I've rejected my bike can anyone recommend a good solicitor .

What is all this fuss about?
My 1150 used to have a constant wobble on when going above 80 with tck's and loaded panniers. On one trip to Scotland, I wobbled the old girl all the way up to John o groats and back to Stroud.
This isn't a new issue for gs's as far as I am concerned - remember the rabid max speed warning that was issued by BMW when you fit the topbox?
I remember lots of posts about it.

I've noticed that my LC gives a little bit of a head shake if you hit a pothole or similar at speed, but I wouldn't describe it as unstable - it recovers in an instant.

Has anyone actually had a tank slapper, or is it a bit of a wobble that sorts itself out but panics some riders?

I had a 1150 for years, and loved it, but it was a flawed beast - between the surging and the cat code plugs and the rear swing arm bearings and the corrosion and the buffeting. A great bike - but by no means perfect - but I still loved it nonetheless, and I am sorry to this day that I sold it, as it would make a great winter hack next to the LC.

I wonder if it is a variability problem, or a perception problem. Remember the Suzuki TL1000? Or "Tank Slapper Thou" as it was nicknamed. My mate sold his because of its nervousness, I rode it and wondered what the problem was. It was twitchy, but lets face it - it's that kind of bike.

But it's worth noting that the r1200r has always had a steering damper...
 
In my opinion the 1200 can actually make folks into worse riders. This isn't a jab purely at the WC, the ASC/ABS 1200 Hexhead is just the same. Try taking out a 650 Single and riding the pants off of it, feel every bump, scrape, wibble and wobble.

No surprise that shakes on an otherwise flawless and technically assisted ride will scare some people..
 
You have a point.

I had my first traction intervention this morning, going around a roundabout, started drizzling in the power, when a car entered the Roundabout in my path.
Back wheel hit a cats eye, and would have stepped out a little, but the traction came in like a hammer, and really killed the power for about a second.

In reality, I could see what was coming, and had already backed off the power a bit ( but not completely, so I didn't upset the balance), and was ready for the back end step out and drit it a bit on the power but the traction control just cut the power.

Good in a way, I suppose, cos I had lost the back a bit - but not that much...


This will take somegetting used to ( if I don't turn it off first!)
 
In the same situation, my xr250 would have had a major drift on, and would have tried to throw me off on the recovery....
( but then, I wouldn't be going so fast / hard around a roundabout on my xr for that very reason)
 
Captain Beaky said:
What is all this fuss about?
My 1150 used to have a constant wobble on when going above 80 with tck's and loaded panniers. On one trip to Scotland, I wobbled the old girl all the way up to John o groats and back to Stroud.
This isn't a new issue for gs's as far as I am concerned - remember the rabid max speed warning that was issued by BMW when you fit the topbox?
I remember lots of posts about it.

I've noticed that my LC gives a little bit of a head shake if you hit a pothole or similar at speed, but I wouldn't describe it as unstable - it recovers in an instant.

Has anyone actually had a tank slapper, or is it a bit of a wobble that sorts itself out but panics some riders?

I had a 1150 for years, and loved it, but it was a flawed beast - between the surging and the cat code plugs and the rear swing arm bearings and the corrosion and the buffeting. A great bike - but by no means perfect - but I still loved it nonetheless, and I am sorry to this day that I sold it, as it would make a great winter hack next to the LC.

I wonder if it is a variability problem, or a perception problem. Remember the Suzuki TL1000? Or "Tank Slapper Thou" as it was nicknamed. My mate sold his because of its nervousness, I rode it and wondered what the problem was. It was twitchy, but lets face it - it's that kind of bike.

But it's worth noting that the r1200r has always had a steering damper...
Click to expand...
If I had not got my hands back on the bars it would have got worse and we would have ended up on the floor , this continued for 1800 bloody miles , the wobble was there and the constant vibes was annoying. Great bike again
 
Goose said:
well, well - I linked this post with a warning to my Saffer friends..... and needless to say the "expected" poo-pooing happened with people that are so brand-loyal that they refused to believe there could possibly be anything wrong with the design of the new GS......


but patience and reward comes to those that wait!

......... this morning I noticed one of the stalwards of our DS rider clan in SA posting this:

I have picked up a problem with my steering on what feels like a serious instability or headshake what every you want to call it. Try the following, close your throttle on about 80km/h and hold your handle bars very lightly. My LC develops a serious headshake that quickly becomes a Tankslapper, personally this could not be normal?
Have done a long trip over the weekend and had lots of time to play around with all possible mode settings and tyre pressure and nothing made any difference to the issue. All that I think that it could be is a tyre problem. I have the Tourance tyres on the bike with about 2400km on .

Anybody else experience this?

just feedback for your case............
Click to expand...


Tried it several times today even without holding the bars in all ESA modes with and without the top case. No head shake or any kind of instability issues . I weigh 82kg. Bike has 5000 km on it with Next tires and cast wheels. But I do have the clunky transmisson.
 
stick said:
If I had not got my hands back on the bars it would have got worse and we would have ended up on the floor , this continued for 1800 bloody miles , the wobble was there and the constant vibes was annoying. Great bike again
Click to expand...

Have you had it sorted, if so, what was it?
 
As someone stated much earlier all the problems are because its a new model and dealers are still learning. These are bound to be fixed by BMW, for those of who are waiting, lets hope the 2014 version is the finished article.

