Friday Erwin TN Ride

[Broz]

Bob, Tom, Lee, Jeff and I had a beautiful day and for most part excellent road conditions. We did have to wait a while for the dogs though. Jeff and Lee definitely have the law out looking for them after the pace they set down 80 & 226A. At one point on 80 I said to myself "man, if you were to fuck up here it's a long way down w nothing to stop you." For that matter there were a bunch of places that would apply.

As luck would have it after 350 miles and 300 yards from driveway I start my turn into the neighborhood. Like I had several hundred times early that day I downshifted from 3rd to second as I'm leaning the bike over and the next thing I hear the rear tire skidding and next thing I know I hear the crash bars sliding on the pavement. It seemed like a pretty gentle get off except for wrenching my knee. I had the bike back up in a few seconds and drove the last yards asking myself WTF just happened.

I am not blasting this shit all over the public forums yet but as it turns out there are a handful of similar incidents of this and of course the first thing everyone chimes in w is some BS like rider error or side stand switch. Let me just say I hope I can get some resolution but right now I don't have much confidence in this bike especially after the BS I went thru on the parasitic drain this past summer. FUCK!

[Broz]

I should clarify I am pretty certain I was downshifting just using the gear shift assist. I don't think I pulled the clutch in.
For those that don't have it it has been seamless up to this point.

[LeeDavis]

Yeah, I'd be spooked about the shift assist. We're dangerous enough to ourselves...we don't need any assistance.

[007]

If the gear shift assist on the R is anything like the S1000RR, it won't allow a clutchless downshift if you have the throttle cracked at all, which is to prevent over-rev of the engine and leads to risk of a high-side, but "gentle" or locked up rear doesn't really describe a high side unless you started a high side and reflexively grabbed the brake, which I doubt you did considering your experience. With all of the electronics problems you have had, I would look there. Do you know if the engine cut out while upright? Did you check the pavement for fluid? It might have caused the wheel to lock up even if you barely touched the rear brake. Invisible fluid on the Dragon is what got my K bike, although I lost the front. I went from a lazy corner to sliding along the ground and into a ravine in a heartbeat. That accident taught me that crap happens at any speed doing anything.

Lee is a demon on his FJ. I'm impressed the roads were clean because the Country store posted the Snake is still covered with salt.

[Brick]

Bros sorry to hear of your get off!


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[Ed]

Bros sorry to hear of your get off!

Ditto, sorry to hear about the tumble.

I'm not technology-averse by any stretch, and do have a powershifter on the Bandit for fun (pushbutton, full-throttle upshift)... but wouldn't find great value in it as a downshift aid, unless there's a back-torque limiter in the driveline as well. What's the intended benefit?

[Bob]

Bros sorry to hear of your get off!

Ditto, sorry to hear about the tumble.

I'm not technology-averse by any stretch, and do have a powershifter on the Bandit for fun (pushbutton, full-throttle upshift)... but wouldn't find great value in it as a downshift aid, unless there's a back-torque limiter in the driveline as well. What's the intended benefit?

The bike has a back-torque-limiting clutch plus the ECU blips the throttle on downshift when using the quick-shift to prevent wheel spin, so its designed to do what he was doing. That being said, the issue thats out there is the motor (rarely) dying on decel at lower speeds while downshifting but thats using the clutch. I cant see how it would die using the quick shift as the rpms never really drop as they do when you pull the clutch in.

[Broz]

The road surface appeared clean on examination. Here is a pic of skid marks.

11' long skid prior to crash bar marks.

IMG_6432.JPG (131.72 KiB) Viewed 13208 times

[HaulinAshe]

Being completely unfamiliar with the BMW Gear Shift Assist Pro, I YouTubed and read a few pages too. It wouldn't take much of a software (or hardware) glitch to totally screw up that sequence and produce disaster.

Looks like Hall-Effect position sensing (or sealed optical) unit gets added to the shift shaft, with the entire sequence being triggered by initial movement of the shifter linkage. It's commonly mentioned that any "half-hearted" attempt to shift or downshift can lead to a false neutral and/or incomplete shifting sequence. That's a major variation from something like the Yamaha YCC-S which completely overtakes any manual sequencing.

Like Lee, I'm getting a queasy feeling in my stomach. I'll take the clutch.

Definitely very sorry to hear of your get-off, especially one that sounds so technologically induced!!!

[Bob]

Not sure what you read or who produced it, but it really works smoothly, never had an "incomplete" shift. It's a real hoot to use in riding the twisties, like Old 18 or Double Island. That being said, anything mechanical/electrical can break. I am not convinced the GSAP was at fault in this instance. But anything is possible.

And just to be clear, the GSAP doesn't actually "shift" the transmission, it only interrupts the FI momentarily to allow clutchless shifting without strain on the cogs.