Uodate time after the big trip!
Its defibitely a love/hate relationship...
I will do a ride report whcih will give a good picture of how tough the terrain is that we did, but let me summarise I have not seen an 1190 doibg similar terrain on this forum yet. It was very tough and the bikes really is capable.
We were 2x 1190s and 2x 990s. My 1190 had suspension upgrade, the other was also a 2013 model and no upgrade, set to hardest with Tinus on the back weighing in at I would guess above 100kg. Both 990s was the 265mm travel models and both upgraded. I was capable of keeping up in all terrain, from the most extreme rocky to fast gravel roads. Only once did I find that the 1190 was lacking was when we had to go down a particukar high step up. I will add a picture. The 1190 beached and had to be pushed over while the 990 scraped. Not enough of an issue for me to rate the 990 now a better offroad bike.
But...
My bike is pretty tired now, to the point that I cut the trip short. The other guys quit earlier for various reasons other than their bikes, but I was set up for another day but believe it would not have been a good thing for my bike.
For one I have a bash plate boĺt sheared off in the engine. Probably when I took the wrong line somewhere. I cant remember ever really hitting it very hard and would add its a shit design compared to the GS where I have taken much harder shots and only broken brackets, also never stuck with loose rattling bashplate.
Then the damn stearing head bearings! I had to tighten them every second night and every night at the end of the trip. They were tightened before the trip also. Before this bike I did not even know what they were. I will now have them replaced again and see if that helps, but doubt it, they were new and it also seems to be a common issue.
At the end of the trip my whole head unit / speedo cluster seemed loose. This could be me being overly 'aware' due to having read up to much, but I will see. But from reading up I know that the whole cluster is mounted on plastic brackets which wears when doing loads of gravel. So I will strip and see.
Other than that the mirrors and hand guards are alks broken. I knew the oem handguards are not to strong but wasnt expecting that. The one broke when sand beneath the sidestand gave in and I grabbed the handle with oart of my hand on the handguard. It broke due to minimal force. But like I said, I knew and accepted before the trip that they will probably not last. Mirrors I could not get loose to bend out of the way, they must have some serious loctite on them. Anyhow, more upgrades then due in that department.
Doing the next strip and fixing up I will definjtely be using loads of loctite, I lkst a lot of bolts that came loose, probably my own sloppyness.
The error messages...well what can I say...at least MTC failure on in street mode is fun. Its still heavy frustrating though to see MTC failure and general failure almost within 5 minutes of every startup. Once the error occurs the fuel rance and oil temp readings also dont show plus I cant change ride modes.
In summary, the bike is still massive fun. I am trying to not be a whining bitch but rather stating the facts. I hope tbats how it goes. I would still not have done this trip on anything else.
This time I will do an insurance claim as I did have an off (or 2) so I will see what comes of that.
Topic: the tale of my 1190 RRRRRRRR (Read 31854 times)
