Pre 2007 - Brakes

[tunnie]

Reading this review:

http://www.adventurebiketours.co.uk/pages/bmw_adventure.html

It mentionds pre 2007 bikes don't have any brakes unless the engine is running, is this correct for both GS & GSA?

 

[ExpatinIstanbul]

No. The pre 07 bikes have servo assisted brakes, which only works when the ignition is on. There is some residual brake power with the ignition off, however, but this vastly reduces the brake's strength, so shouldn't be relied on unless absolutely needed.

Tuna rarely speak Germanic languages.

 

[araspitfire]

Which is a little misleading...

The biggest problem with the Servo brakes is that if it cuts out, the difference between on and off is a lot.. this makes the first couple of uses without the servo on, dodgy...

but without servos you still have lots of brake power, you just need to grab a big handfull and doing so with them on would result in instand ABS engage...

The bike is perfectly usable in residual mode, just needs an extra large grip to get hard braking.

It's the difference which will get you killed though... expecting servos to be working and suddenly being without means that you need to switch gear into strong arm mode in a hurry... not for the faint of heart...

Al...

 

[EggChaser]

Not gonna bother reading the link in full - but BMW bikes with servos all come with a warning that if moving the bike with the engine off you need more pressure on the brakes to achieve stopping power (residual braking) because the servos will not be active. When new there was a warning sticker on the bike itself - although a lot of owners will have removed this.

I rode my R1100S that had the servos for a day with the servos disabled and found that as long as you were aware that a bit more pressure was needed that the bike could stop as quickly as with the servos.

Kind of a bit of BMW overengineering that was not required - especially as the real problem is what happens if the state of the system changes to off/disabled whilst you are riding and you then approach an intersection a bit quick when the lights change to red - and then don't know to use a bit more pressure. I am not aware that this scenario was reported very often in practice - but there was a fair amount of negative press whcih probably contributed to BMW stopping using the idea.

 

[tunnie]

Thanks, good to get some background info on it

 

[Brian ROSEN]

Not quite true

"It's the difference which will get you killed though... expecting servos to be working and suddenly being without means that you need to switch gear into strong arm mode in a hurry... not for the faint of heart..".
If the servo is NOT operating I think that you will have a warning light & will thus be prepared for the need for more force. However in practice on my 2004 bike, I thought that the brakes were pretty good without the servo. However I am happy to say that on the 2008 bikes the brakes (now all without servo) are as good as those with servo assistance before.

 

[ianran]

Note that the servo is only on ABS bikes, you caan buy non-abs.
I had brakes servo fail waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than exlax

 

[Snoopy]

On the positive side, the brakes with servos have spectacular power when you give it a handful.

I was really worried about mine when I was diliberating to buy one. I did and they are great. Best brakes on any bike I've rode, including the 09 Suzuki GSXR 750.