bronzecrow wrote:Hi people im new here, i curently own a K1100lt tic its my only transport and whilst its very relible and has great weather protection it is just to heavey for me, and its lacking in soul, i probley only do 3000mile a year max (work from home) so im thinking of swaping it for a boxer, am i mad? is this a good idea, lol i relise you guys may be biased, my previous bike was a hardtail sportster chop i did 9000miles in a year on that and loved every minute, So im looking for a relible comfortable bike but one which i can love (and pick up if i drop it!)
ive read that as long as a boxers transimision is in good conditon then it should be a reliable and cheap to maintain bike?
Hi Philip, welcome to the forum.
You sound like you would enjoy an airhead, but I wonder about your expectations. When I bought my first airhead I was surprised at all the problems that showed up and needed attention. To be sure they were little things, and some things that were the result of insufficient maintenance by the bikes previous owner.
The bike was (and is) a '77 R100/7. The headlight relay quit relaying, then the L/H carb started overflowing, then the R/H turn signal quit working, and so on. These are small problems in the scheme of things and I was thinking that I was just having a run of bad luck. Then the bike quit firing on one cylinder. And months later the front brake lever crept towards the handlebar when braking.
And this was in the days before Boxerworks.
But I had a manual and one by one I figured out the problems. But it didn't seem to be teething problems because occasionally a new problem would appear. Finally I figured out that when people were talking about reliability they were really talking about really important reliability in the drive train.
A couple years after that I dropped 4th gear in my transmission while torquing heavily in 4th while getting on a freeway ramp.
To be sure a lot of people have very few problems with their airheads. But a few years here on boxerworks has shown me that a lot of people have had problems like I had as well.
I think where I'm headed with all of this is that your LT is a modern reliable bike. And there are going to be few airheads that are going to display the same level of reliability.
I would not get rid of the LT without having run an airhead for a while if it were me. Can you afford to keep your LT if you buy an airhead? I think a few months of experience with an airhead will settle the question in your mind as whether you should switch over.
I still maintain that this is a golden age for airheads. A big part of that opinion comes from the facts that airheads are still fairly available at reasonable prices. But you have to work at finding them. The IBMWR want ads, Craig's list, and the BMWMOA want ads sometimes often feature airheads for sale. Then there is eBay for some people. A second part to my opinion has to do with the fact that there is still a big support structure for airheads. There are few parts that you can't get new. And used parts (except for some highly sought after parts) still seem to be very available.
All of my riding bikes are airheads, and I don't expect that to change any time soon. It could, but I don't have a high yearning for the things that modern bikes offer.
I presume you've been lurking here on Boxerworks a bit. Most of the airhead guys around here are pretty handy with wrenches, but certainly not all. If you know an airhead mechanic, or are a good mechanic yourself, I say you're good to go, airhead wise.
Just don't sell your LT first, unless you want to get rid of it for another reason.
Ken
