BMW Onboard Software supplied by Microsoft

[robroy]

When out riding yesterday on my recently-acquired '04 F650GS Dakar, with my son on pillion, I was forced to goose the throttle hard to get ahead of a RangeRover trying to cut me off. When I reached the next roundabout, the engine died as soon as I backed off the throttle.

The next few miles were rather worrying - the engine would die if I let it drop below 2000 (or so) revs. I was convinced I had killed my new bike.

When dropping my son off I decide to turn the engine "off then on again" - yes, just like your proverbial Windows computer. The "rebooting" of the onboard computer must have done the trick, as I had no further problem with idle.

My conclusion (influenced in no way by my Mac ownership) was that the GS's onboard computer uses software supplied by Microsoft.

Thanks goes to the gallant guys at "The IT Crowd".

 

[Dave Atherton]

You probebly opened the throttle when you started it, this in effect sets the idle speed, and after you " gunned" it past the range rover it decided to revert to this setting as the idle, hence the stalling if it dropped below 2000 rpm depending on road speed. This used to happen to my partners 650 GS untill we got into the habbbit of not touching the throttle when stasrting the bike, either from cold or hot.

 

[robroy]

Thanks Dave, will follow this in the future.

 

[komatias]

Another thing to check is the throttle body manifold. It is a rubber tube that connects the throttle body to inlet. If it is crack you will be running lean and the engine will stall. When you start the engine never ever touch the throttle though.