maintenance comparisons

[Clutch]

Does anyone know how airheads compare to oilheads and k-bikes as far as maintenance goes?  Is it just as easy to fix many problems on the newer bikes (adjust valves, fix fuel injectors, etc.) as it is on the airheads?  Are the parts for the newer bikes cheaper?  Do you have to have some sort of computer hooked up to the new bikes to fix many problems?

I've got a friend that has a couple of airheads, and a couple of k's, and he says that the k engines are really solid.  He knows a lot about both airheads and k-bikes, but I've never gotten a real good answer out of him as to which one is easier to work on.

[tmcgeesr]

I have 4 airheads and 1 oilhead. While valves oil changes etc are no more complicated you need electronic instrumentation to adjust many other things.

All BMW parts are about the same in my opinion.

Tim McGee

[Bob_Roller]

I've got an'81 R65 and I'm the original owner, I also have an'02 R1150R also original owner. I would have to say that up to this point in time, the R65 is easier to work on but requires more maintenance, but it is just short of 27 years old and 78,000 miles. The oilhead has 23,000 miles on it and almost 5 years in my possession, and it is more of a hassle to do things, not difficult mind you just more time consuming removing things like the fuel tank, but it is like the cages of today, they require less maintenance at longer intervals. Parts price wise I don't think it is any worse than parts for an R65, upside is there is more of a chance that a local dealer will have what you need for a later model oilhead, as compared to a 26 year old airhead. My 1150 gets 55-58 mpg on the highway at 75 mph, my R65 at 75mph is about 35-36 mpg with 10% ethanol fuel. Everything considered, I don't think the oilheads in the long run won't be nightmares to work on  in the future, but you are going to have to be more electrically knowledgeable than in the past.

[NC Steve]

I had an '88 K75C for a while a couple of years ago, and while I never cared much for it, the bikes were legendary in their over-engineered strength, often going 250-300K without having to get inside the engine.

Of course, you're also adding liquid cooling, fuel injection, electric fuel pumps, etc., so there's a great deal more that could potentially go wrong, and a lot more weight and general complexity/maintenance  too.