R1150RT Cruise control

[AndyS]

Dumb question, but did the R1150RT ever come with an option of cruise control.

I've looked at the parts lists and can't see a left-hand switch cluster that incorporates it, but for the like of me I was convinced I rode one!

[dirtrider]

Dumb question, but did the R1150RT ever come with an option of cruise control.

I've looked at the parts lists and can't see a left-hand switch cluster that incorporates it, but for the like of me I was convinced I rode one!

 

Morning Andy

 

I haven't ever seen a factory cruise control, or seen any BMW cruise control listings, or seen any "BMW offered" cruise control parts listed for the BMW 1150 bikes.

 

I have seen some creative installations of aftermarket cruise control units that look & operate pretty darn good. Might even be some dealer installed units that were added at time of purchase.

 

[AndyS]

That's brilliant. Thanks for that.

[Tri750]

There was or is a company in Australia that was known for taking automotive cruise control kits and adapting them to motorcycles. They were bike specific and done very well.

We had 2-3 customers with RT's buy the kits and have us install them.

They were very well done and except maybe for a vacuum pod, were almost invisible.

The auto "turn signal stalk" switch was shortened and put on a tidy bracket easily accessed by the left (?) thumb.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if they were still around somewhere.

[Tri750]

Hah, son of a gun, they ARE still around and make a bunch of kits.

For the 1150RT, the kits is 750. US plus whatever the fine print was.

 

https://www.mccruise.com/collections/bmw/products/1015?variant=246147052

[dirtrider]

Hah, son of a gun, they ARE still around and make a bunch of kits.

For the 1150RT, the kits is 750. US plus whatever the fine print was.

 

https://www.mccruise.com/collections/bmw/products/1015?variant=246147052

 

Evening Tri750

 

The Mccruise is a good cruise unit but pricy.

 

The vacuum units are no longer available so the basic cruise kit for the BMW 1150 is about $750.00 (US dollars) + then you have to add about $110.00 (US dollars) more for the electronic servo parts (vacuum servo is no longer available).

 

I have installed a few vacuum units over the years & one electronic servo unit (the electronic unit is better functioning & has smoother control (especially in hilly regions).

 

The only real problems that I have seen is the handlebar control switch pod causing issues as it doesn't seem to be real waterproof.

 

I want to put a Mccruise on my 800GS but the packaging (& plastic fit on the 800 bike) is so tight that it isn't a real smooth install.

 

[Boomer343]

I have tried to attach pictures of my cruise control control pad but for some reason I keep getting an error message saying I already have an attachment.

 

The 1150 is the toughest bike I have put a cruise control onto. From the throttle control to the mounting of the unit it is a major pain. I used an Acewell adapter on the speedo cable that has since decided it doesn't want to work.

 

My next plan is to tap into the ABS system but it has very high pulse counts so I will need a divider.

 

I haven't been able to find the pulses per mile of the ABS system but I know it was posted here at some point in time.

 

DR can you help with that information? Thanks

 

I'll keep working on the photos.

[Boomer343]

And bingo there is the picture ....

[Tri750]

Oh.

[dirtrider]

 

I haven't been able to find the pulses per mile of the ABS system but I know it was posted here at some point in time.

 

DR can you help with that information? Thanks

 

 

 

Morning Boomer343

 

At one time I had the appx. pulses per mile but I can't seem to find it or remember where I saved it.

 

In any case pretty easy to figure--

 

Either measure (in inches) the circumference of the wheel/tire on the end that you intend to use for pulses, OR, mark the tire (& ground) at the very bottom of the tire, then roll the bike forward until the mark is back at the bottom again & mark the ground at the tire line. Now measure the distance between the floor marks in inches. (this is how far the wheel/tire travels in one revolution).

 

Next, take the measurement that you come up with above & divide that into 63360, that should give you the wheel rotations per mile.

 

Next, count the number of teeth on the wheel ABS tone ring then multiply that times the wheel rotations per mile that you came up with above. This is pulses per mile.

 

Can you just use the engine tac signal? Years ago I installed a cruise control on a BMW 1100 & that unit allowed wheel speed, or drive shaft speed, or engine RPM as the speed input signal. With a manual transmission the engine RPM is solidly linked to the vehicle speed.

 

 

 

[Boomer343]

Thanks for the reply DR. I'll post up when I get the answer.

 

The Rostra control unit I have needs the square wave from a speedo or abs and doesn't have a tach input. The vacuum units were good that way.

