GS/GSA tech campaign now an official recall

BMW's tech campaign on the liquid-cooled R 1200 GS and GS Adventure (reported last month in this article) has taken on new life. In mid-July, BMW issued a "stop sale" order, saying that no GS/GSA bikes currently in dealer's hands could be sold without having the fork issue addressed; BMW followed that order up soon after with an official worldwide recall for all R 1200 GS and GS Adventure motorcycles built between November 2013 and June 2017.

BMW's field tests determined that the fork tubes could suffer damage under excessively hard-riding conditions, such as hitting a pothole or object in the road or a crash. They determined that an extreme impact could cause a total front end failure, which could obviously result in severe injury or even death for the rider.

BMW continues to insist that no reports of such an incident have been made, at least in the UK; anecdotal stories (and photographs) floating around the internet would seem to contradict that claim. Shotcallers at BMW's Off Road Skill Center in Wales (UK) have been checking their bikes' forks every night and say they have experienced "no fork separation issues," though they have seen some stanchion movement on some of their bikes.

To address the problem going forward, BMW updated the design of the forks starting in mid-June 2017, no doubt coinciding with the release of the original tech campaign.

As with all vehicle recalls in the United States, registered owners of affected motorcycles will receive a letter in the mail with instructions on what to do. Owners can also call their local dealer for more information. While BMW has not issued a "stop ride" order like they did with the rear suspension issue on the R 1200 RT in 2014, it would make sense for any rider concerned with possible fork failure on their affected motorcycle to park the bike and contact their dealer.

This photo, courtesy of Bob Aldridge, shows the collar BMW is attaching to the forks to prevent separation and possible failure as part of the tech campaign.