ANTENNA KEY RING MALFUNCTION

[WILDPIG]

YES FELLOW RIDERS-- I AM FLAT BROKE DOWN... GOT THE DEALER ON IT NOW. NO GO ON THE IGNITION SWITCH-- WE'RE LAYIN IT TO BMW'S DESIGN FAILURE REFERENCE THE INFAMOUS ANTENNA RING..... BATTERY FULLY CHARGED,,, USED PLASTIC KEY,,, DID A LOTTA CUSSIN---NO ENERGIZIN OF THE STARTER WHEN THE START BUTTON IS PRESSED.... WILL UPDATE-- LUCKILY IM UNDER MY CARPORT,,, AS I TOLD THE DEALER SHIP 5 FT AWAY IS A HI HORSEPOWER HARLEY OF MINE THAT HAS 111,000 MILES ON IT-- NEVER LEFT ME STRANDED-HUMMMMMMMMMMM............. MAKES ONE WONDER......

[Dan-A]

YES FELLOW RIDERS-- I AM FLAT BROKE DOWN... GOT THE DEALER ON IT NOW. NO GO ON THE IGNITION SWITCH-- SHIP 5 FT AWAY IS A HI HORSEPOWER HARLEY OF MINE THAT HAS 111,000 MILES ON IT-- NEVER LEFT ME STRANDED-HUMMMMMMMMMMM............. MAKES ONE WONDER......

Sometimes simple is good. The new Harley's have a similar set up with a key fob, so I suppose it could fail. My 2000 has a switch, and if I forget to lock it, anyone can start the bike.

So far, no EWS failure on my R.

Sorry you got stuck. Let us know how it turns out.

[WILDPIG]

UPDATE-- BIKE JUST FIRED UP-- HADNT DONE A THANG DIFFERENT AFTER30-30 UNSUCCESSFUL TRIES TO START. AFTER 10 MILES OF RIDING I PUT IT UNDER CARPORT LET IT SIT FOR 30 SECONDS--TRIED TO CRANK- NOTHING. GOT THE DEALER ON IT--ORDERIN NEW ANTENNA RING,, ETC....

[deilenberger]

Please stop YELLING!

Question - does it indicate "EWS" in the display? And what's the production date of your bike? Supposedly a 2008 should have the new design antenna.. also - how many miles (the majority of failure seem to happen under 1,000 miles..)

[Bob41459]

Bummer.Sorry to hear about the trouble on such a new scoot to boot.
Yes and I'm curious if EWS is appearing on the screen as that is the antenna ring code.
Either way it's a shame that something this dumb is even an issue at all with the 1200 series bikes.
At ADVrider there's a poll on this very failure and so far 204 folks have responded and 40 have reported the dreaded EWS failure.Out of those 40,30 are saying it happened after the 2000 miles.Now it's not scientific and there's no way of knowing what percentage are R1200Rs or R1200GS or K1200 series bikes but it definitely shows that it's an issue and one that hopefully gets resolved sooner rather then later.
Good luck and keep us posted.

[WILDPIG]

YES- EWS APPEARING ON DISPLAY,, ALSO RANDOM STARTING IS FURTHER SYMTOMATIC OF THE ANTENNA RING --THE R12 IS A 2008, WITHOUT LOOKIN IT UP-- CUZ I JUST HAD A CANINE TOOTH PULLED 1 HR AGO AN THE LORITAB HAS ME HIGH--IT WAS A PRODUCTION RUN OF LAST YR ROUND ABOUT AUG-OCT. DEALERS DOING VOR................... I'LL PROLLY PUT IT ON,, WENT OUT THERE AN SAW HOW BRACKETRY ATTACHED,,.. APPEARS SIMPLE ENUFF,, WE'LL SEE-- MILEAGE---1750. ALL THE PROBLEMS ARE GENERALLY OCCURRIN AT LESS THAN 3000 MILE MARK............I HAVE ACCESS TO INSIDE INFOR--CANT BE ANY MORE SPECIFIC THAN THAT..........................

[Lost Rider]

No more responses from me until you take your cap locks off.....

[Graf]

please turn off your caps lock....no need to be yelling.

i have a 2008 R12R and my ring crapped out at 1000mi. had to tow it too. the "wait 30 minutes and try again" did not help.....trying next day and the new key at the dealer did not help either......they changed the ring and the problem has gone away. When this happened about 2 month ago I talked to the dealer about the frequency of this problem he said that he has only seen it once before....I have talked to the same dealer last week about this and he said that it is becoming harder to get the new rings in short period of time....seems like the warehouses are running out because this occurs more frequent for some reason....

ugly problem to have......i got stranded for over 2 hours and they could not find a flatbed to tow me......and this is in San Francisco Bay Area......

