Welcome, I'd be interested in more about your R12GS - how come you got rid of it, anything to do with the final drive?
Des, I had cracks appearing in the rear brake disk holes on the rear wheel carrier. It appears to be a common issue with the earlier 12's (all, RT's S's etc).
The updated part is steel, I have replaced the carrier, spacer and rear disk, bolts, pads. A $800 failure (parts alone) that shouldn't happen on a bike with 70,000km.
I have never had an issue with the actual final drive, but then I went against the factory and changed the oil at 1000km (lifetime fill? Really?) and have done so every 20k since. The 1000km oil came out as you would expect, silver. Imagine having that floating around for 100,000km
.
We're saving up for a new property and the GS represents a lot of unknown compared to a ST when we might be a bit tight for a few years, plus I'm hoping to get some cash in the changeover to put toward the deposit. As stated previously, I've had one before and I
know an ST1100 will keep going with only maintenance and service parts.