Engine Braking.

[tapper54]

Hi All, Had my R 1100 S (2003) about 3 weeks now,and i love it,but it seems a bit jerky at times,when i change from 1st to 2nd gear the engine braking seems a little harsh(almost chucking me over the bars)is it me,do i need to be quicker on the throttle,or is this normal for one of these ?having said that it does seem to be first thing in the morning when cold,do they take a bit of warming up ?.

[Hayden]

The engine braking should not be noticable to that extent..

Before you go out next time, spin the rear wheel and check the caliper is not binding/sticking on overnight?...or simply do a couple of miles and see if it gets dead hot!...

[Dog Tyred]

There speaks the voice of experience

[Hayden]

There speaks the voice of experience

oh yes.....

[Mike B]

It would depend on what you have ridden before!

mine felt like that to me when I first rode it. engine breaking felt fierce.

you get use to it, you begin to ride it differently to other bikes, in short, you adapt lol

Try rolling off the throttle rather than just shutting off, which they dont seem to like. It's a big twin.

The gearbox takes a while to warm up, due to it running in separate oil from the engine. Usually a lot smoother gearchanging after about 15 mins

[tanneman]

Keep the weight off your wrists. The riding position is relaxed enough to adapt a proper posture on the bike (unlike the rice rockets). You do need a bit of core strength to support your upper body and anker your self by squeezing the tank with your thighs. A light pressure is all that is needed but you will squeeze harder to keep position on the bike when braking. This will allow your upper body to be able to move easily from side to side and keep the weight off the handle bars. You will then be able to make accurate throttle adjustments and keep the arms relaxed.

Because of the torque reaction of the motor it is more difficult to ride the bike smoothly on the road. You are experiencing this in the lower gears because acceleration (positive and negative) is more pronounced. Fueling may play a part in it but it is mostly down to throttle control. Get the clutch and throttle action smoothed out and you will be ok. Rapid downshifts from speed needs a bit more care with letting the clutch out, you just need to feather it a bit to slip the clutch while a sneaky bit of throttle to match the engine speed to output shaft is applied before rolling the throttle shut. The motor is flexible enough that once you are up to speed only the top 2 or 3 gears are needed.

I'm not trying to teach you to suck eggs. Most people on this forum has many more years riding experience than me. You probably are doing the above subconsciously but concentrating on what you do will get you to smooth out the ride. The only way is to put the miles on the bike and you'll be ok. Enjoy it.

[oyster]

I agree with Mike and tanneman; significantly, it depends what you are used to riding. I started on British singles, went through the jap fours and for my final bike, this one, fancied one that gave the feel of a single. The boxer feels like a balanced 1100 single, quite different to a short stroke four and unlike a v twin. I suspect you need to alter your throttle action, learn to use the engine as a brake, it is very effective, and very fierce if you change down too early.

[Nookiebear]

As this is my first BMW let alone my first boxer twin, I found the side to side swaying when at standstill when blipping the throttle very disconcerting to start with. I also found releasing the clutch lever too quickly made the rear wheel squirm as the shaft has to adapt to the power surge. But after a few rides and not being so quick releasing the clutch the bike began to respond a lot better.
My point is I had to slightly adapt my riding style to what I was used to with a 4 cylinder chain driven bike.
You will adapt very quickly and love riding the torque the bike produces...it has very specific characteristics and I now love these quirks and you will to.

[ned1]

This is what I wrote when I first had my old boxer....................

The big old boxer engine is something else, blips to one side, have to have the revs up when pulling away or it will stall (old bike 1200cc four)
put the gas on at low revs and it pules as the big old pots fire, give it gas in the at the wrong revs and it will vibrate like hell, charge down a
gear when riding slow and the back seem to skew to one side etc.
It will take a bit of getting use to, but when you do the old rice rockets will have a problem with you round the back roads.

Ned

ps
wish I could have kept mine

[nab 301]

Hi All, Had my R 1100 S (2003) about 3 weeks now,and i love it,but it seems a bit jerky at times,when i change from 1st to 2nd gear the engine braking seems a little harsh(almost chucking me over the bars)?

I'd go with the binding brakes theory , I can't for the life of me see how you would incur engine braking when changing up ... your clutch /throttle operation would have to be way off.

