The ‘service campaign‘ on BMW’s R1200GS has started to become a recall in many countries including the UK and USA. The R1200GS recall relates to the bike’s telelever forks, having established that the fork tubes can be damaged resulting in the pressed-in plug in the top loosening or even coming out.
BMW believes that the problem occurs when the forks are momentarily under high stress, for instance hitting a pothole. Initially the top plug begins to move, which shows as a measurable gap between the top of the fork stanchion and the edge of the plug. At this stage, oil can begin to leak and there may be noise from the forks. In the worst-case scenario, the plug – which also serves to hold the top of the fork to the steering yoke – could come out entirely.
BMW initially opted to address the issue with a service campaign, checking all bikes and repairing only those that were showing signs of damage. But now it’s turning into a full-blown recall that could hit as many as 168,000 R1200GSes made from November 2013 to June 2017. The repair on bikes where the fork top plug hasn’t moved, and shows less than a 0.2mm gap, is to add a strengthening sleeve over the top of the fork and the plug. This stops the stanchion from being able to deform and slide off the plug.
On bikes where there’s more than 0.2mm between the stanchion and top plug edge, the assembly will be replaced with a modified one with the strengthening sleeve already fitted.
A great video showing exactly how the R1200GS recall repairs are carried out has been posted by Riders Motorcycles.
