Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Beemer indicators are a lot more sensible than the usual ones I find. They always put the horn button in entirely the wrong place though.

Yeah - how come R's a expensive to run? You can do it all DIY with about 3 spanners and a socket, and they are more or less indestructible?

With the indicators I was thinking along the lines of cars, where you get used to the indicators on one side, then change car and end up washing the windscreen at every junction!

With the R80 everything that goes wrong costs a lot of money to replace/fix. True you can get the heads off to change the push rod mushrooms (a common cause of oil leaks) in a day, but you do need a piston ring compressor & torque wrench and probably new exhaust manifold connectors/spanner (finned type) since the old ones will likely be seized. Last time I did that simple job it cost £60 quid in parts, £40 in tools.

It got knocked over by a car while parked one time, I was on holiday. Cost £600 to fix the forks and panniers. Car style clutch cost me £500 to get changed, mind you that was BMW, and probably not good value. Batteries only last a few years and they're £80. New brake discs which do crack occasionally are £500 a pair. Second hand parts where available are ok but prices are still high.

Fuel is £25 per tank for 120-130 miles in town, not much better on longer runs. But insurance is cheap.

I only ride a few thousand miles a year on it, and I may be out of touch with the cost of other bikes but parts and fuel costs are quite high. They do run very well once you balance the carbs (again £80 for the tool to do that). It's a bit of a dream that you can fix them with a couple of spanners.