[HerrFlick]

Hi All, Had my R 1100 S (2003) about 3 weeks now,and i love it,but it seems a bit jerky at times,when i change from 1st to 2nd gear the engine braking seems a little harsh(almost chucking me over the bars)is it me,do i need to be quicker on the throttle,or is this normal for one of these ?having said that it does seem to be first thing in the morning when cold,do they take a bit of warming up ?.

Hi Tapper.

I bought my 'S' mid last year and had all of those issues. (The seat shape didn't help on downhills either).

I crawled through every forum I could find and found a number of useful adjustment procedures which helped, but it just didn't seem to be the "bike I thought I'd bought".

Then I followed up on a riding mate's suggestion to look into fitting GS intake tubes for more mid-range torque. I saw the dyno numbers for these fitted to an RT and got straight into it.

The engine came to life and all issues you mentioned (plus others you will find as you keep riding) disappeared.

The engine is a delight and the entire machine feel like the one "I thought I'd bought". Mike B. has also got good words re this change.

Before you spend any money on any fancy parts (except a good carb synch and balance (Google the Zero-to-Zero method) and Lennies sprockets), fit the GS tubes.

I've detailed the procedure in my thread earlier this year.

Now you'll hear lots of mbmemblewheelbarrowmumbojumbo from THE UNBELIEVERS (who have never tried the mod) but for 20 quids worth of GS tubes and an hour's work you won't know the bike. Lennie's gear just builds on this.


Cheers

John C. (HerrFlick).


.

[Bikerhoss]

+1 on the sticky brake caliper theory.
Having come from a Buell to the BMW, with the HD lump having even more engine braking (IMO), there is no way there's enough force to lift you out your seat.

John, I tried googling your zero-to-zero method, and by page 9 of the results I still couldn't see anything about motorcycles? Any tips would be handy, I'm well overdue balancing my intakes.

[Mike B]

Are we talking "engine braking" or "brake braking" two totally different things.

[HerrFlick]

[quote="Bikerhoss

John, I tried googling your zero-to-zero method, and by page 9 of the results I still couldn't see anything about motorcycles? Any tips would be handy, I'm well overdue balancing my intakes.[/quote]



Gee I'm sure everyone remembers me typing Zero=Zero ... koff koff blush cringe ...


A recent computer technician failure lost all my links, but here are some:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/bmw-r110 ... stion.html
http://www.ibmwr.org/r-tech/oilheads/t-screw.shtml
http://www.ibmwr.org/r-tech/oilheads/zero528.shtml
http://www.ibmwr.org/r-tech/oilheads/zero528.shtml
http://www.ibmwr.org/r-tech/oilheads/index.shtml

There's a deal of un-said stuff in these, so I'll be posting details of my own, probably tomorrow.

Among other things, you don't have to buy expensive vacuum balance gauges or a mercury manometer. I made a water manometer (person-ometer?) that works nicely.


In these links there are references to surging and rough running.

This was before the days of the ... ta-daaaaa ... GS Intake tube fitting ... which fixes all that stuff and more.


Anyway, before you begin anything, do this:

(1) adjust tappet clearances. I use 8 and 12 thou. (Hot over here).

(2) air leak check: my RH TB inner butterfly-spindle bush was worn (common over 25k mi). It can be slightly moved fore-aft if worn. Cure: a spindle/bush kit from a chap, Cata Dan, in Romania. (Some places sell an anti-click fix for worn spindle bushings. It quietens the click but doesn't replace worn leaking bushes).

(3) more air leaks: around the TB to head rubber manifold. (use the oil drops while idling method).

Unless you've fixed these items you can forget about going any further. Sorry.


More in near future.

Cheers

John C.

.

[Al]

These bikes are very different to ride from jap fours, before you get sucked into all the mod`s/upgrades etc get the wheels off the ground and check the brakes/wheels for binding etc, and maybe the clutch if bike has been sitting for a while? if all is well just get time on the bike and get to know its characteristics and quirks. I don`t ride too much in the winter and am like a novice and very jerky when I first get on the thing especially with a pillion, and having another bike with jap controls doesn`t help much either in my case,
If the bike is ok mechanically, and you can adapt your riding style you will get used to it and enjoy it.

Al.