virco
Guest
I have had last year, in the short time I had to ride my GS1200 until the bad weather came down 
, a nagging experience with the brakes.
At one fuel stop I put the gas pump nozzle in an awkward position
and some fuel spilled out on the tank and under it (as I have seen some dripping down). I didn’t worry a bit about this and just wiped the tank with a bit of paper tissue in order not to stain. 5 minutes later when leaving the gas station I almost ended up in the middle of side traffic 
because the brakes were working much less efficient than before I pulled in for gas. Initially I thought that some gas had spilled on the front brake discs and pads and made them slippery but I checked and it wasn’t so. After that I noticed the ABS sign on board blinking. I did not pay attention to this when I first left the gas station because, as you know, the ABS light blinks for a few meters after putting the bike in motion after having the engine turned off.
To my surprise I realized that what it happened was that I had no more power assistance in the brakes: little stopping effect on normal lever pull, no “buzz” from the power brake pump when pulling the lever and no ABS. The cause of this I thought at the time to be probably an electric contact disturbed by the spilled gas. I was pretty much annoyed
because such an occurrence is not unheard to happen and a serious manufacturer should foresee and protect any parts subjects to be affected by it, especially on a machine that is supposed to be as sturdy and fool-proof as the GS1200. So, a bit put off by all this I waited for the gas to evaporate and the supposedly affected contact to resume normal operation. To my even worse surprise that didn’t happen that day, nor the next one, so after another day of very slow riding and pulling very strong on the hand brake lever only to get very mediocre stopping results (as otherwise warned in the operation instructions to happen when power assistance fails) I called the dealer to set up a service appointment.
Unexpectedly, after 2 more days of keeping the bike in the garage waiting for the service appointment, when I took the bike out to leave for the dealer, brakes resumed normal operation from the moment I started the engine: the soft buzzing of the power assistance pump was there and braking was strong and efficient once again. So after riding a few miles to make sure everything was ok I called the dealer and canceled the service appointment. To this day, that amounts to cca. 200 miles after the incident, I had no more similar problems with it but a feeling of unreliability persisted.
Meanwhile I have learned that there is the option to buy the GS1200 without the ABS and I wonder if anyone here has one of these and what experience it had with it. Does the braking is still power assisted and dual linked?
I know that the ABS can be turned off even on the models that have it installed, but as I somehow lost confidence in the power assisted mechanism, not in the ABS itself, I was thinking what if I just got rid of all the electronics and gizmos (the power assistance pump, linked brakes and ABS altogether) and replace them with a more powerful pump at the lever linked directly to the front calipers (the same mechanical pump-caliper system for the back wheel) as so many other motorcycles have.
Any opinions on this? Has anyone here done such a modification, and if so with what results? Thank you.
Cheers,
Virgil
, a nagging experience with the brakes.At one fuel stop I put the gas pump nozzle in an awkward position
and some fuel spilled out on the tank and under it (as I have seen some dripping down). I didn’t worry a bit about this and just wiped the tank with a bit of paper tissue in order not to stain. 5 minutes later when leaving the gas station I almost ended up in the middle of side traffic because the brakes were working much less efficient than before I pulled in for gas. Initially I thought that some gas had spilled on the front brake discs and pads and made them slippery but I checked and it wasn’t so. After that I noticed the ABS sign on board blinking. I did not pay attention to this when I first left the gas station because, as you know, the ABS light blinks for a few meters after putting the bike in motion after having the engine turned off.To my surprise I realized that what it happened was that I had no more power assistance in the brakes: little stopping effect on normal lever pull, no “buzz” from the power brake pump when pulling the lever and no ABS. The cause of this I thought at the time to be probably an electric contact disturbed by the spilled gas. I was pretty much annoyed
because such an occurrence is not unheard to happen and a serious manufacturer should foresee and protect any parts subjects to be affected by it, especially on a machine that is supposed to be as sturdy and fool-proof as the GS1200. So, a bit put off by all this I waited for the gas to evaporate and the supposedly affected contact to resume normal operation. To my even worse surprise that didn’t happen that day, nor the next one, so after another day of very slow riding and pulling very strong on the hand brake lever only to get very mediocre stopping results (as otherwise warned in the operation instructions to happen when power assistance fails) I called the dealer to set up a service appointment.Unexpectedly, after 2 more days of keeping the bike in the garage waiting for the service appointment, when I took the bike out to leave for the dealer, brakes resumed normal operation from the moment I started the engine: the soft buzzing of the power assistance pump was there and braking was strong and efficient once again. So after riding a few miles to make sure everything was ok I called the dealer and canceled the service appointment. To this day, that amounts to cca. 200 miles after the incident, I had no more similar problems with it but a feeling of unreliability persisted.
Meanwhile I have learned that there is the option to buy the GS1200 without the ABS and I wonder if anyone here has one of these and what experience it had with it. Does the braking is still power assisted and dual linked?
I know that the ABS can be turned off even on the models that have it installed, but as I somehow lost confidence in the power assisted mechanism, not in the ABS itself, I was thinking what if I just got rid of all the electronics and gizmos (the power assistance pump, linked brakes and ABS altogether) and replace them with a more powerful pump at the lever linked directly to the front calipers (the same mechanical pump-caliper system for the back wheel) as so many other motorcycles have.
Any opinions on this? Has anyone here done such a modification, and if so with what results? Thank you.
Cheers,
Virgil
