HELP Please! 2012 GSA

I bought this bike new in May and right now it has about 7500 miles on the clock.

It was in storage for couple of months and I took it out for a spin couple days ago, it ran fine.

Today, it would not start at first but after a few tries it did. I went for a ride and after about 50 miles I stopped for a bit. And then it took a couple more tries to start... it did but it ran sluggish (like when you start a car early morning but when it warms up its good to go) and it sounded a lot more "thumper" if that makes sense.

It was dragging... I couldn't even pass any cars, bike had no power! I played with the "Info" and under "Range" I went from 280miles left to about 160 miles left in about 25 miles (all while going 40-50 mph in 4-6th gears)

Does anyone know what is going on with this bike? It is too new to have any serious issues (assumption on my part)

The closest BMW dealership is about hour and half away in Rochester NY, I plan to call them in the morning and see what they say.

Anyone else ever have any thing like this happen to their GS/GSA?

This is driving me crazy... ANY input will be highly appreciated!
Thank you very much.

And I must add:

I had my break-in service done at the BMW dealership in El Paso and then my 6000 mile service done in Omaha NE about 3 months ago.

On the display is said "SERVICE 5 - 13" it only popped up once when it started and then went away

Loose spark plug or spark plug wire?

I'm sure BMW will put it on some sort of CAN BUS diagnostic system and figger it out fer ya...

Try GSpot with more detail.

I posted in "The Garage" earlier and it was suggested that I post this over here. So here it is :


I bought this bike new in May and right now it has about 7500 miles on the clock.

It was in storage for couple of months and I took it out for a spin couple days ago, it ran fine.

Today, it would not start at first but after a few tries it did. I went for a ride and after about 50 miles I stopped for a bit. And then it took a couple more tries to start... it did but it ran sluggish (like when you start a car early morning but when it warms up its good to go) and it sounded a lot more "thumper" if that makes sense.

It was dragging... I couldn't even pass any cars, bike had no power! I played with the "Info" and under "Range" I went from 280miles left to about 160 miles left in about 25 miles (all while going 40-50 mph in 4-6th gears)

I had my break-in service done at the BMW dealership in El Paso and then my 6000 mile service done in Omaha NE about 3 months ago.

Also, on the display it said "SERVICE 5 - 13", it only popped up once when it started and then went away

Does anyone know what is going on with this bike? It is too new to have any serious issues (assumption on my part)

The closest BMW dealership is about hour and half away in Rochester NY, I plan to call them in the morning and see what they say.

Anyone else ever have any thing like this happen to their GS/GSA?

This is driving me crazy... ANY input will be highly appreciated!
Thank you very much.

Thanks.
I did re-post it in GSpot as well....

"In storage" may be a clue.Gum-up can happen quickly. Likely running on only one cylinder;
maybe inoperative injector. Sometimes the connection terminals get a bit corroded, or the
injector internals stick. If one cylinder/head pipe is colder, that's the one not running.
Easy to pull off the connector, look for corrosion. And fairly easy to
remove injector, run bike on other cylinder to see if injector squirts...

I had the same thought! Gasoline begins to degrade in as little as 30 days. Add the moisture from the evil ethanol and you have a fuel that wants to break down quickly. I 2nd the header tepmerature check. Just use a non-contact thermometer (not your hands) as they get hot quick. I would also verify all the connectors on both sides (fuel injectors, sensors, etc) in the case something got bumped loose in there. Good luck, man!

Fresh fuel required? Drain & re-fill?

Just a thought!

Thanks for the input but it might be fairly easy for someone with a garage and proper tools. All I have is a storage unit. I'm wondering how much it is going to cost me to get this fixed now. But I still can't believe that a 4 month old bike might have any of those issues (corrosion, inoperative injector etc.) all I have ever used is 93 Oct and Stabil for when it was stored.

All the connectors are solid, nothing loose there.
When it started, I took it out for a long ride.. plan was to burn through that gas and refill with fresh one.
But once I stopped, that plan back fired.
First half of the trip... it ran like a champ but everything went down hill when I started it the second time.

Now I'm curious, is it going to hurt the motor if I ride it like this about 80 miles to the dealership? Or should I find a truck and haul it there?
Thanks for your inputs!

Did you have Stabil in it this past time? If you did, I would not suspect degraded gasoline. I have left bikes for over a year with no problems by having that in the tank. That said, I would suspect something electrical; loose connection, etc. If you don't have much in the way of a home shop, unfortunately, it may be dealer visiting time.

Your 2012 GSA is obviously still well under warranty and should be also covered by BMW roadside protection. If it won't run right, I'd just call the toll free number you should have been given when you bought the bike, let them pick it up and deliver it to the dealer at no cost to you and let BMW sort this out. If you're topping out at only 50 mph it's obviously unsafe to ride on the highway.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

^^ true. Although if it is something simple on a vehicle I usually just fix it. Additionally, I am running on the assumption that the Road Side will only apply if you are X miles from home. I very well could be mistaken on that.

I talked to service department at Rochester NY dealership and they said that if I did add Stabil, that would be the reason why it is acting up. To be honest, I'm not sure if I added it or not. I know I add that stuff to my Triumph every time I go overseas...I can't recall if I added that to this one or not that morning when I left.
Thanks anyway...I guess the dealer it is tomorrow.

I would try to fix it if I had my own garage and tools (I'm on the road and no tools) ....anyway, I did call roadside and they will pick it up. They were gonna pick it up today but tomorrow morning will work out better as the dealership will close in few hours anyway.

Restricted airflow? Maybe a mouse nest in the airbox from the storage unit?

What he said about Sta- bil is interesting. I have always used it. If you think of it, ask him to elaborate as to why. I am really curious now. A quick web search found that you are not the only one told that.

My point exactly... I have been using that stuff in all my vehicles since I joined military back in 01... and have left my vehicles sitting for months at a time and usually no problems.
My poor Triumph has spent at least 3 years in storage since 07 when I bought it new in Omaha (I think there is one gas station in entire city that sells gasoline without any Ethanol in it)... not a single issue.
So I don't know what is going on with this one.

What the dealership said was that the Ethanol reacts to Stabil and gums up the injectors (of course we don't know what exactly is wrong with the bike just yet) but if that was the case, wouldn't it do that to all the vehicles ...

Sounds like a plugged fuel filter or a plug wire (maybe a coil?). Might be tough to do without a place to work on it.