Starter Died & Transmission Destroyed

[AZ Rider]

That's what about $2,200 just cost to fix. The bike only had about 7K miles. Wouldn't expect either to happen that soon. Maybe, maybe, the starter. But, the Baker Six Speed just coming apart. That's crazy. Giant grooves in everything the internals just broke apart from each other. I have the old parts and will posting pics soon, but has anyone had this happen with their transmission. I was told that the new transmission internals have been updated by Baker, so I wonder if this was a known a problem back in '05.

 

[Trainguy]

WoW

 

[Diesel Dan]

They had a big problem with the mainshaft on those early RSD Baker 6 speed's.......maybe it let loose and let something walk around in there...The newer updated mainshaft is Forged and has a different spline design if I remember correctly.......someone else will come along soon and help who is more up to date on this than me................sorry to hear about your troubles man,hang in there and good luck...

 

[Jwooky]

I just sent my trans to baker for new seals and bearing due to a pesky leak, and they got me for $1200 for a bunch of parts they claimed I needed. They were a$$holes to deal with too.

I no longer a baker fan. Wish I would have went through Andrew Barnes. The only reason I didn't was Baker is local and I didn't have to ship it.

I has a conference call with there engineers and explained all the problems with bearings etc we are having at such low mileage and how pathetic it is and they should do more to help us.

Their response was its all BDMs fault that they forced them to cut corners,(BS excuse) and they got stuck with a bunch of debt from BDM. So tough shit, pay up or walk.

 

[AZ Rider]

I just sent my trans to baker for new seals and bearing due to a pesky leak, and they got me for $1200 for a bunch of parts they claimed I needed. They were a$$holes to deal with too.

I no longer a baker fan. Wish I would have went through Andrew Barnes. The only reason I didn't was Baker is local and I didn't have to ship it.

I has a conference call with there engineers and explained all the problems with bearings etc we are having at such low mileage and how pathetic it is and they should do more to help us.

Their response was its all BDMs fault that they forced them to cut corners,(BS excuse) and they got stuck with a bunch of debt from BDM. So tough ship, pay up or walk.

I also had a leak until the rebuild. We'll see how long this one lasts. It was about $1,700 for the transmission rebuild with all new internals including labor. So, for $1,200 I hope you were able to get some of that done as well. I didn't deal with Baker directly though. One of the local bike shops here are great to deal with and do quality work, so I went with them for the sake of time.

 

[SKOGDOG]

My transmission shot craps too ('08 K9)-- sent to to Barnes last spring and the rebuild wound up at $1500. Replaced out of tolerance mainshaft and shifters, etc. waaaay beyond a basic bearings and seals rebuild....
Shifts like 'click-click' and I am happy as a clam. Andrew is good to work with...very professional.
You want to know what a man values, watch what he guards...Andrew Barnes guards his reputation.

 

[BWG56]

They had a big problem with the mainshaft on those early RSD Baker 6 speed's.......maybe it let loose and let something walk around in there...The mainshaft is Forged and has a different spline newer updated design if I remember correctly.......someone else will come along soon and help who is more up to date on this than me................sorry to hear about your troubles man,hang in there and good luck...

The change was between the threads and the spline, the new one does not have an undercut, the undercut made it a weak area.
Andrew is the man to go to, top notch

 

[KaptinAmerika]

Of course if their not maintained you will have problems also.
I just did a trans that looked like it had been running on no oil for a bit.
The bike only had 7000 miles on it. Of course the transmission now realistically has about 25,000 miles on it.

 

[Jwooky]

Not really much to maintain other than change oil. At 7k should have barely needed that.

I think we are too accepting of these problems. These trans should go 100k without issue.

I find it completely unacceptable and pathetic we have to rebuild a $2500 trans at 10k miles. Clearly there is a design quality issue and expressed that in no uncertain terms to baker.

 

[Diesel Dan]

I TOTALLY agree with you......Baker needs to warranty all these trannys that are exploding,they ALL have the same excat,single pattern failure so its a design problem for sure....having to do a tranny rebuild at that low of mileage is unacceptable.....

 

[AZ Rider]

Not going to get an argument from me. Especially, after all these years of hearing great things about Baker. Now owning one has made me question it. That being said, the bike shifts like butter now and feels great. Hopefully, this one lasts longer. Not really into $2k, 7k mile tranny jobs.

 

[KaptinAmerika]

I don't think anyone is "accepting" of the trans issue but who are you going to sue?
It is an odd situation.
I have 55,000 on my trans and ride the shit out of my K9. 20,000 of that with a 140 horsepowr 124 and 5000 of that with an auto clutch.
And only now is it in need of a rebuild.
Raywood put damn near 100,000 miles on his 05 and never did anything to the trans but change the oil.
KnotSo has a shit load of miles on his and I don't think he has done anything to his trans.
Five has rebuilt his trans 2 or 3 times in under 20,000 miles.
I'm not saying anything here accept it is an odd situation.
Some have no issues and loads of miles others have nothing but issues.

This is also why the 2016 K9 is running a softtale primary and a Jim's transmission.

Unfortunately for Baker they let BD walk on them when they should have just pulled out.
Of course its easy for me to sit here and talk shit on a forum when I know little about it but I do have quite a bit of inside info and it was BD that dumped this shit on its customers not Baker. To do the trans right BD would have had to pay for tooling on a proper case but they, even "they" is not a fair statement as it was Coleman that made the decision, chose to save money and go with the under rated case knowing there would be issues later.

