Motorcycle Investor mag
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Recalls and
breakdowns and the T160
Sunday shed wrap
September 21, 2025, by Guy 'Guido' Allen
We got a little surprise in the post the other day: a
recall notice for the 2001 R1150GS. Yep, 24 years after it
was built! It's to adjust some plumbing on the front end,
to prevent a brake line being rubbed and potentially
failing.
It seems incredible for this to turn up so many years
down the track, but it's not a record. A mate tells me he
knows someone who the same week received a recall notice
for an R1100 series, to replace a fuel line some 30 years
after it was built.
What's going on? We can only assume some sort of audit
has occurred. However there is no mention of these, yet, on the federal
government recall site.
This machine received a
big 'birthday' late last year during which young Chris
at BM
Motorcycles gave a bit of a rundown on what they
need as they age. See the video.
Of course the big news this week was the breakdown of the 1999 K1200LT land yacht, right in the middle of our Luxotour from Melbourne to Brisbane and back, near Inglewood (Qld). While we have sunk a lot of work into the machine, the one thing I missed was replacing the bearings in the rear drive hub, which I now understand is a known weakness. Bugger!
That was an expensive lesson, as I now
have to get the bike shipped back from Inglewood
at a cost of around $1000. It's with people I
trust – namely
Bikes Only – and the high cost is explained
by the fact this is not a town they would normally
serve.
You can be sure I'll be
asking questions about the R1150GS hub when I get back
to Melbourne...
Next on the job list
really should be the 1975 Triumph
T160, which has been sitting partially
disassembled for an embarrassing length of time. That
is scoring new brake master cylinders front and rear,
air filter, plus an electronic ignition system and a
bunch of minor things like new fuel taps.
It would be really nice
to hear that throaty triple-cylinder engine growl
again.
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