Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

No problems, other than standard maintenance

17 (43.6%)

Minor problems, fixed fairly easily by myself or at dealer

13 (33.3%)

Major problems, or took forever to get fixed. Bad experience with Zero support, etc.

9 (23.1%)

Total Members Voted: 39

Voting closed: March 27, 2020, 09:59:57 PM

[princec]

BMW would have given you a loaner for the duration. I find that insisting on a free loaner while they undertake warranty work is a great encouragement to them to get it fixed sooner.

Cas

That is entirely up to the dealer, NOT BMW.

That's not strictly true - BMW expect a very high level of customer service from their franchise solus dealers, at least here in the UK anyway. They treat you almost like royalty in the showroom, which is a key reason why they've so massively increased their market share here in the last 20 years. Also a key reason I was exclusively with BMW for 20 years as well - I'd never been treated like an actual valuable customer before by any dealer. Bike goes wrong - they give you a loaner until it's fixed. BMW presumably reimburse the dealer if this is in response to warranty work (dealer charges BMW for the work), but even if they didn't, they got me as a customer for 2 decades as a result of the policy. It's a no-brainer for them.

Cas

[princec]

BMW would have given you a loaner for the duration. I find that insisting on a free loaner while they undertake warranty work is a great encouragement to them to get it fixed sooner.

Cas

Sadly, they couldn't offer me a courtesy SR/F as their demo bike (which would have been the courtesy bike) also has the same issue and needs it's spiderbus replaced - but that one is at the back of the queue as they're trying to get the customer ones done first.

Ah, any bike would do tbh, just so long as it keeps you reliably mobile.

Cas

[SkyYeti]

BMW would have given you a loaner for the duration. I find that insisting on a free loaner while they undertake warranty work is a great encouragement to them to get it fixed sooner.

Cas

Sadly, they couldn't offer me a courtesy SR/F as their demo bike (which would have been the courtesy bike) also has the same issue and needs it's spiderbus replaced - but that one is at the back of the queue as they're trying to get the customer ones done first.

Ah, any bike would do tbh, just so long as it keeps you reliably mobile.

Cas

Yes indeed. I'd prefer not to go back to an ICE motorcycle but you are right that I need something to keep me mobile.
I will be calling the dealer this week to discuss that very option 

[princec]

When you think about it your bike is depreciating at a rate of about £300 per month so you really want to be compensated for that in some way if it's unavailable for that amount of time...

Cas

[JaimeC]

That's not strictly true - BMW expect a very high level of customer service from their franchise solus dealers, at least here in the UK anyway. They treat you almost like royalty in the showroom, which is a key reason why they've so massively increased their market share here in the last 20 years. Also a key reason I was exclusively with BMW for 20 years as well - I'd never been treated like an actual valuable customer before by any dealer. Bike goes wrong - they give you a loaner until it's fixed. BMW presumably reimburse the dealer if this is in response to warranty work (dealer charges BMW for the work), but even if they didn't, they got me as a customer for 2 decades as a result of the policy. It's a no-brainer for them.

Cas

Not true here in the States.  BMW lost me as a customer a few years back because of their callous handling of an issue I had.  And I've been riding their bike almost exclusively since 1985 and a member of their 400,000 mile club.  Not anymore.  They can all rot in hell for all I care; I'll never buy another product of theirs again no matter HOW many wheels it has.

I am STILL a customer of theirs until my 21 year old K1200LT with 220,000 miles on it finally bites the dust.  They don't build them like that anymore; now they cater to those who replace their bikes every three or four years.  I'm the "old-style BMW customer" who bought a BMW because I expected it to last.  They stopped building them that way at the dawn of the 21st century which is why they are at the BOTTOM of Consumer Reports' Motorcycle Reliability rankings.

[JaimeC]

Details here on my fall-out with BMW.  Not going to repost here as it is way off topic.

https://www.majestyusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=10769#p309071

[Crissa]

...Which is why the BMW dealer I go to has about half of it filled with bikes that are recalled and unsalable.

But that doesn't mean their customer service is bad.  It means they had trouble a few years ago after they changed their management and designs.  Things happen.

-Crissa

[DonTom]

I am STILL a customer of theirs until my 21 year old K1200LT with 220,000 miles on it finally bites the dust.  They don't build them like that anymore;

Is that the one with the reverse and automatic centerstand? I heard that is the most expensive bike there is to maintain, but a great bike when it's all working fine, but not expected to last all that long until major service is again required. I have known a few people who have owned the LTs.

BTW, I assume my battery replacement on my Zero DS under warranty qualifies as a "major problem", but I am very happy with their service besides now having the 7.2 KWH battery.

