From the arguing with trolls files: K1600 Forum takedown of my issues on the Iron Butt Rally

I posted a long response to a thread stating how I’m basically a melodramatic loser without a clue for riding my brand new stock k1600 GTL Exclusive in the Iron Butt Rally.

My response.

As the ridder in question I think it is interesting way to treat another member of the forum. So… Let me get this right. A BMW motorcycle requires a burn in time. They according to several of you are not reliable enough to expect to run an Iron Butt Rally right off the show room floor? Having had a trouble free K16 mount I wouldn’t have expected that. I don’t think BMW thinks that. Rather than rush to judgement without information I’m waiting to see what BMW says.The claims about rally bike preparation are hilarious. Ken gets it.

Poetry yawn? Somebody posts real content to a blog and you all get a case of the ass? Taking items out of context and arguing on the Internet? Imagine that. Thank you for being considerate, kind, or just STFU when somebody else is disappointed.

With the exception of my friend Ken Meese who knows EXACTLY how I feel I suggest the rest of you stay under the porch. Since I have finished the Iron Butt Rally, numerous certificate rides, and owned two K16s, along with around half a million miles on BMWs. Lets look at a few numbers for why this is a personal loss and I’m looking at the three eyed lot of you as jerk wads. What you so casually dismiss is without any freaking clue is the $15K in fees, hotels, preparation costs, and time to get to the rally along with three weeks of vacation and additional mandatory meetings in the two years leading up to the rally.

I know Ken, Matt, Andi and John know how to ride the rally and what it exactly takes. Part of this challenge was exactly to show that a BMW could run the entire Iron Butt Rally box stock and off the showroom floor. The exact opposite of a hopeless class entry. I put a lot of faith in my BMWs. Reading some of your comments I’m guessing you don’t put nearly as much faith into the Teutonic brand than I do.

As to the Lemon Law comments. 1) You don’t know the entire story, but thank you for your less than informed comments. Sometimes it is better take things on face value than try and guess. 2) The dealer is extremely worried that something more than the computer is wrong and installing the last computer in the United States into my bike and having it smoke is an option they are actually considering. How awesome is that!? Is the computer the cause or is something else causing the computer to catastrophically fail? That is an unknown the dealer is working through. 3) The computer took a dump but the catastrophic failure may mean it will be several MONTHS until the bike is on the road again. Which under Virginia law kicks in the lemon law provision according to the dealer. We don’t know the answer to that one yet as two wonderful dealers are still trying to figure out what to do.

This of course is a synopsis. Please feel free to challenge my veracity, political correctness, ability to deal with adversity, and understanding of the trials and tribulations of riding in the premier long distance rally which I have successfully finished previously. As a person who has actually finished the rally I can’t wait to hear from the peanut gallery of folks at their keyboards chittering away about how I should be doing something I have done and they haven’t. Please…

Far from a hater of the brand I have enjoyed every mile on my bike right up until it failed.

Now if you have had a catastrophic failure of the main compute module, and had the entire programming sequence wiped so that the diagnostic equipment could not even read or write to the bike. I would like to know if it was the computer that failed or if it was something else on the bike that failed causing the computer to fail. Prior to the rally I posted about the transmission. The details best i have..

1) The transmission would randomly automagically upshift into neutral. My local dealer thought that it might be part of an engine management campaign and upgraded it before the rally. It appeared to fix it. It returned day 2. Hmmm.
2) The bike randomly locked itself as we were riding. i put this to the fob button getting pushed as we were riding spiritedly. Maybe? Maybe not? Now I wonder.
3) The starter would spin, but not engage the motor (the final straw that had us in the dealer). After a half dozen pokes at the starter it would finally work. Some suggested switch failure, but dealer says button push, then spin, something else is up.
4) The bike randomly unlocked itself twice. Again I put that to random button presses, but the fob is hanging loose on my jacket so maybe not.
5) The headlight twice didn’t initialize (on, bounce, level).

I rode two thousand miles to the start after having the bike serviced. No issues in those 2K miles. Other than the neutral issue which we thought was fixed with several hundred miles testing. All of the rest reappeared or appeared new in the middle of the first leg of the rally.

K1600 Forum Takedown of my Ride (pdf of the thread)