4 Way Touring Shootout in Motorcyclist Magazine

[JohnC]

Why would you ever need to overhaul a final drive?

"Overhaul" is perhaps the wrong word. "Service" is a better word. On a FJR, once the rear wheel is off, removing the 4 acorn nuts will let you remove the pumpkin and drive shaft. Then a few more minutes and you can remove the U-joint. Clean, regrease with moly, and reassemble.

 

[Phil Tarman]

My buddy David in Fort Morgan had bought an R1150R because he'd always wanted a BMW. It had 23,000 miles when he bought it. Two weeks after the 12-month warranty the BMW stealer had given him on the used bike expired, the final drive failed. David had put a grand total of 4,000 miles on the bike in that year. The repair was quoted at $1900-$2200. David ended up buying a used 70,000 mile final drive on EBay and swapped it out himself for about $200. Two months after he got back on the road, he had a fairly major electrical gremlin that cost him about $600 to fix.

Of course, I just spent a few bucks on my NT due to electrical gremlins, but I am afraid most of those were self-induced. And my bike has 95K on it.