Fresh (old) meat

[iowe_iowe]

Hi All

Hope you're all as well as you can be in these "interesting times"?  Now that lockdown has hit and some of us have got some unexpected time on our hands, It seems a good opportunity to join a bike forum and test the water.  Please forgive my inevitable etiquette lapses and general newbie-ness.

Confession time - I may not have joined if my normally beautifully reliable 2006 K1200S had decided to start as it usually does after winter hibernation.

I'm a long-time biker with very little technical competence, but a passion for the freedom and exhilaration that any bike journey - on any bike - can bring.  With other bike enthusiasts, I'm a frequent visitor to the various biker cafes (on the hogsback, Dorking, Alton, and Loomeys at Four Marks), although at reduced speeds now I've got six points in quick succession to clip my wings a bit.  Europe on the bike with the missus is still a dream, perhaps soon.

I work in IT as a technical software sales consultant for a company up the M4 on the outskirts of London, which pays the bills, but get my fun by enjoying the outdoors and tinkering with DIY projects.  In the house we are two kids (now adults - but eating us out of house and home currently), and my wife Jenny, an NHS nurse and long-suffering partner. Also a really annoying cat, Jambo D'jango Bojangles.

Online pub quizzes are getting a tiny bit boring now, so looking forward to learning more about the bike and all things bike-related.

Cheers!
Hope the picture upload works - here goes:






Matt: Fixed images for you. Almost there, just needed tags for each, and linking to the jpg as opposed to the webpage .

[Matt]

Welcome! Sorry I know your wifes name but I don't think you mentioned yours! But i'm also half blind, also working in IT and also not getting my fun there. Mine is a bit more out of London but still M4 land!

Lovely looking, standard looking bike

I went past Loomies yesterday, overtook some slow sausages just before the lights, because I forgot where I was. These two obviously didn't consider hanging out at Loomies along with the dozen or so other idiots I saw as any problem!  Anyway I'll save my rants for somewhere else .

[iowe_iowe]

Hi Matt
My name's Mark!  I'll put that in my profile somewhere.  I think Rae recommended to do that.  and thanks for helping with the pics.

[black-k1]

Hi Mark and welcome. That looks like a really nice condition K1200S. Has it now decided to start or are you looking for advice on what to check?

[raesewell]

Welcome in Mark, and congratulations on posting photos first time out. You wouldn't believe how many people have trouble posting photos. You have proved that my instruction were clear after all 

[iowe_iowe]

Hi Rae - thanks for the welcome. Matt did end up fixing the pictures for me (I forgot the tags). - Thanks Matt

[richtea]

Intro - tick
Photos -tick
Name - tick
Crazy cat name - tick
You're in! Well done, and welcome, Mark.

> Confession time - I may not have joined if my normally beautifully reliable 2006 K1200S had decided to start as it usually does after winter hibernation.

No problem. Everyone is here because either:
a) we love Ks, or
b) we hate Ks (the damned thing's gone wrong again)

So, what's up?
If you can describe your bike symptoms, you'll get some excellent suggestions (but not usually from me).

[TomL]

Welcome to the forum Mark.

[iowe_iowe]

Hi Mark and welcome. That looks like a really nice condition K1200S. Has it now decided to start or are you looking for advice on what to check?

Hi black-k1 and everyone who's made newbie induction so much fun.

They're great looking bikes still, aren't they.

The short answer is yes - eventually.  I pulled the bike out of it's winter home in the shed.  I reattached the battery which had been on an Optimate 4 at a neighbours the whole winter, and turned the key expecting to hear the fuel pump waking up and the dash illuminating as usual (including brake failure light due to the ABS unit, which I've come to live with and so has the MoT testing station).

This time, the LCD panel strobed on and off for about 30 seconds, then ran through a whole stream of errors and faults.  No fuel pump sound and definitely nothing from the starter motor when I tried.  My neighbour was adamant that the Optimate was reporting a good battery, fully charged, and the battery was only 8 months old in any case.

just for belt and braces, I jump started it from a car with the car engine turned off, and instantly all was well - the bike started first time, with all of the weird symptoms disappearing..

My lesson learned is to go for the best battery you can afford, so the 8 month old Enduroline ENTX14-BS is being replaced by a Motobatt MBYZ16H Quadflex AGM Bike Battery 12V 16Ah. 240 of your cold crank amps vs 160 with the Enduroline.  All through Tayna, who seem to be one of the better battery suppliers, assuming they agree to credit me for the Enduroline rather than a straight swap...

[black-k1]

Good to hear it looks like the problem has been identified and is in the process of being sorted. I'm looking forward to hearing it's back on the road!

[Matt]

Just because I want it recorded for ever, I was surprised to see that my 20 year old 3 series still has a BMW battery in the boot! I assumed by this stage of its life someone would have chosen not to give BMW inflated monies. I'll feel bad if I have to replace it after all this.

[Phmode]

Hi Mark and welcome to the madhouse that is EuroKClub!

Great introduction and nice bike.

I've never seen, nor heard anyone talk about 'the LCD panel strobed on and off for about 30 seconds, then ran through a whole stream of errors and faults'. I've had my battery off for ages before now and never seen anything like that.

Do you normally remove the battery over winter? If so, why? Removing the battery does mean that the little man who lives under the fairing and controls the K's world, starves to almost death and one side of this when the battery is reconnected is that he forgets where he left things; such as the throttle position sensor.

However, if you perform the reset routine before starting the bike, or at least with the ignition on and the engine off, then he remembers where it was and how to control.

Reset routine:

Ignition ON, engine OFF
Fully open twistgrip slowly
Slowly return twistgrip to fully closed
Repeat twice more
Ignition OFF

This lets the ECU re-learn the fully open and fully closed positions of the twistgrip compared with the fully open amd fully closed positions of the throttle butterfly plates in the throttle bodies. Or at least with the positions indicated by the Throttle Position Sensor (and they can be different)!

But I guess you knew all that.

I would highly recommend leaving the battery in the bike, fully connected and acquire your own Optimate. They are cheap enough and come up on ebay from time to time, I think I paid about £26 for my last one just last year. Don't bother with all the BMW twaddle about having to use 'their' Optimate. Just connect it straight across the battery with an Optimate fly-lead and forget about it during the skiing season.

Welcome again, Brian

[Matt]

Ack, sorry I missed the bit about the battery being disconnected, on my first read . Yeah I think Brian's 'little man' analogy is good. No need to ever leave it disconnected... I hope!

[richtea]

..Don't bother with all the BMW twaddle about having to use 'their' Optimate.

Although to be fair, the ugly BMW chargers turn up cheapish every now and then. They also work - obvs:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-Motorrad-Battery-Charger/274360807105

[Matt]

It looks like it wants to be mounted into a wall. I want to mount it into a wall.