Disappearing brakes report in Sunday Times

[nud1e]

Anyone else read the "Curious case of of the disappearing BMuu brakes ...." in the Drive supplement of the Sunday Times.
Seems that the beloved manufacturer has a problems with a range of models having servo assisted and ABS - not just the GS.
Reports from 2 testers and from Australia and US bike mags that brakes disappear and that the braking system is a solution to a problem that didn't exist.
Occuring to the beloved manufacturer, the solution is to RTFM and not ride off until the system has set itself.

 

[Paul Young]

A mate of mine bought an Adv with the servo/ABS set up.

Twice, the servo has failed when the brakes were applied. They had worked previously on the same journey, but decided not to work, for some reason. One of these occasions nearly pitched him through the back end of his garage.....

Made me determined to stay with my non-servo ABS I GS/Adv hybrid.

 

[Spanish Bob]

apparently mine failed once, but Ricky Kuhn was riding it at the time,so..........;-)

I dont like them, but they dont worry me

 

[Arthurwg]

My previous bike, an R1100S, did not have ABS or servos and the brakes were truely fantastic. My new R1200GS has the ABS/Servo set-up that failed completely one fine day, at 85mph on the Super Slab. BMW said it was a loose ground wire that left me with no brakes what-so-ever, no fail-safe, nothing. Go figure.

 

[Fanum]

Surely there's still a physical hydraulic link 'tween the lever and pads.........it's not a drive by wire braking system yet......there may not be much response but if you really grab a handfull or stomp down like on a cockroach there'll be something there, even if you've lost the servo assistance???

 

[Paul Young]

You're right, Fanum, you will still have something. Trouble is, it's only about 5% of what you were expecting......

 

[Rob Farmer]

Complete bollox in my humble opinion. A waste of time, how the hell Bwm get away with selling a system that doen't fail safe just amazes me (no I don't expect it to lock the brakes if they fail).

I was talking to a Lady from leeds at Princetown (sorry didn't catch your name) who was on the back of a 1200GS when the brakes suddenly failed riding through Leeds, they had to circle a roundabout three times to loose speed?? while she was telling this story commuter said that his brakes had just failed at the top of the hill. How long before somebody has a nasty accident with this ridiculous system?