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CRAP!!!! Bike dead in Susanville, CA - 2bmwfan


Firefight911

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Firefight911

Jamie just called from Susanville where she and her escort, Huzband, are calling it quites for the night. Something about Danny not being able to hang, tired, butt hurt, etc.

 

Anyway, they go in to get hotel rooms, etc. come back out and Jamie goes to start her F800ST and it is D E A D!!!!!!!! No dash, no start, no nothing. She gets a flicker of life from the dash when she cycles the key to the off position. When she does this the clock comes on for a second or two and then shuts off and the speedo and tach needles flicker.

 

Gone through everything from kill switch to neutral to side stand to a rain dance with no change. Removed key for 5 minutes and replaced, nothing.

 

It appears that it is possibly showing an antenna ring failure.

 

Anyone with any experience on this? Able to lend a hand?

 

Here is Jamie's cell phone - 916-xxx-xxxx. She is desperate as she is adamant about riding to the UN so if anyone can help CALL HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She really does not want to make the call to BMW to have it towed.

 

Doubly frustrating since the bike just went in for the fuel system recall and a safety check last week.

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skinny_tom (aka boney)

See if you can contact Richard. He is on the road today or tonight and may have the GS911 with him.

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Loose ground?

 

Ditto.

 

Check the battery terminals!

We had a KLR on a trip in Mexico last year with similar symptoms. It was a loose Positive connection at the battery.

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Firefight911

OK, here's the scoop -

 

The bike is officially dead. No ticky, no washy.

 

BMW road side service will be called first thing in the AM to have the bike hauled off to Sierra BMW (closest) for repairs of an unknown nature.

 

Jamie and Danny are going to 2-up to John Day. We will figure out from there how I get her Hotness home but she will be there no matter what!!!!!!!!

 

The two of them went through the bike and tried a key cycle again. They got a momentary flicker of life and then nothing so the bike is at best unreliable and needs more attention than me walking/talking her through it on the phone.

 

I will be on the phone with Sierra BMW at 9:01 AM to start the process of getting the bike fixed, etc. Once I hear back form Sierra as to what they find, I'll update everyone.

 

Interesting side is that Jamie and Danny report what appears to be coolant coming from the overflow tank. The overflow also appears dry form their view. Hmmmmmm, I am inclined to think that the 2 issues are not related but who knows. We'll see what Sierra finds.

 

Continue to call and harass them at will. It makes me feel better knowing that our community is looking out for her, though, I must admit that Danny is certainy the more helpless of the two!!!!

 

And just to put this out there, I nominate Danny for hero of the minute award along with honorable mention as ambassador for a day. We can't forget that he just completed a 50cc, rode 500 miles to our house the next day, and is now helping my beautiful bride with her road troubles, along with being quite a stand up guy for offering her Laura Lee's pillion position to get Jamie to the UN.

 

Steve (Weiner) - please handle the award ceremony for me would ya!?

 

I love the people of this board!!!!!!!

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russell_bynum

I'm texting Her Hotness. (Phones are SOOOOOOOO last year.) They think it's the EWS ring. I don't really know anything about that since our old school bikes aren't afflicted with that "feature". Would a bad EWS ring cause the "clock flickering" bit? I would have thought it would just disabled the starter.

 

If they can't get it fixed, it will be towed tomorrow and she'll make Danny ride pillion on his own bike the rest of the way to Un.

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Firefight911

If they can't get it fixed, it will be towed tomorrow and she'll make Danny ride pillion on his own bike the rest of the way to Un.

 

We already had that discussion. She's gonna get ready before him and be at the bike ready for him. When he's ready, she's gonna jump on and tell him to, "Get on beyotch!!! We got miles to put behind us!"

 

My wife is soooooooooo cool!!!

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russell_bynum

LOL! I'm picturing a female version of John Wayne from The Cowboys. "We're burnin' daylight!" :grin:

 

Seriously though...did they check the battery terminals? My RT did a very similar thing on the way to Torrey once and it turned out that the incompetent boob of a mechanic who worked on the bike last didn't put the battery cables on properly, so the ground was very loose. Sometimes it would be fine. Sometimes you'd get nothing. Sometimes it would be fine until you put ANY load on it then it would go completely dead.

 

Would a bad EWS ring cause the problem she's reporting?

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Firefight911

And how cool is it to talk with her after I have her send a SPOT messenger 'Help' alert so I can pin point what parking stall she put the bike in?! - LINKY

 

The SPOT is now considered paid for as it has done exactly what it should and has given me piece of mind to know that I know exactly where she is in her time of need and I can give exact coordinates to anyone needing to get to her. Very cool!!!!

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Firefight911
LOL! I'm picturing a female version of John Wayne from The Cowboys. "We're burnin' daylight!" :grin:

 

Seriously though...did they check the battery terminals? My RT did a very similar thing on the way to Torrey once and it turned out that the incompetent boob of a mechanic who worked on the bike last didn't put the battery cables on properly, so the ground was very loose. Sometimes it would be fine. Sometimes you'd get nothing. Sometimes it would be fine until you put ANY load on it then it would go completely dead.