[OlyVR]

No more responses from me until you take your cap locks off.....

I think the CAPS LOCK is his thing.

Username: CAPS
Location: CAPS
Profile Info: CAPS
Post Title: CAPS
Recent Posts: CAPS

I've noticed on a few forum that there are some people that think it's easier to read in caps or "that's what they tell you to do [of curse nobody knows who "they" are]". A friend of my wife also typed everything normally, but emails used to be in all caps.
I had to point out repeatedly that caps is considered yelling and quite rude/immature, before she changed.

[MikeCam]

"THE INFAMOUS ANTENNA RING"

TADT
YMMV
NSFW
NSF
OEP

[Lost Rider]

No more responses from me until you take your cap locks off.....

I think the CAPS LOCK is his thing.

Username: CAPS
Location: CAPS
Profile Info: CAPS
Post Title: CAPS
Recent Posts: CAPS

I've noticed on a few forum that there are some people that think it's easier to read in caps or "that's what they tell you to do [of curse nobody knows who "they" are]". A friend of my wife also typed everything normally, but emails used to be in all caps.
I had to point out repeatedly that caps is considered yelling and quite rude/immature, before she changed.

Go to your system preferences if you need your fonts to be larger....
If someone doesn't know how to do that, maybe go into "Off Topic", and ask for help...

It's 2008, computer's aren't anything new, and if you want to be a part of an online community, you should CONFORM.

[celticus]

The caps thing does not bother me one bit. In fact I guess that you WERE yelling in your initial post on this subject.
Mark

[dasronin]

Mine gave out at about 300 miles in mid April of this year on a new 2008 R1200R.

THE CAPS DON'T BOTHER ME... I AM HEARING IMPAIRED!!!

[celticus]

Don, Did you mention that this problem was not found in the earlist model releases for the R1200R? Is there any list of which serial numbers are and are not affected?
Mark

[deilenberger]

Don, Did you mention that this problem was not found in the earlist model releases for the R1200R? Is there any list of which serial numbers are and are not affected?
Mark

Nope - wasn't me.. but I haven't noticed anyone with bikes as old as mine (made in 10/06) reporting a failure. I know on the other hexheads, the majority of the bikes affected were '07 models (so far..) very few mentions of problems with '05 and '06 bikes.

I'd have to suspect a bad batch of antenna rings. That kinda thing happens once in a while. Be interesting to see if BMW issues a Service Bulletin suggesting the dealers replace all of them from VIN### to VIN### like they do with the cars when this sorta thing happens. BMW typically makes the parts vendor eat the cost..

[Dan-A]

Don, Did you mention that this problem was not found in the earlist model releases for the R1200R? Is there any list of which serial numbers are and are not affected?
Mark

Nope - wasn't me.. but I haven't noticed anyone with bikes as old as mine (made in 10/06) reporting a failure. I know on the other hexheads, the majority of the bikes affected were '07 models (so far..) very few mentions of problems with '05 and '06 bikes.

I'd have to suspect a bad batch of antenna rings. That kinda thing happens once in a while. Be interesting to see if BMW issues a Service Bulletin suggesting the dealers replace all of them from VIN### to VIN### like they do with the cars when this sorta thing happens. BMW typically makes the parts vendor eat the cost..

Where is the date sticker on the bike? I am approaching 6000 miles and have had the bike a year and so far (though saying it usually causes it ) no failure.

[deilenberger]

Where is the date sticker on the bike? I am approaching 6000 miles and have had the bike a year and so far (though saying it usually causes it ) no failure.

Plug your VIN# into REALOEM.COM and it will give you the month/year of manufacture. Mine was made during Octoberfest - putting to rest the myth that BMWs made during that festival are somehow less well put together.

[OlyVR]

...Mine was made during Octoberfest - putting to rest the myth that BMWs made during that festival are somehow less well put together.

It is a myth - correct. But playing devil's advocat here: MCs are made in Berlin, whereas Oktoberfest is only in Bavaria.
For those not familiar with Germany: Berlin (Prussia) and Munich (Bavaria) enjoy a rivalry similar to North vs. South here. To put it in perspective: have you ever asked a Southerner if he was a yank(ee)?

Back on topic, isn't the build date also noted on the VIN sticker?

[celticus]

I don't have my bike here to look at the vin # but I DID buy it in late 06.
Mark

[Radar in oz]

Don, Did you mention that this problem was not found in the earlist model releases for the R1200R? Is there any list of which serial numbers are and are not affected?
Mark

According to BMW in Australia, the antenna ring problem potentially affects all BMW models except 650s built since 2007.

Cheers
Radar