I had a number of issues with my 2009 K1300S, early model which had a number of recalls in its first year.
 
bit of a wobble

Captain Beaky said:
What is all this fuss about?
My 1150 used to have a constant wobble on when going above 80 with tck's and loaded panniers. On one trip to Scotland, I wobbled the old girl all the way up to John o groats and back to Stroud.
This isn't a new issue for gs's as far as I am concerned - remember the rabid max speed warning that was issued by BMW when you fit the topbox?
I remember lots of posts about it.

I've noticed that my LC gives a little bit of a head shake if you hit a pothole or similar at speed, but I wouldn't describe it as unstable - it recovers in an instant.

Has anyone actually had a tank slapper, or is it a bit of a wobble that sorts itself out but panics some riders?

I had a 1150 for years, and loved it, but it was a flawed beast - between the surging and the cat code plugs and the rear swing arm bearings and the corrosion and the buffeting. A great bike - but by no means perfect - but I still loved it nonetheless, and I am sorry to this day that I sold it, as it would make a great winter hack next to the LC.

I wonder if it is a variability problem, or a perception problem. Remember the Suzuki TL1000? Or "Tank Slapper Thou" as it was nicknamed. My mate sold his because of its nervousness, I rode it and wondered what the problem was. It was twitchy, but lets face it - it's that kind of bike.

But it's worth noting that the r1200r has always had a steering damper...
Click to expand...

I was out on mine yesterday in dynamic mode with TC off thought I would give it some gas as you do, from 1st nice mid way wheelie then into 2nd and it shook its head quite violently in protest in to 3rd and all was well again. Obviously this was riding it to extremes so I don't blame the bike it was me who chose to operate it that way. I did then turn TC back on though :blast

This bike puts a smile on my face and I think its great. some people can shrug off minor happenings others are more worried by them, its human nature. watch the BSB boys they have moments all the time.

I brought a Honda Firestorm new when it was launched because of all the talk of issues with the Suzuki TL. The Honda was good but boring I rode my mates TL and loved it and wished I had brought the Suzuki, he continually left me standing with it.

PS Im keeping mine :thumb2
 
Maybe all this wobbling is the price you pay for all this super fast steering:nenau

Or maybe it's the sportsbike riders not being used to big bars:augie

The wider the bars, the more a little shake will move the bars, 1mm at the wheel could equate to 10mm at the bar ends (maybe engineer can work out the exact ratio:D).

Loaded panniers always cause a little shimmy. Stop panicking and ride the things:blast
 
Flipfly said:
Loaded panniers always cause a little shimmy. Stop panicking and ride the things:blast
Click to expand...

I'm with you on this one Flipfly (don't faint!) on the subject of panniers. Extra loads on the rear on any bike will alter the front to rear balance and lighten the front relative to the rear as well as panniers making the aerodynamics worse (mucho oscillating low pressure swirls at the bike's rear). On this bike one major advantage is that if the electronic suspension setting for load is selected correctly for extra rear loading then the front geometry is not too dissimilar to rider only loaded and the steering geometry is largely unaffected. Unlike most bikes, especially those which don't even have a rear preload adjuster, where extra loads on the rear cause the front end to try to mimic Harley Davidson front geometry.
Basically, if owners want to play riding god on the alpine passes, do it solo, it will amaze you, it did me.
Instability? HUh? Joking surely?
Steering damper? Definitely not needed.
 
I should coco.
The more load you have on the back of the bike, the lighter ( and therefore less stable) front end will be.
All bikes have some dorm of preload setting that helps counteract this - I loved the ease with which you could reach down and adjust the preload on my old 1150. And it's quite spooky to feel the bike rise up under you when you adjust the ESA on the LC.

Also, with panniers, there is some aerodynamic effect happening perhaps?
Remember the old police Bee Emm Wobblyew K100's? Where the police put their own panniers on, and had instability problems?

But even I have to admit that it sounds like something is wrong if the bike ( and remember that this is a touring bike) has a "resonance" while at a steady speed and throttle that will get terminally bad if not rider-damped.

Having heared of the problems being experienced by some owners here, I am always paying attention to gearchange and head shake.

I have to admit that the gearbox is classically agricultural, but I experience no issues in actually getting into any gear ( except perhaps for the occasional overshooting from 1-2 or 2-1 when I'm looking for neutral.), and certainly not the horrendously noisy gearchanges that my mate used to get on his k1600.

I experience no head shake issues, but do note that when you hit a pothole or cats eye, it doesn't feel quite as unfazed as the old 1150, it does give a very momentary little sort of shimmy that passes in the blink of an eye. I wonder if this is the price of the lighter quicker steering. But I certainly feel no instability - in fact ive started to take on the bad habit of letting go of the bars while cruise is set.... Quite a bad habit really...:blast

Anyway, I'm due first service next week, so we will see how it goes.

With my Saab off the road waiting for front suspension bits, and my rangie likely to be condemned at MOT later in the week, it looks like the LC is up for a busy week,..

:cool
 
I found the old 1200 to feel flighty compared to the 1150, the lc is moreso. Bm have targetted sportsbke riders who want something light and fast feeling. Personally I think the wide bars and flighty steering are contributory to the issues. Add in a couple of square boxes (which will affect the aerodynamics) and you will get some weave.
Ffs don't add in Knobblies :D
 
yeah theres nowt like being the guinea pig , i bought an s1000RR in 2010 and its been back quite a few times , dissapointing but easier to keep batting me and some others off than a total recall ££££
I notice the new GS has the same crappy switches the s thou has , so look forward to taking them back a few times... to balance this comment , ifI had the time again i would definately buy the same bike again , even with its foibles
 
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