Scary moments

  • Thread starter Thread starter MartinW
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MartinW

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Whilst merrily cruising along a motoway today at 80 my engine cut out. All the electrics went dead , indicators failed, brakes were crap and I ended up on the hard shoulder after a few blasts of horns from car drivers. :eek:

Anyone a clue what may be the cause, its an 05 1200GS and up till today has been the love of my life and totally reliable. Loads of fuel, temperature ok, no warning lights on. Engine restarted after a couple of mins . Beer needed tonight for my nerves, Not keen with the brakes being lousy if the engine goes like that. :beer:
 
Pant wetting moment! Any idea of the problem, how it hapened?
 
It sounds like something switched off the ignition key, as not only the engine stopped, so did the servo and indicators.
any way the key could have been turned to off by tank bag or owt?
Any chance battery terminals are loose?
Have you an alarm fitted - although no idea how it could cause the fault described.
Scarey....
 
Lucky, I'd ride her very slowly to your nearest dealer and get her plug in for the dignostic's to be ccccchecked! :thumb
 
Nope all apperas ok, Had a further half hour ride home and it was fine, Plenty of oil n fuel . Wasnt really accelerating hard so it was nowhere near the rev limiter . Its a mystery :confused:
 
No tank bag on, didnt notice any bumps on the road . I shall check the battery terminals to see if they are loose, Thanks for the reply.
 
How bad were the brakes? Was it like driving a vintage bike?
 
Brakes are really poor with the engine off, kinda spooky. Was cruising down the hard shoulder towards a motoway fone and sailed straight past it with the brakes on :)
 
I know what it's like I had a R1150R, a couple of years ago suddenly without warning I was the proud owner of an R1150R with no brakes. The interesting thing about brakes is you only find out you've haven't got any at exactly the moment you want some. Needless to say I sh*t myself.

The dealer could find nothing wrong. So off I went again only to nearly kill my self AGAIN. I went back to the dealer, and, to put it bluntly, I think I scared them, and I left them under no illusion that I wasn't moving 'till something positive was done. they changed a couple of computers (they said) mind you it never happened again.

Getting back to your problem, this is just a stab in the dark, but do you think it might be a similiar thing to my R1150R, I hate to say this but that was intermittant and it takes a long time to trust it again even after it's been fixed. If truth be out I gave it back to the dealer and I started again with a different bike some 8 months later.
 
Thanks Boarder. I shall get the bike checked out at the dealers. I have an 1200ADV on order for delivery in the next 4- 6 weeks so it may be one of those problems that goes with the bike. I just dont want any new owner to be at risk so I hope the dealer finds something to fix.

I have checked the electrical connections I can get at and can't see anything obviously loose or chaffed. Its just one of lifes little mysteries. I am off to N Yorks for a run today so I shall see if it plays up again. :cool:
 
Scary.....

Hei Martin
FWIW I was travelling on the motorway, much like you, enjoying my relatively new GS, when I noticed water at the bottom of info screen thingy (just wached it don't ya know) - feck ses I to meself and reached forward to remove said water. Suddenly the bike just ceased to do its thing - as you said no motor, no brakes and all this in the fast lane.

The ignition switch, at least mine, has no real positive position when 'on' and whilst doing one thing I had actualyy managed to turn the ignition off.

I saved the situation 'cause I saw no ignition lights, nothing, totally dead, not the expected situation if the engine had just stopped firing.

So Martin, did you do anything like my 'stupid' trick....... :confused: :eek:
 
I was under the impression that if the ABS/servo failed, it would be like riding a bike with 'normal' brakes. If it actually means it's the same as when being towed in a car with servo brakes, ie; no stopping power.Then God help us all!
 
Check the sidestand switch is not sticky/faulty connection ... my '06 Adv is a couple of weeks old and I've already noted two occasions where with stand up the bike has refused to start ...

Switch is now liberally coated in WD40 until next service ...

I think I'd concur on the lack of servo assistance as well ... riding with 'normal' brakes is bl**dy scary, not much stopping power and a whole lot of bike to slow up!
 
Same thing happened to me more than once in South London in rush hour on my now (thankfully) departed 04 12GS.

Getting from the middle of lane 2 in the dark, rain and what not with no lights, horn, indicators, power or brake servo was not funny

New ignition barrell solved it.

Some scrotes tried to nick the bike and damaged the barrell. Bike taken to PLB, PLB said "it's fine, all 'lectrickery works)

Problems continued, returned bike to PLB, replaced ignition, problem fixed (that one anyway)
 
MartinW said:
Whilst merrily cruising along a motoway today at 80 my engine cut out. All the electrics went dead , indicators failed, brakes were crap and I ended up on the hard shoulder after a few blasts of horns from car drivers. :eek:

Anyone a clue what may be the cause, its an 05 1200GS and up till today has been the love of my life and totally reliable. Loads of fuel, temperature ok, no warning lights on. Engine restarted after a couple of mins . Beer needed tonight for my nerves, Not keen with the brakes being lousy if the engine goes like that. :beer:
Click to expand...

ANd thats why I traded in my Servo assist 1200gs for non-abs model, luckily I was doing 50 down dead straight country road with no traffic!!!
For "residual braking" read bugger all!!!!!
 
Just a thought. I know this is in the 1200 section, but has anyone had the same problem with a 1150? Trust me, I'm not having a dig, but I've just bought a 1150 Adv with servo assisted brakes, and couldn't resist asking.
 
Same thing happened to me a few months ago..... bike was 4 months old. Brakes failed and then engine cut out. Wasnt very nice. Got recovered back to dealers and ended up replacing ECU , ABS controller wiring loom...... been fine since...... fingers crossed
 
My bike cut out in traffic in central London last week, luckily I was almost at a standstill. Couldn't get it re-started so got the AA to recover it to Vines. It was a fuel pump failure. I'm not technical enough to know whether a fuel pump might temporarily fail but I'm absolutely with whoever said to get the bike to your dealer for a full once-over.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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