-Don-  in rainy Auburn, CA

[Richard230]

I have been riding BMW motorcycles since 1985 and have never had a bad experience with my dealer, which is now called Calmoto. They now sell BMWs, Energicas, KTM and Vespas, but way back when, it was only BMW motorcycles.  It is just too bad that they moved completely out of my area last fall.

[DonTom]

I have been riding BMW motorcycles since 1985 and have never had a bad experience with my dealer, which is now called Calmoto. They now sell BMWs, Energicas, KTM and Vespas, but way back when, it was only BMW motorcycles.  It is just too bad that they moved completely out of my area last fall.

In Sparks, NV, the BMW shop, Sierra BMW even sells high end electric bicycles. For the price of some of  them, you can almost  buy a Zero 7.2 KWH with several times the range and performance.

I hear only good stuff about their service on BMWs. But you can guess who pays for it. For an example, say you trade in a BMW to buy another new BMW.  They will deduct the price of their complete servicing from  their final offer unless you can prove it was done in the last 30 days or so. So then when they sell the used BMW,  it was just fully serviced by their service department by the time they offer it for sale. I think that is a reasonable way to do it. I have heard of people buying used bikes from dealers that only had a cup or so of engine oil in them and such.

BTW, I purchased my BMW new in 1971 at Menlo Cycles in Menlo Park. Do you remember them?

-Don-  Auburn, CA

[princec]

Details here on my fall-out with BMW.  Not going to repost here as it is way off topic.

https://www.majestyusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=10769#p309071

Ow, that's mental. I had a Tmax a couple of years ago - and you're right, you should never have sold it! Though I did buy an X-Adv to replace mine, which is still currently all kinds of awesome But I kinda want another Tmax now... except I've promised myself my next bike will be electric, of course, hence being here....

Cas

[Crissa]

... even sells high end electric bicycles. For the price of some of  them, you can almost  buy a Zero 7.2 KWH with several times the range and performance.

Which is one of the reasons my spouse chose a Zero for me.  The TCO of those bicycles has potential to be much lower, but they're also really hard to repair when something goes wrong.  A Zero benefits from being a pretty standard motorcycle otherwise.

-Crissa

[daniels1216]

I've experienced issues with tamper notifications on my 2020 Zero SR/F & SR/S. I have not received a notification from either bike when the bike is off, steering wheel is locked, and wheeled around in a circle by someone remotely. I cannot actually say I've never received a notification because I did get a random notification of someone tampering as I looked at the bike standing still. I would like to activate the tip over sensor to see if I get a notification that it has tipped over, but with a cost of the bike I'd rather not try it. My dealer is not sure what to tell me except they would ask their zero hero and get back to me but they never do. Other than that my experience with both SR/F and Sr/S are without complaint, except for the update sticking which the dealer manually updated during a service.

[Hans2183]

Ironically I got both the "your bike is moving" and "your bike was dropped" notification while it was transported to Zero headquarters NL.

The moving notification is from sitting on the truck being moved. I only got that notification once a day. Transport took 2 days. I never got such a notification driving around with the bike in the back of my own van. So you can't be around, bike has to be shut down and I guess it has to be over a certain distance to make sure you don't get notifications all the time because of GPS location drift.

Being dropped was caused when they worked on my bike having the sensor removed from the bike (and putting it aside in a tipped over orientation). It was when they were replacing the bus spider at the back of the battery, slightly forward, below the riders seat. I think to access that you need to remove the complete subframe. So maybe the sensor is part of the subframe. Or could be in the tank also somewhere (higher up makes more sense) which also had to be removed.

[JaimeC]

I am STILL a customer of theirs until my 21 year old K1200LT with 220,000 miles on it finally bites the dust.  They don't build them like that anymore;

Is that the one with the reverse and automatic centerstand? I heard that is the most expensive bike there is to maintain, but a great bike when it's all working fine, but not expected to last all that long until major service is again required. I have known a few people who have owned the LTs.

The hydraulic centerstand came into play in 2005 and that is right at the beginning of when the bikes started going downhill.  They also had that IDIOTIC power-assisted linked braking system.  No, as you can see in my tagline below, I have the 1999 model.  It has the reverse but it has the regular, manual, non-linked brakes and a regular,
manual centerstand.

2005 is also when they changed the saddle to make it easier to reach the ground at the expense of comfort when you were actually riding it because now it was too narrow for proper support.  They changed the steering geometry a bit to address complaints of low speed handling at the expense of high speed stability.  When the updates were first announced I thought of upgrading (who wouldn't want a hydraulic centerstand and 25% more horsepower?) but when I started reading the feedback from people who had made the jump, I decided to stick with what I had.