K1200S - SLIPING OUT OF GEAR AT HIGH SPEEDS - FYI

[boxermania]

Went by the BMW dealearship yesterday and in talking to the tech I learned of the above subject......the tech, knowing that I'm a gearhead invited me to look over the patient.

Fairly new bike ridden hard and fast, the owner is an accomplished rider/racer. Well the bike is slipping out of gear at 140 mph amd re-engaging on a couple of occasions. Needless to say it doesn't make for a good experience, let along the potential consequences.

The tech and I bench raced for a few minutes and concluded on the following:

The gear is not engaging fully, as the load increases it slips out and engages again as the load decreases. It could be in the shift forks, the stack of the gears on the shaft, machining of the gears, clearances, etc.

The tech had requested the BMW Rep to come by because he was fixing to pull the tranny out. Lucky that these tranny's are of the current design and pull out to the side as a unit, unlike the ones in the boxers.

This is an early bike and the problem appears to be related to manufacturing/assembly. I will keep you posted on the progress and outcome.

[Deans BMW]

Boxer, BMW will fully warrenty the tranny in a heart beat, no questions asked.

[boxermania]

Most certainly Dean-O.....I'm just passing along some information in the event that others out there might be experimenting similar problems. It is not a pleasent occurence and can be potentially dangerous.

[utzguy]

I have had several instances now when I shift from 1st to 2nd and started to accellerate and the bike suddenly jumped back to neutral. Rather disconcerting.
Does anyone else feel this transmission is notchy? I have ridden other BMWs and they all seem a little "clunky" compared to other bikes I have ridden, but they never gave me problems shifting. The K seems worse. At first I figured it would get better with miles, but so far (and I only have 800 miles on it) is seems to have gotten worse. More missed shifts to 2nd and now sometimes jumping out of 2nd. I will definitely be talking to my service guy, but I was just curious about other's experience.

[CupOHemlock]

I have had a number of missed shifts into 2nd gear. It only happens when I am cracking the throttle hard. I wrote this off to me trying to flip the gear lever up too fast and release the clutch in an effort to catch the right revs for a smooth transition.

Thus far I have only had the bike hit the rev limiter in 4th gear twice... that put me up around 140MPH. I wish I could say I would run out and see if I have any clutch slippage at 140 but folks are starting to talk about this crazy guy on a BMW going too fast already

COH (Rich)

[wierd bob]

I have had several instances now when I shift from 1st to 2nd and started to accellerate and the bike suddenly jumped back to neutral. Rather disconcerting.
.

I had this exact thing when I had a K1200S for a day. I was just starting to pile on the revs coming onto a motorway and it slipped out of second into neutral. Flicked it back into second and again it spat it back out, Tried it again, same thing. There was such a clunk when trying to put it into second that I pulled over. Slipped it into first and moved off and everything worked fine and smoothly after that. I think the gears had just not fully engaged and it just required me to stop, clutch in and re-engage first to for the gears to reallign themselves.

It only happened the once but then again I only had the bike 24 hours. Bring your bike back and have them look at it. At least if they can't find anything wrong it will be logged early on so that if the gearbox goes in 5 months time they can't say its your fault doing all those clutchless racing upshifts!

[socalrob]

Come on COH, I'd think you'd be knocking her up to at least 150 on every ride.

Seriously, ride safe.

I'm dreamin more & more of the KR. What are your latest thoughts. Do you think I should wait a year or so or jump know? The other bike I like these days is the ST.

[ConcernedCitizen]

COH- Rich - Slow your ash down. You're makin' us all look bad.

[CupOHemlock]

Hey hey.. I am really trying to be good. In fact I have not gone above 100 in two weeks.

I had another shift-into-second-whoops-neutral event today. I still think it is just me being clumsy.

COH (Rich)

[socalrob]

For what its worth I had a shift into second miss today also on my R1150R.

Bike can't protect us from ourselves.

[Guest]

Mine miss shifts about 3 times a day from 1 to 2. I am trying to adjust my shifting technique. There will be no Japanese Hibachi until I can get it out of 1st gear or neutral.

[camfarm]

Dear Concerned Citizen,

You make yourself look bad enough. Don't pick on COH. He's family.

Mike C.

[boxermania]

Guys.....I will be going by the dealer tomorrow and will find out what happened to the bike that started this post.....will report accordingly.

[boxermania]

Sorry...I thought I had posted my findings on the transmission.

I had the opportunity to look at the tranny, remember these new ones are a cartridge and as such very easy to remove in one piece. The gears looked good, with good contact patterns, there wasn't any fork wear or bending....the only thing that was found was a black piece of plastic on the end of the cartridge.....we stheorized that it was an alignment tool used during assembly and that the installer forgot to remove.

BMW provided a brand new tranny for this bike.