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I'm not sure if you are still looking at low mileage, but if you are looking at second-hand I would be inclined to go for one with at least a couple of thousand miles. I've seen 961s for sale with just a few hundred miles and it's less likely that the problems would have manifested themselves in that time. Mine is a 2013 model and it had some major issues in the first 2000 miles, dropped cylinder liners, clutch, to name a couple. These were resolved by the factory so I now have the Nikasil lined bores and a later clutch.Another point to consider is that regardless of the model year, some of the problems that have been experienced could be attributed to the quality of the build(er) rather than the components. There was a lack of quality control in the build process which resulted in random avoidable problems. One forum member had the front disk bolts come undone because they hadn't been torqued. You will see a number of posts about oil in the airbox, with various methods of addressing this. I have never had that problem with mine. I did have my side-stand snap off at the weld in the first week (luckily I hadn't let go of the handlebars) and I haven't heard of anyone else experiencing that one. That doesn't help you in choosing one, I'm just pointing out that due to the lack of QA/QC procedures the model year isn't a guarantee of improved quality (apart from some improved components) and I suspect that things were getting tighter towards the end.A quote from Stuart Garner in 2015 sums up the approach "My design team know that making a great motorbike is complicated but when I had a meeting with those guys, my approach was 'just press the 'make' button, boys'."
I'm not sure if you are still looking at low mileage, but if you are looking at second-hand I would be inclined to go for one with at least a couple of thousand miles. I've seen 961s for sale with just a few hundred miles and it's less likely that the problems would have manifested themselves in that time. Mine is a 2013 model and it had some major issues in the first 2000 miles, dropped cylinder liners, clutch, to name a couple. These were resolved by the factory so I now have the Nikasil lined bores and a later clutch.
Another point to consider is that regardless of the model year, some of the problems that have been experienced could be attributed to the quality of the build(er) rather than the components. There was a lack of quality control in the build process which resulted in random avoidable problems. One forum member had the front disk bolts come undone because they hadn't been torqued. You will see a number of posts about oil in the airbox, with various methods of addressing this. I have never had that problem with mine. I did have my side-stand snap off at the weld in the first week (luckily I hadn't let go of the handlebars) and I haven't heard of anyone else experiencing that one. That doesn't help you in choosing one, I'm just pointing out that due to the lack of QA/QC procedures the model year isn't a guarantee of improved quality (apart from some improved components) and I suspect that things were getting tighter towards the end.
A quote from Stuart Garner in 2015 sums up the approach "My design team know that making a great motorbike is complicated but when I had a meeting with those guys, my approach was 'just press the 'make' button, boys'."
