Should I call you Stally?
[ Monday - August 29, 2016 ]
I noticed something today as the bike is started for the commute
into work. The monster is no longer hesitating on start.
I remember experiencing difficulty starting the engine prior to the
air filter change. The starter would crank but the engine
barely wants to fire. I thought the battery was on its last
leg. I charged the battery over night but the same difficulty
still persisted. Now with the new filter in place, no
problems. It fires right up without hesitation.
I'm pretty sure it's the air filter causing all this commotion.
I like simple fixes...
[ Saturday - August 27, 2016 ]
So lately, the monster of a R12GSW hasn't been so much of a
monster. In fact, I was about ready to name my 2013 R12GSW ...
"Stally" because the bike keeps on stalling on me. At a light,
in the middle of a turn. Not to mention an uncountable number
of other instances. Most notable are the stalls at a light
when there are no hills. It's getting a bit frustrating.
I compensate by throttle but most of the time I end up popping a
wheelie or cause the bike to buck like a bronco. It's starting
to get a bit frustrating. One of my colleagues at work, that
also owns a 2013 12GSW, mentioned that he keeps stalling his bike
also. I didn't give it much thought at the time but now I'm
experiencing it for myself.
I thought about trading in the bike for a more recent year
model. I thought about turning the screw on the throttle to
set the idle a little higher. So on an so forth. Of
course I would think of the more difficult solutions first.
That is until I looked a little closer at my odometer. Hey...
look at that. I'm almost at 28K miles. The last time I
did the service was at 24K. Unlike other owners out there, I
like a peppy bike (even though I don't race the GSW). So I
normally change out air filters every 3K miles. Ah!!....
nothing like the feel of a brand new air filter on a bike.
Acceleration is effortless not to mention better gas mileage.
Oh wait!!! What's this? The GSW is not stalling any
more. Hoh!!! Look at that! It appears there is a
correlation between a dirty air filter and the bike stalling.
Perhaps the smaller flywheel on the 2013 12GSW makes the engine need
more air flow to keep things running nominally. Sure enough,
the bike didn't even stall once after I swapped out the air filter
and rode to Brown BMW (getting another spare air filter).
So I get the sense that I'm starting to understand this machine
further. After all, it's likely the folks that built the
R1000RR is also the same folks that built the motor for the
R12GSW. Otherwise why else would you put a Dynamic mode on a
GS. It's a sport bike in disguise. If that's the case,
then it only makes sense that it likes lots of air flow. Of
course I'm completely and utterly speculating here, but the clean
air filter solution works.
It's much cheaper to swap out the air filter, when the bike starts
stalling, instead of trading in the bike for a later year model.
Written on: August 27, 2016
Last modified: August 29, 2016
