| Author | Message | ||
     Pariah |
Hi Everyone, If you have read some of my previous posts, you know that I have been having an apparent low-RPM stalling issue. I'd experience it when blipping the throttle, or, at times, at steady low RPM operation. My dealer wasn't too helpful here, and I think it's because all the test rides were done primarily at high RPMs and/or the test riders aren't throttle blippers (like many of you, apparently!). I believe that the issue is resolved now, and I wanted to post, in case others find it helpful. Quite simply, the solution is: charge your battery!! Actually, the Owner's Manual (troubleshooting section) states that engine misfiring can sometimes be caused by a nearly discharged battery. I can only assume that a battery that's nearly gone demands too much charging current from the alternator, and perhaps this results in insufficient voltage needed to generate a good spark for combustion (maybe made worse by low engine RPMs where the alternator spins more slowly?)? I dunno, I'm just an electrical engineer... At any rate, I got myself a Battery Manager III from Griot's Garage and used it to fully charge my battery. The battery manager is capable of about 4A peak charging current, but it took a good six hours to re-energize the 1125R battery. Before charging, the starter could not get the engine going. A test ride today confirmed things: no stalling, in fact, my Buell seems like a whole new machine... I can blip at will, run in first gear at low RPMs with the clutch fully engaged, and no stalling. I'm a happy neophyte!! So, if you are having some stalling issues, my recommendation would be to get a decent charger and condition your battery. How did my battery get low in the first place? I can only assume a long storage time by the dealer (my bike was mfg. in Dec '07 and I bought it mid-Feb. '08), and I haven't taken it out for longer than about an hour at a time, and infrequently at that. Hope somebody finds this useful. Best, Takis (Message edited by pariah on March 23, 2008) | ||
| Ratbuell |
That is a great piece of information, thank you for posting it. Many folks had assumed that "break-in" miles were the cure...but as you ride, you are charging the battery...and exorcising the Stall Bug  | ||
| Midknyte |
ECM's do not like a low battery. Gone are the days of a carb'd bike that only needs enough juice to get it cranked over... Get a battery tender and you'll have a very happy bike. | ||
| Hammer71 |
What discharged the battery in the first place? | ||
| Thurstonbuell |
Didn't know if I was going to post this or not......or if it should it go in "charging" discussion ? But....I stopped by to visit my bike after 2 weeks of bad weather , when I got there , before I even had a chance to turn on the lights , I could see the instrument panel was lit up ???? I had been using "ask" mode , when I last rode and put her away , I watched as the ask mode time elapsed and the instrument panel shut down. I'm not sure why this feature was on after being left locked up for 2 week's ??? Luckly it's been on a tender , but I'm not using "ask" mode any more..... | ||
| Pariah |
Hi, Let me state for the record that my 1125R has fewer than 200 miles on it (i.e., it's well within the break-in period), and I have an aftermarket feature that drains the battery even when the engine is shut off (not at liberty to give details). So, tendering my battery is quite crucial. I can't state how happy I am with my Buell at this point. It's literally totally "smoothed out"... I'm even thinking of getting rid of my starter bike, as I'm finding the 1125R just as predictable and docile as my DR-Z400SM at lower engine speeds. Best, Takis | ||
| Spectrum |
The 1125R is very friendly and manageable under 5000K. North of that she's a screaming beast.  | ||
| Ccryder |
Bryan: That's a fairly accurate statement. I get a kick out of digital speedo that can't keep up with the acceleration. The speedo shows 60, 61, 62, 70, 80, 90, 95 and finally at 95+ the speedo begins to catch up and read the individual numbers. It's those small things that entertain me ;+} Neil S. | ||
| Doerman |
You've noticed that to eh, Neil? Entertains me too.  . I've owned mine for 3 months and I am reminded and amazed every time I get on it how amazing this bike is. Thanks Takis, for stating that a properly charged battery is paramount to a smoothly operating 1125R. It is so true! I suspect there are isolated cases where 1125Rs have left the dealerships not fully charged perhaps contributing to owner issue. Which in turn fuels a lot of discussion and confusion here. | ||
| Towjam |
