t=1.msg51929#msg51929 could be an indicator of any potential problems.

Not many riders have experienced problems but one that pops up on a 2017 RT is the flap in the exhaust system seizing up.

Asking the dealer to run a plug in diagnostic check for any fault codes would highlight this potential problem.

Or, have the silencer removed and physically check the operation of the exhaust flap.

Dreaded exhaust flap sticking. If it is from a dealer, just make sure the flap is covered in the warranty. New Headers are circa £1200 and the flap is in the headers

Ah yes the dreaded exhaust flap seizing ,my 2019 RTLE had only 3500 miles and the engine warning light came on result seized exhaust flap had over loaded the flap servo motor, replaced by BMW under warranty, i cannot understand why BMW have not addressed this problem on there bikes , when i stated i new other owners who applied high temperature lubricant to the flap i was told its a complete waste of time ? .