Mike's Ramblings

I was on my way to work, and I had just entered the freeway from our on-ramp. I was in the slow lane and was getting ready to go into the fast lane to pass a car. As soon as I accelerated, I felt and heard an "expensive" sound come from below me, and it seemed like there was no power anymore. I could feel the engine running and it still revved smoothly, but there was no connection between the engine and the rear wheel. I thought maybe the transmission had slipped out of gear (from 6th gear to between 5th and 6th, perhaps), so I tried shifting down and then up. No luck; I could still hear that nasty sound, like a clothes dryer running with a load of bolts in it, and there was still no power to the rear wheel. I realized then that something very bad had happened within the guts of my transmission.

I was extremely fortunate that I was heading down hill, and that the next exit was at the bottom of the hill. I turned on the hazards and coasted down the hill to the exit, took the exit, and then coasted to a stop near a furniture store. I tried shifting through all the gears but not one could move the 'bike forward, and all resulted in that horrible noise.

I rolled the 'bike into the furniture store parking lot and started to make some phone calls... first to Sherri to have her come pick me up, then to my boss at work, then to one of my team members at work to let them know I wasn't going to make it in.

Sherri came to pick me up, then we went home for the trailer, went back and loaded up the 'bike (with the gracious help of a couple of the loading dock guys), and then I went to drop off the 'bike at the dealership.

They haven't called me yet to tell me what the problem actually is, but after doing some research on the web, I strongly suspect it is a spline failure (See one discussion thread here). Unfortunately, my 'bike is out of warranty by 6 months and 6000 miles, so if this actually is the failure, I don't know if any of the repair cost will be covered by BMW. I will keep you updated...