 

 

 

 

[Boomer343]

So my Conti Attack front tire rolls 72.5 inches per revolution giving 874 revolutions per mile.

 

The ABS tone ring has 100 teeth on it.

 

So we end up with the number of ABS pulses from the front wheel being 87,400 per mile.

 

Some of my best work is done with chalk marks on concrete ....

 

And for those searching in the future .... BMW R1150 ABS pulses per mile is 87,400.

 

 

[Tom in Vernon BC]

I have a Rostra kit from Murph's Kits and I am using the thread referenced below as the basis for my cruise control install. My installation is not yet complete; riding season got in the way.

 

I have modified the bowden box to use another short BMW throttle cable to allow external connection to the Rostra actuator. I am unable to attach images of my modified Bowden box here, but can forward them by email.

 

There is further discussion about tone rings and speedo pulses in the thread. The Rostra unit apparently cannot handle the number of ABS pulses generated by the tone ring, so the author of the linked article used a magnetic pickup and magnets on the front brake rotor mounting screws. Murph's sells the magnetic pickup as an option.

 

If one had the talent, one could build an electronic pulse divider circuit, but the rotor magnets and pickup are simpler.

 

https://www.bmwlt.com/forums/rt-series/52363-electronic-cruise-control-r1150rt.html

 

 

 

[Boomer343]

Tom you are correct about the ABS pulses being too high for the Rostra. They sell dividers that split down by a factor of 2 or 4. The 4 puts the signal pulses to 21,850 approximately. Rostra has settings for 24000 per mile and my understanding is that is close enough.

 

It's also a good idea to put the tail light onto a relay.

 

 

 

[Boomer343]

Further to using the ABS signal I found this device, http://ielectron.ca/index.php?route=product/category&path=25

 

I contacted their tech dept and asked if there was any technical issue with using their device and got this reply.

 

 

Thank you for being interested in our product. I attached the manual of MD10 pulse divider for your reference. I'm not very familiar with the 2003 BMW R1150RT Motorcycle, but I know many of our installers use ABS wires and MD10 pulse dividers for taximeter installation. The MD10 Pulse divider does 3 functions, 1, Amplifying the input signal, 2, Remove the impact from taximeter to vehicle VSS wire, 3, Divide the Vehicle's pulse value up to 32 time. If your vehicle gives 88,000 pulses/mile and you set the pulse divider to 32, you will get only 2750 pulse/mile.

 

 

One of the problems I had with the Acewell signal was it's relative weakness, the Rostra likes a strong signal.

 

 

 

 

[Tom in Vernon BC]

Bump:

 

Boomer, that looks like an ideal solution to the tone ring issue, and would be more elegant than the magnetic pickup.

 

Have you ordered one of those dividers? I'm waiting for the Visa shock from last month to subside before I order one. My tires are on the wear bars... again, but the season is coming to a conclusion.

 

Why the tail light relay? What is affected by the Rostra unit?

 

Cheers!

Tom

[Boomer343]

Bump:

 

Boomer, that looks like an ideal solution to the tone ring issue, and would be more elegant than the magnetic pickup.

 

Have you ordered one of those dividers? I'm waiting for the Visa shock from last month to subside before I order one. My tires are on the wear bars... again, but the season is coming to a conclusion.

 

Why the tail light relay? What is affected by the Rostra unit?

 

Cheers!

Tom

http://bmwsporttouring.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=559046&page=1

 

The cruise needs a low resistance ground or else will kick out. Also if you want to switch to an led bulb for the brake light it will keep the system happy.

 

Haven't ordered the divider yet but will be. I just paid for travel insurance .... getting old is tough and expensive!!!

[Tom in Vernon BC]

I just ordered one of the ielectron dividers and will test it in this application.

 

Boomer, where in AB are you?

[njl4]

What I did on my install of a Audiovox unit was use the signal from the negative side of the coil. That worked fine until the cruise control unit decided to stop working after 2 years on my bike. Looking to install an Rostra unit on my new to me R1100rt. I have a bowden box already modified and waiting for the install this winter. If the coil signal wont work with the Rostra unit the I will install the speed sensor to the front wheel. The link below is from Tom in Verno BC. I have seen this install before and it worked great,

Don't be scared off by the write up it's really not that hard to hook up.

 

https://www.bmwlt.com/forums/rt-series/52363-electronic-cruise-control-r1150rt.html

[Boomer343]

I just ordered one of the ielectron dividers and will test it in this application.

 

Boomer, where in AB are you?

 

I'm hanging around Calgary at the moment.