 

[AZ Rider]

It really is the life of owning these types of bikes. I told my wife who has never had a bike like this, that there are consequences to owning these types of bikes and plan on money being spent to keep it up and running. It's not that someone is accepting of the issues to the sense it's ok that these issues occur, but more so you can count on something going wrong and having to spend money.

 

[KaptinAmerika]

"Not really much to maintain other than change oil. At 7k should have barely needed that."

The BD trans requires oil changes every 2500 miles. If you ride hard I suggest you change it more often.
I seriously doubt the the trans I just rebuilt ever had an oil change at all and it had probably been running on little to no oil for a good 1500 miles. You let a trans like that run low on oil or run on oil that has broken down and it will not last long.
Again I am not saying anything here except it is an odd situation.

Since BD designed the trans case and chose Baker gear sets why would you expect Baker to warranty the transmission when its the BD design that fails?

 

[blacktopper]

I don't think anyone is "accepting" of the trans issue but who are you going to sue?
It is an odd situation.
I have 55,000 on my trans and ride the shit out of my K9. 20,000 of that with a 140 horsepowr 124 and 5000 of that with an auto clutch.
And only now is it in need of a rebuild.
Raywood put damn near 100,000 miles on his 05 and never did anything to the trans but change the oil.
KnotSo has a shit load of miles on his and I don't think he has done anything to his trans.
Five has rebuilt his trans 2 or 3 times in under 20,000 miles.
I'm not saying anything here accept it is an odd situation.
Some have no issues and loads of miles others have nothing but issues.

This is also why the 2016 K9 is running a softtale primary and a Jim's transmission.

Unfortunately for Baker they let BD walk on them when they should have just pulled out.
Of course its easy for me to sit here and talk shit on a forum when I know little about it but I do have quite a bit of inside info and it was BD that dumped this shit on its customers not Baker. To do the trans right BD would have had to pay for tooling on a proper case but they, even "they" is not a fair statement as it was Coleman that made the decision, chose to save money and go with the under rated case knowing there would be issues later.

I put seals and bearings in my K9 transmission at 62,500 miles and I think it was a waste of money. Everything looked like new inside. Now has 78,000 on it and shifts and sounds as good as when I rode it off the showroom floor.

 

[Jwooky]

I don't expect Baker to warrant the trans. I think that a responsible company with good character would do more to help with what is a major disaster. For example as I suggested to them, they could make some "cost neutral" offerings to reduce the pain and maintain some credibility with one of their biggest customers. Offering some parts at cost for example.

I know and heard the stories about the pressures BDM put on them, and I still think that Baker is culpable. Ultimately they are the experts and they need to test and validate the design. That is what good suppliers and manufactures do. I work for an OEM, so I know how we challenge our suppliers. That is what successful OEMs do. BDM obviously should have done more of that.

Sandcast housings are the industry standard. We have 9 speed auto's that go 100k miles without even a fluid change. The argument that they were forced to use them as opposed to extruded and machined and that is the cause is nonsense.

 

[Jwooky]

It really is the life of owning these types of bikes. I told my wife who has never had a bike like this, that there are consequences to owning these types of bikes and plan on money being spent to keep it up and running. It's not that someone is accepting of the issues to the sense it's ok that these issues occur, but more so you can count on something going wrong and having to spend money.

And that is what I mean by accepting. It is not. Rebuilding a $2500 trans at ~10k is not acceptable. If your car tans went out, would that be ok?

Or if your new Harley or Honda, would it? Its really not.

 

[francoblay1]

For what I´ve been learning over the years in here....

Every BDM owner has had some sort of troubles, that are costly, with almost every area of the BDM, where the factory cut corners.
So why take aim on a reputable trans. manufacture, like Baker. That was only doing "what they were ask to do, by BDM"? (ie: Build me 10k transmissions for under $1500, the way we want them and we'll take 'em and warranty them ourselves!) Baker, and many other manufactures did NOT agree with BDMs undercutting the designs and building things cheap! Many of them even warned BDM.
But that's just business, not anything Baker did wrong. That was BDMs way of doing business! ("CHEAPER is MORE MONEY in our pockets! FUCK the End Users"!)

BTW, my trans was upgraded by Andrew when he came over to my place to change my heads and rocker boxes upgraded to S&S, I got rid of the TPs, and I am glad I did as the valves steams were showing very bad aligment already at under 5K Miles. There is a Thread by me with pics, etc.

 

[BWG56]

Well said Wanker

 

[kickstart]

For what I´ve been learning over the years in here....

Every BDM owner has had some sort of troubles, that are costly, with almost every area of the BDM, where the factory cut corners.
So why take aim on a reputable trans. manufacture, like Baker. That was only doing "what they were ask to do, by BDM"? (ie: Build me 10k transmissions for under $1500, the way we want them and we'll take 'em and warranty them ourselves!) Baker, and many other manufactures did NOT agree with BDMs undercutting the designs and building things cheap! Many of them even warned BDM.
But that's just business, not anything Baker did wrong. That was BDMs way of doing business! ("CHEAPER is MORE MONEY in our pockets! FUCK the End Users"!)

BTW, my trans was upgraded by Andrew when he came over to my place to change my heads and rocker boxes upgraded to S&S, I got rid of the TPs, and I am glad I did as the valves steams were showing very bad aligment already at under 5K Miles. There is a Thread by me with pics, etc.

I have to disagree with the whole blame on BD, If Baker had any pride in the product they build and were concerned about their Good Name they would have refused to build an inferior product that at least some of the Baker experts had to damn well know these shortcuts would cause failures. It's all about the $$$$$$. (EHC, TP Heads, wheel bearings, Transmissions and inferior electrics just to name a few)