I suspect there are isolated cases where 1125Rs have left the dealerships not fully charged... I'm betting that most bikes go from crate to crotch without ever seeing a battery tender and long term battery life may suffer as a result. As far as I know though, BMW is one of the few manufacturers that actually has charging the battery as one of the PDI steps. | ||
| Blake |
Thanks so much Takis for taking time to share your experience and findings. Engineers rule! Especially Texas Engineers! ![: ]](http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/clipart/proud.gif) | ||
| Bob_thompson |
As far as engineers go we should give thanks to Deltran and others who have given us battery tenders. It is the number one solution for many problems with many different RV vehicals that are used from once a week to just several times a year. Riding my bikes usually just once a week I find it of no inconvenience to leave it on a tender and unplug just before my ride. It takes all of 2 minutes and great peace of mind to at least start out with a topped off battery. Not all the solutions for other problems but a really good start. Pardon the pun. Ride safe sparky. Bob | ||
| Fresnobuell |
What discharged the battery in the first place? Thank you. IMO a Battery Tender should NOT be a mandatory part of 1125r equipment. Are we missing the issue here? Should we have to worry about if the battery is charged or not? Now the stalling issue is being tied to the battery state of charge. Why doesn't Buell fix the problem rather than having us guess at, then attempt to address the symptoms? This stalling issue hits home as yesterday or the day before I was put in a scary situation--the bike cutout momentarily as I was bringing the bike up from a substantial lean. It seems to happen occasionally under aggressive throttle in 3rd gear at about 4K RPM. Not fun when it happens. | ||
| Brad1445 |
I was afraid to say it, but it does not sound like a solved problem to me either. You just found the root cause. That is the problem. | ||
| Blake |
Y'all no read good.
| ||
| Xnoahx |
Its only a problem if it keeps happening with regular riding and no tender. | ||
| Ccryder |
Blake: Yep, time to sweat the details and read carefully. My question is........ what could be so secret that his liberty is detailed. Want to bet a 6 pack I know what it is????? Time2Ride my 1125r, home................. Neil S. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Its only a problem if it keeps happening with regular riding and no tender I couldn't disagree more. Please define regular riding and as I posted earlier...a tender should not be standard operating equipment. all these secrets and hidden details are getting old. Time for Buell to step up and get the afflicted bikes fixed before someone gets hurt with the bike stalling at the wrong time. This goes beyond inconvenience with just a dead battery. | ||
| Spectrum |
Well if this doesn't come out of the shadows soon, eventually somebody will shine a great big ugly spot light on it for all the world to see. | ||
| Roadrash1 |
Hmmm, I've used tenders for Winter storage. But the idea of needing to use one on a new, modern bike, as standard procedure seems nuts to me. I know you guys all love your 1125R's, and that great. But, I wouldn't be happy with one at this point, if there was all this extra stuff to do. It's a new bike. I've had a bunch of new bikes, and I never needed to tend the battery, even while just riding a little at a time. I had good Japanese sportbikes that I ran for years on the same battery, and NEVER had a tender! This still seems like a problem to me. -roadrash1 | ||
| Fresnobuell |
My dealer suggested writing a concise email capturing the electrical issues. He was going to forward this with my VIN to BMC for the record. I don't know if it was an effort in futility, but I figure it certainly can't hurt. My issues: 1) dead battery, 2) stalling at speed & 3) stalling coming to a stop--with 2 & 3 usually popping up around the same time. Oh and i do love this bike 99% of the time...for the record. The trouble-free riding has greatly outweighed the issues I have experienced. However, the fact remains that there are issues that need to be solved. | ||
| Xnoahx |
For clarification, regular riding being at least once a week, and not being on a tender at all. If there are still problems, then the charging system might not be up to the task or the batt is too small} | ||
| Brad1445 |
Blake Posted on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 - 04:37 pm: Y'all no read good. Ow  | ||
| Hammer71 |
Blake, Read just fine. 1st post said nothing of a mod that drains all the time. Even still others have same issue without power sucking mods. | ||
| Zac4mac |
