1st Birthday


[August 12, 2006]

It's not exactly on the day but it definitely is the right month.  It's also amazing that the R12GS has been in my possession for a year now.  How fast time flies by.  How is Mr. Moto?  It's one awesome piece of machinery.  What did it get for it's birthday?  Recall and warranty service.  Mr. Moto who is a '05 R12GS, has been recalled because of a potential faulty ABS problem.  I had received notice of this potential problem before but it wasn't an official recall.  Unfortunately I received a letter in the mail last Wednesday about a mandatory recall of all '05-'06 R12GSs for this ABS problem.  I contacted Brown BMW in Pomona and they were able to reserve me a maintenance appointment of Saturday August 12 at 2:00pm.  Good news, no cost.  Bad news, it takes time out of my day, but it is worth it.  When I left for the dealer, I didn't know whether Mr. Moto has the ABS problem or not.  I've only had to perform a couple (e.g. 2-3) emergency breaking this entire year.  This is all to prevent myself from running a red.  For the most part, I'm very light on the breaks.  Most of the time I coast to a stop using very little breaking.  I even perform minor down shifts sometimes.  When I got to the dealer I was told there were 4 recalls on my bike.  Wow!! 4 recalls.

  1. Check the o-ring on the fuel tank
  2. Make sure the park light doesn't stay on when the bike is turned off causing a battery drain
  3. Check for potential ABS failure problem
  4. Update software for Mr. Moto

Surely enough, three of the 4 items needed doing.  Items 2, 3, and 4.  It took the mechanics 2 hours to do it all, which is a very decent amount of time.  I waited in the dealer's waiting room reading BMW ON magazines.  It turns out Mr. Moto does have the ABS problem and needed the warranty service.  It's also nice to hear that the software was updated.  Now maybe I won't get that dumb false fault when I'm grabbing the breaks to prevent myself from sliding backwards on a hilly slope before having the POST verify the ABS breaks.  In the past when the computer thinks the breaks were having problems, there's no way to clear the false fault other than restarting the bike.

This is a good gift for Mr. Moto's 1st birthday.  Next month, it's a set of Micheline Anakees and a new set of rear break pads.  Mr. Moto has 9.5K miles on it now.  I'm sure I'll break 10K by the end of this month.  Plus it's nice to have all this done before the trip to Yosemite in the middle of next month.

BTW, BMW didn't lie when they said you can get 50 miles to a gallon in their mileage documentation for the 12GS.  I proved it for myself last week and was amazed (e.g. 193miles on 3.7 gallons of 91 octane).  I think it's possible to get over 50 mpg  if you have a really light throttle hand.  However, you have to have a lot of discipline to have a really light throttle hand.  This is especially true when you have such an awesome piece of machinery below you.  Fair warning, be careful of 5-7.5K RPM.  Mr. Moto can really throw you out of your seat.  I have to hold on for dear life sometimes when I have to catch up to Russell on his R1.  No, not racing, catching.


Written on: August 12, 2006
Last Modified: August 12, 2006