 

Would a bad EWS ring cause the problem she's reporting?

 

It is something that I would definitely get further in to if I were there, BUT, I am dealing with two mechanically DEclined individuals and they have exhausted all their means to determine the fix. Well, that and 1-1/2 bottle of the good red stuff. :dopeslap::dopeslap:

 

Oh, and thanks BMW for making a bike that the center fairing piece needs to be removed just to look at the battery and the entire right fairing panel and mirror assembly need to be removed just to look at and fill the coolant reservoir! Road side fixes are rapidly becoming a not so easy proposition anymore!

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russell_bynum

Ugh. That's frustrating. It would suck to scrap the trip and have the bike towed only to find something silly like a loose battery cable.

 

Keep us posted with the repair info from Sierra. At least this happened on a Monday night so there will be places open tomorrow. Usually this sort of thing happens 7 seconds after the last places closes on Saturday, so you've got 2 long days ahead of you before any BMW dealer is open. :dopeslap:

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Firefight911

I did get the call at 6:09 PM and that precluded me from making a phone call to A&S, who closes at 6:00 PM. Yes, I know their service dept. is closed on Monday but they did have some tech types roaming around earlier this morning when I took Danny there to get his oil change supplies so it would have been worth a call.

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Dances_With_Wiener_Dogs

I'm coming to this e-party late, but I have been following it from the man-on-the-street standpoint. We'll be ready to receive them Phil!

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roadscholar

Talked to my tech/service manager, he says likely EWS ring, they've had quite a few failures (2 ST's and about 25 others). There's a campaign afoot to cross reference failures w/ serial numbers.

 

He recommends it and said some people are carrying a spare with them, but it sounds like a bugger to change out.

 

As an aside he suggested keeping receipts (motels, etc.), BMW Roadside may reimburse.

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Once replaced, shouldn't be an issue again. :fingers crossed :

Bad batch surfacing in many models.

The dealer should have 'em up and running in short order.

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Firefight911

OK, here's the morning update.

 

It's 7:20 AM and the bike has left the building. Bike is on a flat bed and headed to Sierra BMW near Reno. Jamie and Danny are getting ready to head out and on to John Day. They should be clutch out by 7:45 AM. They have about 370 miles to go.

 

Their whereabouts can be tracked here - SPOT Linky

 

More to follow.

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Firefight911
...searching the site for "EWS ring"....

 

It's all there under the hexheads category. LINKY

 

Ugh!!!! I never even read that thread 'til last night after getting off the phone with Whip. Yep, Jamie's VIN is smack dab in the middle of the range included in the recall.

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Firefight911

Nothing yet. Scott (svc. mgr.) states that they had not gotten to the bike as yet. They had a couple other bikes roll in that were a higher priority than Jamie's since she is not picking up or waiting for it. I have no heart ache with that whatsoever!

 

Scott appears a bit perplexed based on the described symptoms and his own quick check this AM. He doubts an EWS issue as the dash should still be active with an EWS fault showing on the dash. They are going to go ahead and do the ring anyway but will focus on the underlying cause first.

 

After discussing with A&S and Sierra and checking the service date for the fuel recall/safety check it has been verified that A&S was unaware of the EWS service bulletin until 2 days after Jamie's bike left A&S so they did not overlook or miss this item and since this is a service bulletin, NOT a recall, there would be no notice sent out, etc.

 

Scott seems to feel that it may turn out to be a bad battery. We'll await the outcome later this afternoon or tomorrow AM.

 

So far I have nothing but praise for both Sierra and A&S and how they have handled it. A&S even called me to check up and to see what they could do to help. Sierra and A&S have spoken with each other as well. This was to be sure that the history of the bike was completley up to date as the bike gets repaired. Nice!!!!!!!!

 

In the mean time, Jamie and Danny are making good time 2-up and are less than 200 miles away form John Day!!! Get the beers cold and the wine glasses out. They BOTH need/deserve a drink upon their arrival.

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Firefight911

Alright you two!!!!! Lunch is over! You've been at the same place since 12:33 already. 97 miles to go and you're having a leisurely lunch!?!? What the heck!!!

 

LINKY

 

:grin::wave:

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It's interesting how much you can tell by looking at their SPOT page. Looking at the satellite imagery it looks like they stopped at two hotels before settling on a third?

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Firefight911

That would be "plan ahead Danny" who showed up at the UN without a room.

 

Jamie is holing up with Cool Jamie and Leslie.

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russell_bynum
It's interesting how much you can tell bu looking at their SPOT page. Looks like they stopped at two hotels before settling on a third?

 

I ain't touchin' that one with a 10-foot pole.

 

runaway.gif

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Firefight911
It's interesting how much you can tell bu looking at their SPOT page. Looks like they stopped at two hotels before settling on a third?

