No longer the case, unfortunately. Airhead GS's with Paralever drives (basically 88-95) have predictable driveshaft failure at 30-40k intervals, reportedly due to the driveshaft angle on these bikes (higher ground clearance than RT, RS, etc). On recent oilhead 1150GS's, final drive bearing failure's again become epidemic, as it has on the K1200LT's; the other oilheads and K's seem to be fine. There are still driveshaft bearing failures on the new generation hexhead R1200GS's, introduced in 2004, including a number of riders on cross-country trips, returning from the AlCan rally, etc. It's sort of become a joke; BMW, as always, denies there's a problem. It's gotten to the point where I'd rather have a belt (and BMW is using belts on the new F800 parallel twins).

BMW's are durable bikes, but the Japanese have caught up with them in that respect, and exceeded them in pure reliability. BMW's taken up the role of technology innovator to justify the price premium, and that's led to problems. I'm still an obsessive fan (and have two right now), but I'm getting frustrated, so are a lot of other riders. BMW wants to push upmarket and revise the motorcycle brand image to reflect the cars; the bikes' design and technology justifies that, but the reliability issues don't.

Meanwhile, H-D (aside from the sales and market domination) has drastically improved the quality of its bikes. I think the company realized in the '80s that while the true believers would put up with the crap construction of the Shovelhead/Ironhead era, quality had to exponentially improve to successfully reach the current lay audience. The sales figures show their success in making the transition. The bikes look the same, but they're different underneath. I never would have owned an old Harley, but I've briefly owned a TC88 Dyna and an '05 rubber-mount XL1200R Sporty in the last couple of years, and I've been impressed. I'll buy Harley again.

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81 300SD
08 MDX Tech
93 525i

05 F650GS