The bike has now been repaired by Vines (courtesy of BMW warranty). The drive problem or sudden clutch slip to no drive was a combination of oil leaking on to the clutch plate (clutch now replaced) & excessive wear / failure of the coupling in the drive shaft. Apparently this can either be caused by a manufacture fault, but it's also commonly seen on bikes used for track days & bikes that have seen excessive wheelies (so Vines tell me) - FFS, the bike's a 52 plate & only done 13k. Is the shaft drive really that fragile??
They also replaced the front calipers - apparently BMW recognise that there was a manufacture issue with the finish quality of the Tokico OE, the long & short of it is that if your bike is still in warranty & your calipers are in piss poor condition (as mine were) then they will replace them under warranty. Next problem: after they'd replaced the calipers & put new pads in, they couldn't get the brakes working because there's a fault with the ABS modulator. After speaking to Darren, he tells me that BM also recognise that they've had reliability issues with this item too. This alone is a grand's worth of kit
I'm now back on the road, but knowing the above would have cost a shade over £3k, this little experience has tarnished my viewpoint on BMW. Warranty expires at the back end of '06, at that point I'll most prob switch to someting less expensive when things go wrong.
Nero
Hey RB, I thought I cut through traffic a little swift...
You running a little late for work 
