General topics » Big Problems in wet weather

Has anyone had any problems with their bike in heavy rain...?

Full disclosure - my March 2020 R1250 RS Exclusive bike has an amber engine warning light on. However, I've phoned BMW Assist and described the issue, which is:

1. Message in the dash saying take to a specialist dealer.
2. No loss of power or any change in performance (until today..!)
3. Bike rides completely normally (until today).

and BMW Assist told me categorically I should just book the bike in (booked in for 14 October - shortage of servicing availability in the South at the moment) and could continue to ride it. THey said it was almost certainly the exhaust valve not opening fully which is a minor issue on the R1250RS but which doesn't do anything more significant than flag a warning in the TFT.

Riding home this evening I got caught in a cloudburst / storm on the A3 (for our American friends, it's a three lane highway, but not motorway - speed limit 70mph). Time about 9:45pm. Very heavy rain and masses of surface water; however, apart from a wet crotch (need some new waterproof overtrousers!) everything was fine, traffic quite light, and I was in the outside lane at 70. I decided to put the bike in cruise control while I turned on the heated grips (the switch is in a shit position to operate while on throttle in my view) and put the bike in Rain mode (it was proper lashing it down so even though I have Dynamic Pro set to max safety mode but full power, I wanted to switch).

Bike goes into cruise for maybe 2 seconds. I release the throttle. Suddenly cruise cuts out. and bike decelerates heavily despite being in 6th - feels almost like the brake is on. I go back on the throttle, bike picks up again, I try again with cruise control. Same thing happens, except this time when I roll on the throttle no response. Engine revs now falling; I change down two gears, try to roll on the throttle - nothing. Bike now slowing quickly and I'm in the fast lane. Find the hazards, manage to make my way across to the hard shoulder (emergency lane). Shitting it. Get to emergency lane, engine cuts out at some point (I think it was probably a stall) and I realise. Restart engine, thank christ it starts. Roll along hard shoulder, get to exit, pull into petrol station. Sit there with engine on while I try to figure out what the fuck just happened.

HAving dried my visor / collected myself, get going again. Get some people flashing me as though my headlight is off - pull over, check, seems OK. Bike seems OK, get back on the A3, get up to 60. Try putting it in cruise again - works fine. But bike won't switch to rain mode - the selector comes up and I can select rain mode, but then it won't switch from Dynamic Pro to Rain - it just sits there and reverts to Dynamic Pro. OTher than that though, bike seems OK. I continue riding, the rain eases off and stops - after 10 minutes or so I try to change mode again and it works. I then got home.

Bit fuxxing scary to be honest. Was a bit of a flap being stuck in the fast lane and decelerating, struggling to see in my mirrors because of all the spray & glare etc. Am getting straight on the phone to BMW Assist tomorrow morning, but wondered if anyone else had anything similar. In future if if it is pissing it down, I'm not going to start playing with my switch gear - even though you'd think BMW would have stuff that was properly waterproof. It felt like some water got in and screwed with the bike's brain, turning of the cruise - it genuinely felt like the brakes were on at one point as well.

I now have a stiff whisky in hand and am about to go and find a new pair of pants :)

I have a set of denali lights with a cansmart but the denali connectors look at least as well sealed as the BMW ones. Cansmart itself lives under the pillion seat. I’ll double check those. I have a usb power cable too but that runs straight off the battery so not connected to the Canbus…

Will still call it in to BMW Assist and see what they say.

Yikes. Glad you are ok. Definitely no fun.

The bike should not behave that way. I’ve been in major rain and not had your issues. Something is amiss… likely electronic in nature. Hopefully you can get to dealer sooner than later. If you have a gs911 or friend w one, you might see what fault code(s) the bike is throwing. It keeps a history until cleared, so you or the dealer should be able to see. Might give us a clue.

I kinda agree w Wessie, seems like water may have gotten in where it shouldn’t. But it doesn’t seem localized to any one piece - eg both sides of switch gear are acting up. Which makes me wonder if it’s a deeper seated electrical gremlin, possibly in ecu or something similar.

I had my ECU in my 1999 VFR go bad after 4 years. No one believed me til I limped 300mi to dealer with 25 mpg fuel efficiency and 30% power (WOT would net a max of 65 mph) Thankfully, my extended warranty covered it once they swapped it. Though they were reluctant to do so because “we’ve never seen one go bad” and “they’re expensive.” Two seconds after they installed it, even they could hear it fixed it.

Anyway, I’m guessing your best bet to ID the problem is the dealer and they should fix it under warranty.

Zitat von OlieL im Beitrag #1

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Has anyone had any problems with their bike in heavy rain...?

... Very heavy rain and masses of surface water; however, apart from a wet crotch (need some new waterproof overtrousers!) everything was fine, traffic quite light, and I was in the outside lane at 70. I decided to put the bike in cruise control while I turned on the heated grips (the switch is in a shit position to operate while on throttle in my view) and put the bike in Rain mode (it was proper lashing it down so even though I have Dynamic Pro set to max safety mode but full power, I wanted to switch).
like the brakes were on at one point as well.

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Update - BMW Assist have so far been great, they have come and collected the bike and are taking it to my local dealership (Vines of Guildford, where I bought the bike). However I know their servicing department is buried at the moment so no idea when it will be coming back at present. I had already booked the bike in and the earliest they could do was 14 October...

It is really weird. Clearly this was rain related. I've checked all the Denali connectors and they are all firmly seated and clipped in. I've watched the GoPro footage and what I think was happening was that the cruise control failed to engage and the throttle disconnected, meaning that the bike eventually stalled. When I restarted the bike, though, the throttle came back and the bike seemed reasonably OK - apart from refusing to switch modes for about 15 minutes.

Anyway, BMW Assist say that Vines are obliged to look at my bike within a reasonable time under the terms they have with them so hopefully someone will take a look at it soon.

Has anyone bothered getting their TFT firmware updated recently..? Might ask Vines to do that while its with them, though in the past they've been resistant to the idea.

Has anyone had any problems with their bike in heavy rain...?

No, and I've ridden at speed through plenty of storms I shouldn't have.

Luck of the draw for a well sealed bike.

Zitat von wessie im Beitrag #9

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Alternatively, wait until you are on a straight bit of road and engage cruise control. Now you can operate the switch with free movement of your right hand.

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Zitat von Ray B im Beitrag #8

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Has anyone had any problems with their bike in heavy rain...?

No, and I've ridden at speed through plenty of storms I shouldn't have.

Luck of the draw for a well sealed bike.

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Scary incident but glad you are OK.
No machine is infallible.

More than once I’ve ridden in rain of biblical proportions, but the bike has never missed a beat.

I tend to NOT use cruise control in such weather.

As above, I suspect your bike is suffering from some water ingestion to the electrics if you’re losing control of the bike in wet weather.