My G-X failed at 7,000 feet in TA, northern NM so that's the problem - being north in NM! I like the idea of the vent line being impinged. Have you checked that? BTW, my failure was due to the battery suddenly failing. I doubt that can be your problem.
Sorry guys, I only just found this thread. Anyhow. Issues to date.07 Xmoto. 100 miles- front fender/mudguard failing to stop shite from hitting the radiator, Hole in Rad caused by large rock hitting it. Solution fit a CR500 front fender and CRF fork leg shields Trouble free for 9 ish thousand miles. Then rear brake calliper seizure, had to drill a hole through the back of the calliper and un-screw the seized pin with an allen key, then fill the hole with plastic metal. 20,000 miles. Cat in exhaust fell apart. Silencer replaced under warranty. 24,000 miles. Total engine failure Snapped cam chain,broken crank ,smashed water pump, smashed oil pump drive. Four bent valves,smashed piston ,damaged cylinder bore. Total write off new engine needed. Cause- One spring washer on the crank shaft over tightened and small hardened chunks of metal went in between the bottom cam chain gear and split the chain wide open. Oh and I wouldn't advise taking the engine out unless you know what your doing, because It Is not a simple one hour job. I would advise you give yourself about a day and a half. Have fun guys and galls, I hope this will be of use to someone.
I have the same bike and I appreciate your photos showing areas of the bike I have yet to see. Sorry about the dead engine. I hope BMW is taking care of the replacement.
Damn...:huh ...I thought I was hardcore on my vehicles, but CosmickJack got me looking like a puny Mo Fo!
Wow, 24000 miles on a two year old bike. I might get that on mine. At the rate I am going it will take 20 years. I guess that is only about 40 miles a day, everyday, but that still seems like a lot to me on a G650X Stock seat, you must have a tough butt.
Model: XCountry Year: 2009 ABS: No Mileage at time of issue: 4,970 Date of occurrence:Aug. 29 2009 Modifications (if any): Lots, only focusing on ones that effect the engine/electrics: Unifilter, cannisterectomy, Yuasa battery after stock died - added leads for Battery-Tender when replacing battery Description of Failure(s): repeated stalling. bike won't idle Resolution (if any): Now it gets interesting. So, today was my second dose of what seems to be frequently described through this thread. One time about 5 months ago after going to a movie and coming out of the theater, the bike wouldn't idle no matter what I tried to do, but I was only a few blocks from home, kept the revs up and rode home, next day it was like it never happened, and hadn't happened again until today, so I always assumed I was too quick on the starter button or something. But then I read all these reports and it made me wonder. Today I took the bike on a 40ish mile ride out to a race my friend was taking part in. Started and ran perfect on the way out. Started, idled and ran perfect when I had to start the bike and move from one parking spot to another about an hour later. However, an hour after that I went over to start for home, and the bike wouldn't idle after start. Looked everything over, couldn't spot anything amiss. Needed to get home for a work trip in the morning, so I drove it home another 40ish mile stint, bike ran great as long as I manually kept the RPMs above idle. At any point during the ride that I let the RPMs drop into idle range, the bike immediately killed. I stopped and grabbed some food on the way home, bike sat for 20ish minutes , when I restarted - same problem, would not idle. I continue home. So, now I'm at my garage, I have my tools, decent light, etc. I decided to mess with some things and see if I could get any hints at what the issue was. Between each of these actions, I attempted to start and let the bike idle. I popped the seat off, no indication of an issue with the vent line, seat still off tried to start - would not hold idle. I popped the fuel cap off, tried to start with the cap off - would not hold idle. Tried with the cap back on but after having the tank open - would not hold idle. I checked the vacuum cap from the cannisterectomy, seemed fine, unseated/reseated - would not hold idle. Then I tried one last thing. I hooked up my battery tender to the battery leads, and cranked it over while connected. Tada - started and idled perfectly. As far as I know I don't have any electrical issues other than the original Exide battery gave up on me after a time. My Voltage seems to run where it should when I spot check it. I had ridden 3 days to work this week, and obviously I had reasonably long rides out and back to the race. Bike cranked over without any problems the several times I had to restart when it wouldn't hold idle. I'm not sure what this means, but I hope it is a clue. Just to be clear. Consistently would not hold idle for at least 15 starts despite trying anything/everything I could think of, including a 40+ mile ride. Plug in tender, crank key within 5 seconds of plugging in the tender, and first start it idled like a champ, just like it has always done for me over the time I've had the bike. Let the bike charge until Tender told me it was on "monitor", unplugged the tender, bike idles as normal hope this helps in the overall search for what is going on with these bikes...
