Stuck in 6th gear

[Sgt Bilco]

My beloved 06 GSAhas decided tohave a wobbly and get stuck in 6th gear.

I've just had a lot of workdone on the bike and had just picked it up after a new clutch, rebuild FD a sparkly Ohlins. Bike taken apart and put back together with no problems.

Gearchange was superb through town thanks to the new clutch. As I got on the motorway home and accelerated up to 80 still no problem until I had done a couple of miles when I lost drive. I checked the gear indicator which said I was still in 6th so I presumed it had just jumped out so I snicked the lever into 5th and hit the throttle. Power resumed no problem but as I changed up to 6th, all drive was lost again. I coasted to a halt with the clutch in and could not get it out of 6th.

The clutch is OK as it does try and pull away in 6th. The new FD seems OK so it would indicate the gearbox is the issue.

Anyone had any experience with something like this?

Please no smartarse 11** owners blabbing on about 1200 reliability because this bike has done 70,000 trouble free miles to date

 

[Schtum]

Whatever's wrong with it, it sounds like the bike's going to have to be split again and the gearbox opened up. I have half of a broken mainshaft out of an '06 with 43K miles on it, sitting here.....

 

[tanneman]

Chris, have a look at the gear selector lever's, particularly the couplings. Make sure it's correctly assembled. Should be like this

Or the gear position potentiometer. Symptoms of not displaying the correct gear or the gear indicator goes blank. Common fault on R1200S I read.

Otherwise I don't know.

 

[ihandyman247]

My beloved 06 GSAhas decided tohave a wobbly and get stuck in 6th gear.

I've just had a lot of workdone on the bike and had just picked it up after a new clutch, rebuild FD a sparkly Ohlins. Bike taken apart and put back together with no problems.

Gearchange was superb through town thanks to the new clutch. As I got on the motorway home and accelerated up to 80 still no problem until I had done a couple of miles when I lost drive. I checked the gear indicator which said I was still in 6th so I presumed it had just jumped out so I snicked the lever into 5th and hit the throttle. Power resumed no problem but as I changed up to 6th, all drive was lost again. I coasted to a halt with the clutch in and could not get it out of 6th.

The clutch is OK as it does try and pull away in 6th. The new FD seems OK so it would indicate the gearbox is the issue.

Anyone had any experience with something like this?

Please no smartarse 11** owners blabbing on about 1200 reliability because this bike has done 70,000 trouble free miles to date

Oh God , sounds like a very nasty problem , you should go to BMW and let them do the proper work ! This is when is handy to have a extended warranty

 

[(RIP) Johno23]

Seems a strange coincidence that you had just picked it up after major repairs and you didn't even get home, but have had 70+ k miles troublefree, I'd be asking the dealer who repaired it to check out his work, before I did anything else.

 

[Sgt Bilco]

Oh God , sounds like a very nasty problem , you should go to BMW and let them do the proper work ! This is when is handy to have a extended warranty

You are kidding right I couldn't afford their rates old son and I want the job done properly so that's why ABW did it. Clutch was changed because I've got 20k to do in Alaska this year as was the FD. All budgeted for and good practice. Incedentally, the clutch was in good order and the FD had no play.

The bike is an 06 and 70,000miles so out of warranty range. The gearboxes are fairly bombproof so this is a rare event and just bad luck.

The gear linkage was taken apart and greased as I've had issues with that before. This seems internal

 

[Schtum]

The gearboxes are fairly bombproof...

I don't think this is correct. See above - further investigation revealed cheap Eastern European bearings; sealed ones at that.

 

[Sgt Bilco]

Seems a strange coincidence that you had just picked it up after major repairs and you didn't even get home, but have had 70+ k miles troublefree, I'd be asking the dealer who repaired it to check out his work, before I did anything else.

It's on the bench tomorrow 1st thing to see what's what.

 

[Sgt Bilco]

I don't think this is correct. See above - further investigation revealed cheap Eastern European bearings; sealed ones at that.

I've not heard too many horror stories about gearboxes on 1200's. Had an 1100 one rebuilt though

 

[(RIP) Johno23]

Good luck with it , let us know what it was. The gearbox on the 1200 is supposed to be very reliable, very few problems reported,also saw a post from Steptoe a few weeks ago that said as much.

 

[Lord Snooty]

Major bummer Chris, hope it doesn't prove to be too expensive.

 

[Rasher]

Better now than in Alaska

Braver than me though, I would not feel comfortable planning a 20k trip on any bike already showing 70k, least of all a BMW!

Some good deals going on Super Tenere's at the moment

 

[Georgeeboi]

Rasher, to much gloom think positive

 

[grin factor]

Crickey mate, sounds bad.
I'm looking at buying a bike about the age of yours, as my budget is about that area. Not too happy about some of the comments here.

 

[Sgt Bilco]

Crickey mate, sounds bad.
I'm looking at buying a bike about the age of yours, as my budget is about that area. Not too happy about some of the comments here.

Don't get too worked up about it. Everyone will be negative when someone has a problem but I'm reasonably OK about this. Not happy of course but anything with tits or tyres keeps costing money

My bike has had a hard life and get's used. I changed the clutch and FD because I thought it was time to do it and prevention is better than cure. I have never had any issues with this bike and it's been on and off road, across the USA, down to Morocco and up to Alaska before with no problems. I'd budgeted to do all the bits and pieces including the Ohlins so no worries with that and anyone who does the mileage I do would be a fool to think that you could get away without spending money somewhere.

If it is the gearbox which is goosed, I'll suck it up but know the bike is good for another 70k as it will be better than new. I think it's pure coincidence and better now than on the Dalton I was just working out things this morning and I've still saved money over it's life by not having it dealer maintained and paying the extended warranty

As for Rasher's thoughts on taking a high mileage bike on a big trip, I think he is totally wrong. I have no issues because the bike has always been serviced correctly and I know it's a good tool.

Things break, shit happens!

 

[Pukmeister]

It could be something really simple like a worn selector mechanism, easy to fix once stripped down. If the box has to come apart it would be worth replacing bearings and shaft seals for the sake of reliability.

Once rebuilt, be sure to give the bike a good 'shakedown' ride to highlight any other issues prior to the big trip.

 

[Spike]

I would rather do a trip on a high milage bike that I had owned with trouble free riding than chop it in and get something with less miles that was not mine.

Hope you get it sorted quickly and as cheaply as possable.

spike

 

[Sgt Bilco]

It could be something really simple like a worn selector mechanism, easy to fix once stripped down. If the box has to come apart it would be worth replacing bearings and shaft seals for the sake of reliability.

Once rebuilt, be sure to give the bike a good 'shakedown' ride to highlight any other issues prior to the big trip.

Jonno will know today hopefully then a desperate pleading call to the expert Mr Scrimmiger I was hoping to give the bike a shakedown to France next weekend but that ain't going to happen now ans I ship the bike on 26th April to the US. Nothing like last minute issue's to focus the mind

 

[autogs]

my previous 1200 had a serious bearing failure at 1200 miles which ruined the complete box!.hope yours turns out ok in time for the trip

 

[rudiemoto]

teeth snapped in gearbox
oil is full of metal