K1200S

[Ian Jay]

Where men are men, and the sheep are nervous.   

They make a very pleasant pint of 6X in Devizes, I will give you that ...

Hey!!!! Less of the mickey taking about Wiltshire.  One of the finest counties in the UK. Ten times as many people work here than live here so it's given them a decent living. A veritable industrial powerhouse with a small p.

[richtea]

Hey!!!! Less of the mickey taking about Wiltshire.  One of the finest counties in the UK. Ten times as many people work here than live here so it's given them a decent living. A veritable industrial powerhouse with a small p.

Hmmm. Here are the Wiltshire population and census figures:
- 293k empoyable peeps
- 248k in employment

That's 84% employed, compared to the UK in general at 78%.

So higher than average, but not 10 times. Maybe you meant 10%?

Source:
http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1946157357/printable.aspx

Those figs don't allow for 'migration' across county borders, but I'm assuming Wiltshire people working outside Wiltshire and non-Wiltshire foreigners coming in will roughly balance. Big employment hot spots like Swindon (inside) and Bristol (outside) might cause some imbalance.

Mr Pedantic-Logic signing off. Snow is now melting, so I'll be able to get out soon, and get a life...

[Phmode]

For three years in the late '60's I thought Wiltshire was God's country. Cold war era so no nasty postings to worry about, weekends off (because no one starts a war at the weekend) to drink the Wadworth brewery to a standstill and more lonely wives on the married patch than us singlies could handle 

Made the BIG mistake of marrying a sweet young thing from Calne about which I concur immensely although Harris's pie factory did keep me in part-time beer money until I got a better part-time job making carburretors for trees for a local outfit 

Those were the days before the madness of the Irish troubles crept over the seas when anyone could come and go through the main gate or even the footpath past the church to the village. Happy days indeed.

Swindon is still an arse of a town but it has just about the lowest unemployment figures in the country and it is really weird how life takes you round in circles. Left Lyneham in '70, left the sweet young thing in '75, left the mob in '78 and ended up back in the old stomping ground living in a cottage on the edge of the Plain with pongo's tanks rattling past the kitchen windows at all hours of the night. They kindly brought my cattle collie back in a landrover after she jumped on a tank and was last heard barking her head off as it clattered over the main road and disappeared in a hole full of mud. They had even washed and fed her 

[fjtwelve]

So got back from the flatlands this weekend with severe k withdrawal symptoms. My plan to take advantage of the dry weather on Saturday was interrupted by a flat battery, which is a first. Never been let down before. Borrowed the sons jump leads as mine have mysteriously disappeared and the wife hairdressing car and got started. Many strange things on the dash . Went for a jaunt up to indian queens to see what there was to see in damarells and came back clutching a tin of liquid gold. Otherwise known as acf 50 but the price they charge they must be adding gold to it. Anyway, couldn't turn ignition off so battery went flat again overnight. Dash was showing an ESA fault message, and very briefly a service code 11-18 whatever than means.  So its back in at ocean for them to have a farkle this week. Where the ignition did turn off. Think either the ignition key barrel is knacked or they've trapped the esa wires when they put it back together at the last service.

[sudolea]

Low battery and failing ESA makes me think ...

I once had been charging my battery. As I don't have a typical BMW charger, and as I am reluctant of charging the battery while it remains connected to the bike, I always disconnect the (plus pole of the) battery. Now after the battery was fully charged, I hadn't reconnected the battery to the bike right away, but only after a couple of months (it was the first winter I didn't use it any longer for going to work).

When I then reconnected the battery to the bike after that long time, my ESA didn't work any more. It looked as if my ESA switch button was broken : pressing it resulted in no ESA reaction whatsoever. The dealer saw it, didn't look very carefully at the diagnostics, made the shortcut-assumption that it was the button : "they use to break quite often in these models, I'll order one, you won't have to pay anything because that's a flaw of this bike, I'll put it under warranty".

Some days later, after the piece had arrived, the switch was replaced, the bike was started ... just to show the same behaviour. The dealer starts looking at the diagnostics more carefully now, and sees that the ESA had lost its calibration point (or whatever it was called). So he runs the job to recalibrate the ESA ... and there the ESA was working as expected again !

Now to make this long story short : if the battery has been flat enough, or flat for enough a time, I would certainly not exclude the possibility that the ESA has "just" lost its calibration point.

[Phmode]

Every day's a schoolday. Never heard of such a thing before.

I mean, of flat batteries, I am the king, but recalibrating the ESA? Who knew?

[sudolea]

Every day's a schoolday. Never heard of such a thing before.

I mean, of flat batteries, I am the king, but recalibrating the ESA? Who knew?

I won't say that has been the 100% sure cause. But I made it from it, as nothing before had been wrong, and disconnecting the battery (for an uncommonly long time) was the only thing I had done. Apart from the ESA recalibration (and of course also, but without effect, changing the switch), nothing else had happened to repair the bike. Hence ...

[fjtwelve]

Ok they are on the ball with that. New ignition switch on the way....

[fjtwelve]

New ignition switch fitted, ESA (rear) re-calibrated, Triggers Broom is all back to normal
Except the warped front brake disc
Never has so much money been spent and so few miles covered
Did manage about 40 miles yesterday before it variously tried to snow and rain on me. To think I moved South because I thought there was more sunshine

[sudolea]

New ignition switch fitted, ESA (rear) re-calibrated, Triggers Broom is all back to normal
...

I would be happy for you if only I wouldn't suspect the switch change has been unnecessary ... in my case the switch change was unnecessary (as a new switch had shown no improvement whatsoever). I was just a little more lucky : I hadn't had to pay for it, as the "broken" switch had been considered as a warranty case...

[fjtwelve]

My left hand switchgear was replaced last year (twice) and there is no problem with the EMAIL button. It's my ignition key switch that has been replaced. As it's been getting increasingly notchy and reluctant to engage the steering lock I'm not too unhappy.

[Phmode]

Why haven't I got an EMAIL switch? That would be just so convenient 

[fjtwelve]

Feckin auto correct 

[Phmode]

 

...but, you have to admit 

[fjtwelve]

And now I have the 7000rpm tickover problem. What causes that again? Apart from standing for most of the last 6 weeks