Does anyone have an X Country that has had no problems? This is so discouraging. I gave a fellow ADV inmate $270 to hold his 09 X Country for a month for me to buy and now I come across this thread. Maybe I should have gotten another DRZ or DR650? Had no problems with either bike.
the joy of forums... based on ADVrider forums one would think that every KTM LC4 based bike ever built has imploded and sucked the rider down into hell, that every single KLR has had the Doohickey fly off killing the bike and decapitating an innocent child standing nearby... Its the nature of the beast. I've ridden my bike hard, crashed it hard, etc - and until this seeming electrical gremlin popped up I would have been the guy answering your post with "my bike is all good"... There definitely seem to be some issues floating around on G650 bikes, catastrophic failure of the cat inside the exhaust has popped up several times. The "stalling" issue seems pretty widespread. And the battery is a problem that BMW is seemingly finally addressing. That being said the drive train on these bikes is not so far removed from older F650 bikes that are usually touted for their reliability, so hopefully they'll get this stuff sorted out and folks will be in good shape. I love my X-Co, hopefully you'll enjoy yours too if you get one... If this thread is enough to scare you off, then I'd say go get something else, no reason stressing over something that most of us have/do for fun and pleasure.
Jamboa, I hope you're not too discouraged reading these things about the G650X bikes. I originally created this as a reference for people to use in case anything came up with their bikes, as a more centralized location of issues. Any bike\car\mechanized machine is going to have issues as we all know. The small amount of people that report on here is tiny compared to the collective of people that own these machines. With that said, this should definitely not be taken as a "this happens to every G650X bike". With that said, I can say that I just did another 600+ miles this weekend on my xCountry and it did it without a hiccup. I was even averaging 60mpg I also do my best, to do my duty, to add dirt to my xCountry and obey the wide open throttle; to help my tires spin as quickly as possible; to keep my bike physically filthy; front end in air and sideways through turns. Andrew PS. Cosmickjack Just out of curiosity, was there a reason you didn't have your motor work done at the dealer under warranty? Fill us in.
To add to this my fork seals were leaking, front master cylinder was seeping and my front rotor was warped, took the bike back to the dealer for all issues... rotor replaced, fork seals replaced, replaced the top cover on the master cylinder & re-programed the EFI for the cutting off issue, all covered under waranty
The reason i did not get the work done at a BMW dealer is because I initially informed them of the problem. The bike was out of warranty by two months and the dealer could not guarantee the work would be done as a good will fix from BMW UK. So i was left with a choice of sending the bike into the dealer for them to strip down and fault find at potentially MY ! expence. (£100.00 pounds an hour labour) So if BMW UK said no (They did) then i would be paying out about £800.00 just to fault find. Luckily I did the strip down myself, and have bought another F650 SC to use as a donor bike. I don't think i will ever buy a bmw again. I'm not bitter though as they have lost a customer, I would have traded it in this year for the GS800.
My Xchallenge started stalling in the last 1000 miles or so (5800 miles currently) Douchebag's post about the dealer reprograming the EFI caught my attention. Initally - I was guessing that problem might be the battery. Any more information on the EFI upgrade? Also, how many out there needed valves adjusted at 6000 miles?
Grafspee, I can't comment on the EFI upgrade. I can say that my bike doesn't stall anymore since installing my Yuasa battery. As far as the valves go, I'll let you know in a couple weeks when I check mine. Clicked over 6k a few hundred miles ago. Andrew
10,000+ miles on an original exide battery, never a stall, no problems. Heated grips + HID high beam too. Worn out a rear sprocket, both sets of brake pads (damn those cut-up rotors!) Eats rear tires for lunch. I'm running a modified airbox lid, the TT foam filter, and a stock exhaust. Checked my valves @ 7650 miles - spot on spec. My bike has been flawless, IMO. - and all the maintenance is done at home, has not been back to the dealer, ever. Going on another 1000+ mile trip this weekend coming, stay tuned. I love this bike!
Now you've done it! I wasn't worried either when I was at the dealer for my first service and they told me I would have to come back in a few days for the Yuasa. I hadn't had any problems - what's a couple days??? Until the bike left me stranded in the middle of nowhere on the way home from the dealer. I'm glad your battery has been good, but clearly there is a bad batch of Exides out there. But that can happen to any bike. I'm happy it is an easy, known fix. I'll feel better when the whole stalling issue gets sorted out as well, but that may just be the battery as well. If that's the case, 80% of the failures are cured with a new battery I'm still thrilled with the bike.
Thanks for the reply Andrew, I just went through and did an oil change, new TT airfilter, and pulled the airbox to check the valve. However after twisting and pulling on the sparkplug boot/coil with little effect - I got alittle nervous about damaging them. So I put everything back together and went for a ride. I haven't decided if I will dig back into it or have the dealer check them. When the post was made about an EFI upgrade I thought running it in to dealer might be worth it.
CS? That's interesting. Are the motors totally identical in mounting points? Originally I assumed that they would be, but some recent reading suggested that the cases were new castings for weight reduction. I'll be very interested to see how your transplant goes. FWIW I reckon that the slightly lower state of tune of the F650s makes them a sweeter engine, and certainly a more reliable engine, if indeed there is anything inherently wrong with the G650s.