 

[Tom in Vernon BC]

Boomer, the wife and I were considering a blast up to Sylvan Lake this weekend, but the weather is iffy for a 32 foot ill-handling barge of a motorhome. We normally go up through Cochrane or do the ring road to 2. Perhaps we'll meet next year.

 

njl4, yes, that writeup is the basis for what I am doing with my RTP. Fortunately, there's room under the radio box for the actuator.

 

Something that should be mentioned here is that there are (or were) two styles of actuators available when I purchased mine from Murph's. One requires the use of a bead chain for lost motion, requiring the ugly monstrosity of a coupler that La Chuparosa used. The other unit has the lost motion mechanism built in; that is the unit I have, part number 250-1223.

[Boomer343]

ere's my solution to the cable junction

[Tom in Vernon BC]

Elegant, Boomer!

[AndyS]

Here's my solution to the cable junction

I don't know if this is of any use or not, but I seem to recall seeing something similar but more compact than that, in the cycling world. I believe I saw it on a foldable tandem for connecting and disconnecting gear / brake cables.

Edited September 28, 2018 by AndyS

[Boomer343]

I know this is an older thread but I thought I would update it.

 

I installed the ielectron divider by tapping into the front ABS signal wire, Yellow/Brown color code, and setting the divider at 16.

The setting on the Rostra is for a square wave just like a VSS would give.

 

I can now say my 2003 R1150 RT has electronic cruise control. I am going to flip from the Manual Transmission setting to Automatic to see if anything changes as other than the Pulses per Mile setting my settings are the same as the linked website.

 

My regret is having to undo some of my previous wiring to fit in the divider and it isn't as pretty as I would like but a man on a galloping horse would never notice.

This has to be one of the nastiest installs in the MC world. Hopefully it will see me to the end of my days when both of us will be Antiques ....

[Craig G.]

19 hours ago, Boomer343 said:

This has to be one of the nastiest installs in the MC world. 

 

I've installed Rostras on two 1150RTs and a FJR... tough to say which was more difficult.  In both cases it was well worth it.

 

A few things I did on the RTs made the installation a bit easier:

 

1.) Instead of trying to splice into the bowden box (major pain) I ran the cable from the actuator to the unused throttle return port at the throttle tube.  BMWs with CC have a second cable to serve as a pull/pull arrangement.  The second cable is unused on the RT but the grip components are the same.  This was a major simplification that works great.

 

2.) Used a fork mounted bicycle speed sensor for speed input.  Simple and reliable.

 

3.) Used a factory switch from an LT.... after 15 years on a LT I'm used to it.  Looks factory and works fine.

 

If it weren't for electronic cruise I doubt I'd still tour on the RT... as much as I love the look and feel of the bike I won't do without cruise...

 

[njl4]

Good evening,Craig

 

2 hours ago, Craig G. said:

 

I've installed Rostras on two 1150RTs and a FJR... tough to say which was more difficult.  In both cases it was well worth it.

 

A few things I did on the RTs made the installation a bit easier:

 

1.) Instead of trying to splice into the bowden box (major pain) I ran the cable from the actuator to the unused throttle return port at the throttle tube.  BMWs with CC have a second cable to serve as a pull/pull arrangement.  The second cable is unused on the RT but the grip components are the same.  This was a major simplification that works great.

 

 

 

 

 Craig, do you have any pictures of how you connected Rostra unit actuator cable to the throttle body on the R1150rt. I would like to see how you made the connection.

[Craig G.]

Not much to see... just a cable going into the throttle grip housing.  I used a cable from my LT that was replaced with an updated part number.  It all went together as it would in the factory. 

 

Understand that the actuator cable is not connected to the TBs directly... it's connected to the throttle grip tube.  So, via the tube, it utilizes the same cable used when manualy operating the throttle.  Pretty damn clever if I do say so myself... which I just did.  Grin.  

 

Anyway... the only complication is the need for a spring to keep a slight tension on the actuator cable so that when you are manually applying throttle the actuator cable is kept taught and does not kink at the throttle tube.  The connection for the actuator cable from the Rostra unit and the cable from the throttle tube is made in the PVC pipe pictured previously... look closely and you can see the spring at the bottom.  

 

I'll add that when in use the throttle grip will turn as the actuator makes changes to the throttle setting.  I never have my hand on the right grip while in cruise... which is part of the reason for having it.  The Rostra unit has a magnetic coupling internaly for the cable.  Easily overpowered by hand if need be.

 

This set up has worked without fail for about 25K miles.