Just about to buy R1150R but brake weirdness question?

[mkuszek]

I rode it.I like it.
I have 1 concern. When I applied the rear brake moving only at about 15 mph the whole bike seems to shift in the rear.
It kinda scared me having this response.
Is this normal because of the shaft drive?
I have had a Yamaha FJR 1300 with shaft drive and when I hit just the rear brake alone hard it did not behave like this at all.
To be clearer -
Originally I thought it had ABS but when I went to look at it it did not have ABS.
When I was test driving it I wanted to independently check both the brakes (front then rear).
The fronts work fantastic and when the rear is used only at 15 mph hard braking (but no skidding)
the rear suspension dips and it kinda feels like the rear of the bike twists right.
If I use both brakes it is not so noticeable.
I was thinking that this maybe be called "jacking" from the shaft drive and may be perfectly normal for this bike but would like to confirm before I purchase it.

[Mrmerlin]

put the bike on the center stand then go twist the rear wheel 12/6 and 3/9 see if there is play.
Also get a lug wrench on the rear wheel bolts see if they are tight.

There should not be any play,
if you find play then there are possible rear drive pivot bearings being loose or lug bolts ,
or swing arm pivot bearings,
also check the rear caliper for tight mounting bolts,
and see if the rear wheel spins freely

[mkuszek]

Thanks so much for your reply.
I just got back from the shop and I bought it!
I am so excited! I will do as you say and check it out further.
My first BMW YEA!

[manfromthestix]

+1 on the above - something's not right back there. The bike should be rock solid, not feel like you've got a flat tire or parts are about to fall off. If you bought this thing from a shop, you should have them check it out and if it needs to be fixed, the cost shouldn't be yours to bear. It could be something simple or it could be blown bearings, etc. If buying from a shop they should be selling you a bike that is safe to ride and by your description something ain't right. I don't know if a blown rear shock would make it feel that way, but then you'd feel that on acceleration and cornering too.

I've owned a number of shaft drive bikes and never once felt the rear go squirrelly under braking. On a couple of older bikes (most memorably a Suzuki GV700) I had I sometimes felt a little flexing going on back there under hard acceleration (I think the shaft/swingarm was flexing) but never on braking.

You should get this resolved before you ride too much more, seriously. I've put about 100,000 miles on between the three BMWs I've owned and they never felt like that.

Good luck, put the heat on the shop to make this right!

Doug

P.S. Congratulations on your first BMW! When I brought my first Beemer home my wife asked, very seriously, "Will I ever see you again?" I said yeah, baby, grab your helmet!

[mkuszek]

I am having them check it out and picking up the bike next week.I told them to check the torque on the rear wheel bolts also.

[LI LT Owner]

The first time I rode my R I thought I felt the same thing. Turns out, the PO had 17lbs of air in the rear tire. Pumped the beast up and it was SWEEETTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!




I'm planning on have the tank, panels and fenders painted pearl white. I saw an R on this site a few weeks back and it was this color. It just looked awesome!

Good luck with your new ride!

[manfromthestix]

Originally Posted by mkuszek

I am having them check it out and picking up the bike next week.I told them to check the torque on the rear wheel bolts also.

Is this a BMW shop you're buying from? I bought my first BMW, a used R1100RT, in Billings, Montana once upon a time and I took it to the local Japanese MC shop to have it checked out before the private seller and I consumated the deal. It was a good shop but they'd never seen a Beemer before so the check-up was of limited value. I hope the shop figures this out for you and that it's something simple! That bike should ride like it's on rails; there shouldn't be any monkey business at all under any riding conditions. Have you done a VIN check to see if it was ever wrecked and rebuilt?

Good luck, let us know how it goes and POST SOME PHOTOS of your new baby!

Doug

[def]

Possible causes;

1- Worn Paralever pivot bearings, Moderately easy fix.
2- Bad driveshaft. A new DS is pricey.
3- Bad rear tire, underinflated rear tire.
4- FD bearing(s). Could be pricey.
5- Loose fasteners, missing fasteners, broken rear subframe.
6- The bike is bent from an accident.

I would have made the deal contingent on repairing the bike before taking delivery. Hope is that the dealer will find the cause and repair it correctly.

Previous poster says check the VIN. Excellent idea.

I used to live in Sea Cliff about a block from the sound......

"Hey Andy" Hey Guber" "Andy, there's this nice car for sale over in Mount Pilot. Its a 1954 Ford Skyliner, the one with the fancy roof. The little old lady says it was her late husbands car and she must sell it now. Whaddya think Andy? Let's go over there and have a look at it."

"Well now Guber, that sounds like a nice car for a fancy boy....not a car for you". I would be careful about those little old lady type cars. You just never know......"

[mkuszek]

The dealer is a used bike dealer with limited BMW experience. But he has a senior mechanic that seems to know what he is doing and is supposed to check this out before I pick it up next week.
I don't think this bike has ever been crashed.Not a salvage title bike.
How would I check this?
Also How do I post a picture here?

[mkuszek]

Keep in mind that this bike has only 18000 miles and looks clean and runs like new.
I have sort of a background and will be getting the previous owners name this week so
I can ask him some stuff about it. But the seller to me knows this previous owner and has assured me it was babied,stored inside and meticulously maintained. I realize some dealers lie but I can usually feel that and I am not getting that feel. Also I am not easily fooled having owner a Auto Body Shop for 35 years I can usually tell if something has been wrecked or repainted or something's not right.

[manfromthestix]

The dealer should be able to look up the title history for you on some service like CarFax. With your experience I'd suspect you could recognize a rebuild. If the bike has truly been babied as stated it could be as simple as a low tire; I run mine at ~40 front and 38 rear, in that range. Put the bike on the center stand and grasp the rear wheel at 3 and 9, 12 and 6 and try to wobble it toward/away from you. If there's play in the final drive unit, bushings, bearings, etc. you can feel it and hear it, maybe that will isolate it for you.

At the bottom of the main web page there's a link to how to post photos, give that a try. You have to host the photos on a site like PhotoBucket or SmugMug, then what you post is a link. ADVrider doesn't actually host the photo, just directs the web page to the photo hosted elsewhere. There's also a link to some excellent mechanical threads at the bottom of th web page, worth looking at.

I hope this is a simple fix so you can go ride! That RT I mentioned earlier had been wrecked (hit a curb at pretty low speed) so I got it at a killer price and spent about $2500 on repairs/parts, then rode the shit out of it for another 40,000 miles before I sold it. The new onwer is doing likewise and it's never experienced any issues from the original wreck. Even loaded like a moving van that thing was rock solid:



Doug

[mkuszek]

http://s875.photobucket.com/albums/a.../BMW%20R1150r/
Here is my photos of the bike.
I just scored a Kaoko cruse control on Ebay YEA!

[def]

How much preload do you have in the rear shock? You might try playing around with that.

[LI LT Owner]

Sweet!!!

Still, I'd ask to have it checked out at a Beemer Tech just in case.

[manfromthestix]

I run mine at ~40 front and 38 rear,

OOOOPS, arse backwards! 38 front, 40 rear sorry!

That's a sweet bike.

Doug