Takis just doesn't want to say he has an alarm system on his bike. Like there's a gang of motorcycle thieves in backwoods College Station. It's not like you're in Houston, Takis. Loretta hasn't been on a Tender in 3 weeks now. Starts fine every time, long rides or short. I may pack the Tender on my trip to Texas if I have room. Otherwise I just roll the dice. Life is good. Z | ||
| Blake |
Neil, Me no read good, not follow. Please splain? | ||
| Pariah |
As usual Zack is ultra-perceptive. Well, he's an Aggie, and we wouldn't expect anything less. Don't think I need a security system in Aggieland? It's like Andy Grove says, "only the paranoid survive" and I intend to exploit my paranoia to its fullest (especially when it comes to safe street riding). After I dropped Naomi (my 1125R), I was pretty scared to ride her (what with y'all tellin' me I was a goner in no time!), so she sat for over a week while I rode the crap out of my 400cc Suzuki, Felix. BTW, Zack, Loretta is a sexy name! All the while, the security system (that shall remain nameless) was draining the battery. I want to point out that my security system clearly states in the instructions that battery tendering may be needed if the bike is not ridden often enough. So I don't think Buell is to blame here. I think if you don't have my security system, your battery discharge rates "at rest" will be much lower than what I experience. If you're only riding your bike once a week, I think you should expect to use battery conditioning no matter what... The accelerated discharging of my battery forced me to charge it, and my stalling problems vanished. T. (Message edited by Pariah on March 25, 2008) (Message edited by Pariah on March 25, 2008) | ||
| Midknyte |
Regular riding is not simply going out for a ride once a week and thinking that is enough to charge the battery. That ride will have to be at speed (i.e. not idling) and around half an hour to recharge the battery lost to startup alone. | ||
| Ccryder |
Blake: You and I have seen it too many times. Tribal knowledge is all powerful and cures everything. Some 1125r's have some issues. These issues get clouded when hap-hazard shotgun solutions are utilized to try and fix the issue. When we have an issue at work we try and determine the root cause (ain't always easy). If you can't narrow down what is the cause, well you might as well get the shotgun out and start blasting away (does this sound familiar?). What has been done up until know by some owners is take the shotgun out and blast hoping to blow away the issue. What the Buell Techs have tried to do is isolate the issues to find the root cause (sweating the details). The emotion has to be removed from the equation and just the facts reviewed. A short example (I hope): I added some lights to my 1125r. When I was done and ready to sit back and glow in my accomplishment, the 1125r would not start, headlights acted real strange, relays, brake lights all acted funny. Time to panic!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well after checking every fuse, swapping anything I could and even disconnecting my farkels, no luck. What did I do? I sat back relaxed tried to understand what I could have done to cause this anomaly. After a fitful night's sleep, I was able to distance myself from the problem and see the whole picture (actually when I woke up it dawned on me that this problem sure seemed like a grounding issue). That's when I utilized my resources to find out if there was more than one ground wire on the battery. Of course there was and that was the root cause of my problem. Not the farkels I had added but, just not paying attention to what I had innocently done when disconnecting the battery! The extra ground wire had dropped down where the tool pouch sat. What I replaced the tool pouch, before hooking up the battery, I had covered up the extra ground wire. All too often sweating the small stuff gets you out of trouble quicker than sweating the big stuff. I panicked when the bike didn't act as I expected. Instead of relaxing and reviewing the steps I had done to get to this "condition", I started trying to trouble shoot almost everything else. Another lesson learned, again. That's my story and, I'm stuck to it. Neil | ||
| Zac4mac |
Sorry to "blow your cover" Takis. "Tribal knowledge" was threatening to boil over again... I think there is something to the battery draining and the "security features". Fortunately, I'm in a fairly safe place. I've gone into The Mall for a half hour and come out to find my keys still in the switch. I don't use the "security features" and , coincidentally, don't have any electrical issues. hmmmmmm More tribal knowledge... or not. Z |
