Question about battery on GS12

[ronmelton]

I'm being told that th battery will not hold ah charge if th GS is ridin for local commuting??????????? TIA ron

[Ken H.]

I'm not sure how whomever said that defines "local commuting" but I use mine for day-to-day around town stuff most every day and haven't had a battery issue yet.

[David]

Ken, he asked about a GS, not an RT.

[Marty Hill]

Ron,

 

Can't believe that. I ride mine about 12 miles to starbux every day when I'm in town. No issues with the battery.

 

David,

 

Ken can be proud of having the only 1200 GS/RT on earth.

[ronmelton]

Thanks for th replys, i wuz gittin ah little dissapointed! Ya'll are makin me feel better. Marty my wife's sister lives in Kennesaw.

[Jeff98362]

You should probably get a spare battery, and just toss it in with all of the other "frequent failure" items on the bike. I think you should store it low in the cases near the spare final drive.

 

Seriously, I have found mine to be a bit slow to crank if it sits for two weeks. I am careful to turn off the high-beam and go easy on the brakes while I drive through my development, hopefully conserving juice and leaving more to be saved in the battery. I have not commuted every day since I had the RT, but I have experienced no problems with the GS battery so far!

 

On another related topic, my dealer found a loose battery connection caused a sensor to read a parameter incorrectly, which caused a "fault" which caused the bike to run erratically (throttle up and down). Tightening the terminals and clearing the fault fixed it. CHECK THOSE CONNECTIONS FREQUENTLY!

[eric2]

No, it charges fine in urban/stop n go driving.

 

Eric

Austin

r12gs

[k12steve]

I'm being told that th battery will not hold ah charge if th GS is ridin for local commuting??????????? TIA ron

 

Untrue! But my dealer is convinced that leaving the key in the bike will eventually flatten the battery due to its constantly "talking" to the bike's computer.

 

Anyway...no problems with my GS, ever.

[ClearwaterBMW]

when i picked up my new 1200GS, my battery was almost dead. at the time we attributed that to the fact that my aftermarket horns were so loud that many in the service bay were obsessed with "listening" to them so much that the battery was drained

it holds a charge fine

but, one thing i've noticed (and maybe this is normal - please enlighten me, if you would)...

WHEN COLD, the bike NEVER starts on the first try

i have turned it on and waited for the fuel pump to go quiet... etc

the 2nd try, starts right up.

is this some characteristic of EVERY 12GS, or just some quirk of mine that might be secondary to the initial battery issue?

 

thanks in advance, as always

greg

[Ken H.]

is this some characteristic of EVERY 12GS, or just some quirk of mine that might be secondary to the initial battery issue?

Are you waiting for the full boot sequence to complete, the yellow caution light to go out, before the first start attempt?

[ClearwaterBMW]

yes,

i did wait for that whole boot sequence

does your's ever do that?

greg

[steveknapp]

WHEN COLD, the bike NEVER starts on the first try

 

I never wait for the boot sequence (f'that), and mine almost always starts first try. Haven't had it in the 30-40F type cold yet.

[ClearwaterBMW]

 

anyone else with a story to tell

just tried it again

it's been sitting for about 6 hours

waited for the whole boot sequence

turns over well/battery is plenty strong

doesn't start 1st time

stop....

wait 2 secs

restarts... fires IMMEDIATELY

anyone else?

 

greg

[Ken H.]

Mine seems to be just the opposite. If I don't wait for the boot sequence to finish it is harder to start. Go figure...

[ClearwaterBMW]

today,

i realized that it will start up cold on the first try if i have the clutch lever pulled in. that is the suggestion in the manual for COLD STARTING. of course, it's 95 here today. i guess with the clutch pulled in there is less "pressure" on the starter to turn the bike over with less fuel in the bowls (of course, i don't know crap about anything about this... and i'm sure that others will point that out to me)

but....

with the bike in neutral, and still sitting on its sidestand in my garage... with the clutch pulled in.... she started RIGHT up

 

go figure that

 

greg

[ShovelStrokeEd]

Really has nothing much to do with battery charge (withi reason) or waiting for sequences or any of that stuff.

 

The pulling in the clutch thing will help the spin rate a bit by removing the drag of cold gear box oil from the starter. Yes, 95 deg F. is cold to gearbox oil. 40 is even colder though and it is good practice in cold climates to pull in the clutch on a cold start.

 

When the injectors fire is related to the crank position sensor(s) and how many pulses they see as compared to how many the Motronic needs. Other factors might come into play regarding where your idle bypass motors came to a stop. This might be software version related as well, causing bikes from different build dates to behave in very different manners. I doubt BMW will reveal any more about this than they have done about Motronics of old. It wouldn't surprise me if emission regulations have removed the old tried and true pulse a good squirt on the first trigger pulse so long as the starter button is depressed.

 

Lessee, our injectors are probably rated somewhere about 32 GPH static flow. A pulse of say 40 milliseconds, which would be long for a cranking pulse would give,,,,, sounds of calculator buttons clicking,,,,,3.55 e^-4 gallons or 1.94 cc of gas per injector 2.7 mL of gas total of which some is likely to burn. We have once again, saved the enviornment!

[ClearwaterBMW]

thanks for that explanation, ed

the geek in me (and there's plenty of him) really enjoyed that bit of learning

greg