 

I ain't touchin' that one with a 10-foot pole.

 

runaway.gif

 

Wow!!! We should reference this one over to Mitch's "personal information on the internet" thread!

 

ROFLMAO . . . and in the fine words of Achmed the dead terrorist, "I KILL YOU!!!!"

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russell_bynum
It's interesting how much you can tell bu looking at their SPOT page. Looks like they stopped at two hotels before settling on a third?

 

I ain't touchin' that one with a 10-foot pole.

 

runaway.gif

 

Wow!!! We should reference this one over to Mitch's "personal information on the internet" thread!

 

ROFLMAO . . . and in the fine words of Achmed the dead terrorist, "I KILL YOU!!!!"

 

LOL!!!!!

 

OK, now I gotta go back to my YouTube Favorites folder and re-watch that one.

 

So much for being productive this afternoon.

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It's interesting how much you can tell bu looking at their SPOT page. Looks like they stopped at two hotels before settling on a third?

 

I ain't touchin' that one with a 10-foot pole.

 

runaway.gif

 

How about an 11 foot pole?

georgestat.jpg

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Firefight911

OK, here is the scoop on the dead bike.

 

EWS was NOT the issue, although, they are going to go ahead and swap it out under the service bulletin.

 

Connections were all tight and there was no issue with anything electrical or mechanical except,

 

 

 

 

the battery was bad. Plain and simple, it needed to have the battery replaced. It simply died a fast and painless (for the battery!) death.

 

Bike should be back in running order tomorrow.

 

As for the coolant leak, all it was was a loose overfill tank cap. The radiator was full, the coolant reservoir was full. Just some slop over while Hot Hoon was hunting corners on the way to Susanville!

 

Now, logistics are my next game!

 

Thanks for all the help in trying to get it back up and running! You guys are awesome!

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russell_bynum

Well...other than the ensuing logistics headache, that's not such a big deal.

 

Ideally....someone with a trailer (or a GS with an empty Jesse Bag) could swing by, pick the bike up, and drop it off at Un, but that's probably a bit of an ask unless you just accidentally catch someone going that way.

 

 

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Dick_at_Lake_Tahoe_NV

"Scott seems to feel that it may turn out to be a bad battery. We'll await the outcome later this afternoon or tomorrow AM."

 

 

And it turns out that was the problem. I first met Scott about 10 years ago when he was at Ventura BMW, he took the Service Manager's Job at Sierra in Sparks about 5-years ago. He is one of the finest BMW techs I have ever run across--quiet, soft-spoken but really knows his stuff. Good Going Scott!

 

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Glad it wasn't more serious, but too bad it didn't happen close to home before she took off.

 

Oh well, every good tale has to have some adversity.

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That would be "plan ahead Danny" who showed up at the UN without a room.

 

Hmm.....I seem to recall a similar situation at the BRR this spring. Hey Danny.....why don't you tell everyone the story about staying at a different hotel, dead Futura batteries, and lonely walks in the dark? :grin:

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Firefight911

All I have to say is this!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Danny is now and forever to be known as

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Road Huzband

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy it Danny, you've earned it.

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Matts_12GS

Well Phil...

 

someone had to take care of Hot Jamie's needs since you're all gimped up...

 

Love you brother!! Guess I do need to buy those plane tickets now...

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Well Phil...

 

someone had to take care of Hot Jamie's needs since you're all gimped up...

 

Love you brother!! Guess I do need to buy those plane tickets now...

 

Ya know, zinger + apology = 1/3 zinger.........

just sayin'......

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All I have to say is this!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Danny is now and forever to be known as

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Road Huzband

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy it Danny, you've earned it.

 

"Road Huzband"? I'm afraid not. But its not MY story to tell. :grin::lurk:

 

 

Jamie?

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I publicly announced at dinner, with a microphone, that Danny was Road Huzband.

 

Danny might be Road Huzband for tonight, but I suspect his real new name may have more staying power. . .

 

I promised Jamie that I would let her reveal Danny's new name. :wave:

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... I am dealing with two mechanically DEclined individuals...

 

Schmuck!!!

 

Who got YOUR wife to the Un, huh wise guy?

 

Oh, & she says I'm smoother on the bike than you are. :grin:

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Firefight911
... I am dealing with two mechanically DEclined individuals...

 

Schmuck!!!

 

Who got YOUR wife to the Un, huh wise guy?

 

Oh, & she says I'm smoother on the bike than you are. :grin:

 

Lay off the drink and go to bed! In your dreams!

 

Worked on you too I see. WHO got to John Day without the effort??? Hmmmmmm, What was that - "wise guy"?

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Firefight911

Hey, lookie there!!!!! Her Hooning Hotness is on the move!!! And she's on her F800ST!!!!!!

 

Have a good ride home honey!!! I'll let her share the story of how her bike ended up in John Day. :grin:

 

LINKY

 

She's riding down with Jamie and Leslie until about reno so now you know where all three are. Love that SPOT!!!!

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