BMW issued a worldwide recall for its 2014-2017 R1200 GS and GS Adventure motorcycles. The bulletin states that the fixed fork tubes can be damaged under severe stress without affecting the handling of the motorcycle. Examples of severe stress would be hitting an object in the road, a pothole, or a crash. The impact to the tube is evidenced by a gap between it and the pressed-in seal plugs at the top.
Under the initial service campaign, BMW offered to check the affected machines for damage and repair them free of charge. That program has now evolved to a complete recall. Further investigation determined that under in an extreme impact the fork could separate from the yoke and cause total failure of the front end.
While there are no reports of such an incident, the company concluded that GS models used extensively off-road, or had sharp impacts on the road, may have sustained extensive damage.
Motorcycle News reports that BMW has changed the fork design on current models, which seems to have solved the problem.
[Source: Rideapart]
