Scary Incident - Glitch or Pilot Error?

I'm in Brittany at the moment and yesterday had a heart stopping moment when I nearly lost control of the bike, which is a new R1200 GS TE. I would be interested to know if anyone else has experienced anything similar. The circumstances were as follows:

I was heading to Dinard airport to pick up my wife who was joining me for a short touring holiday in Brittany as she prefers to do fly/ride than the long ride from home. Immediately after crossing a mini roundabout I went into a petrol station on the opposite side of the road. On exiting I found that left turns were not allowed and I had to go back to the island and do 360 degrees around it. Being Brittany where everything seems to be made of granite, the centres of the mini roundabouts are raised granite cobbles, so I couldn't cut across it and I saw cars struggling to get around.

Anyway I started around it and about halfway I felt the bike was falling into the turn too much and went to apply a bit of throttle to straighten it out. At that point all hell was let loose. The bike surged forward lifting the front wheel and I tried to shut the throttle, and even resorted to pulling in the clutch which caused the engine to rev even faster. At this point the bike had straightened and was heading for a six inch high granite curb at the side of the road near the exit of the island. The front wheel came down just in time for me to steer away and miss the curb.

I was running the bike in a customised Dynamic Pro which I described setting up in another thread - basically using the customisation to combine DYNA engine mode with ROAD traction control. After pulling over 50 yards up the road, still shaking from the close call I changed it back to ROAD mode and have kept it there, as I now do not trust this customisation in case it has caused some sort of glitch in the bike's systems.

I have a front and rear dashcam setup, so tonight I downloaded the files to have a look at the incident to see what if anything I had done wrong. Very strangely both the front and rear camera files containing the time when this happened were corrupted and couldn't be viewed, even though the ones immediately before and after were fine. The only other thing to note was that it was extremely hot, in the mid-thirties, and the bike had been parked outside the hotel all morning before setting off.

Now I would be the first to admit that I am not very confident with low speed sharp turns and it is possible that I opened to throttle too sharply when trying to pick the bike up, but it does seem strange that enough throttle was applied to lift the front wheel and I distinctly remember I struggled to close it down which is why I pulled the clutch. Combined with the dashcam corruptions, I wonder if there was a momentary glitch in the bike's electrical systems which might have caused this.

Any thoughts?

Fred

Dunno

Sounds weird, personally I'd sooner be in control of the bike's inputs and not rely on the technical wizardry

Are you near to any radio/radar stations ?

I recall that RAC used to have to relay vehicles couple of miles down road from fylingdales as they wouldn't start.

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JohnnyBoxer said:

Dunno

Sounds weird, personally I'd sooner be in control of the bike's inputs and not rely on the technical wizardry

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Very helpful

A glitch i think.
Motorcycles are just glorified bicycles with engines and a nagery situation like that can catch us out.
I nip along on a motorcycle but tend to be super careful on unfamiliar nagery road situations.
You are doing the right thing analysing what happened and trying to understand.
From what you write I dont think you did anything wrong, maybe a bit too much gas.
It's a testament to the handling quality of the GS that you recovered.

As your traction control was on, your bike should not lift the front wheel for more than a second or two and certainly no higher than a foot, particularly as you mention that you had the traction control set to a more sensitive setting, that is it would act sooner rather than later.

I believe you had a glitch of some kind and if I were you I would take the bike to a dealership to have it checked out. Many computer errors are save in the bike's CPU and can be read with the dealership BMW computers.

If nothing is found wrong I would try to talke to the more experienced mechanics to learn if they have or heard of any prior, similar experiences.

Please let us know what you find out !

Andre

Can't sleep, too hot.

It almost sounds like you accidentally engaged cruise control midway around the roundabout.

Faulty switch gear maybe?

If the cruise control was set at a higher speed, and it engaged as 'resume' it would accellerate hard (especially in first or second gear).

Doesn't explain revving while clutch was pulled in though.

I'm going with a case of MDP - momentarily discombobulated pilot

Enjoy your trip, it happens to us all

Arsey said:

Very helpful

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Glad you enjoyed it !

Warlord said:

If the cruise control was set at a higher speed, and it engaged as 'resume' it would accellerate hard (especially in first or second gear).

Doesn't explain revving while clutch was pulled in though.

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I agree..

Had similar, recently set cruise to fairly low speed, then exceeded set speed, then forgot cruise was set at all, downshifted at roundabout using the gear shift assist at which point bike accelerated INTO roundabout..
as I said, similar but not exactly the same..

Considering that the video file is also corrupted, seems like an electrical glitch. Have you saved the video file to try and recover it somehow later on?

What format is the video file?

Ride safe.

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patzx12 said:

It's a testament to the handling quality of the GS that you recovered.

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From the dark side this was sent

snaponphil said:

I agree..

Had similar, recently set cruise to fairly low speed, then exceeded set speed, then forgot cruise was set at all, downshifted at roundabout using the gear shift assist at which point bike accelerated INTO roundabout.. Using gear assist cancels cruise control.
as I said, similar but not exactly the same..

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You prob down shifted at too lower rev range, as the bike 'blips the throttle' it can make the bike lurch as it can't match the blip and engine speed below 4-4500 rpm. Using gear assist cancels cruise control.
To the OP are you sure the settings were correct. THe GS will produce a lot of grunt from almost nothing in the rev range this added to DYNA throttle and you get what you describe, the strange bit is the revving with the clutch in. I don't think accidental application of the cruise control would cause this as it goes by road speed, not throttle position.
Take out the pro plug thingy and leave the bike in road mode, this gives you much smoother throttle control, much better for two up and in the wet.

For the OP, would I be right in guessing you had the bike well loaded with your wife's riding and "being away" gear at the rear of the bike too? What were the preload settings at? Could that and a slight twist too far - especially when in a tight turn - lead to the scenario you described? You did well to avoid a meeting with the tarmac sir. It is amazing how quickly events can unfold and the DYNAmic pick-up on these can be sharp ... I use that when I'm out playing or looking to ensure swift progress on A roads with traffic ... and although I have experienced a lightened front on occasion, not in your scenario unless I've been over-enthusiastic (accidentally or otherwise).

If you're away for a few weeks and this is going to play on your mind, I'd get myself to a dealer and ask them to check for fault codes. That way you can put your mind at rest and enjoy your holiday properly. Leave any experimentation to another time when you've got a safer space to experiment on the pick-up acceleration in that mode. Safe travels to you both and hope you have a great holiday.

The throttle has to be cracked open quite quickly and a lot of input to lift the front wheel. Sounds like the bike had a brain fart. Any actions involving the controls should cancel the cruise control. The corrupted video files might indicate a electromagnetic interference which could have contributed to your arsehole doing a samba dance in unison with your eyes. I blame the aliens, Donald Trum, Brexit, Corbyn and the Tories etc who allowed the EU to fit such unholy things to a motorcycle. Buy a KTM some would say.

Learn to cover your rear brake, in low speed situations it helps to maintain balance and control of the bike by settling down the suspension and keeping the load of the front to ease steering. Useful in slippery conditions and with a bike loaded plus it gives the pillion a smoother ride. Not to teach you to suck eggs but just in case.

It was a fookin KTM EMP strike.

Its war..

Pretty sure that absolutely ziltch in the way of glitches will be recorded if the bike has suffered a brain fart.

I had 2 incidents a couple of years ago on a tour when the bike lost all power, traction control, abs and all dash lights illuminated like a christmas tree , first one was on a mountain pass on a steady fast left hander (luckily there was a large run off area when it did lose all power) and the second on the Autobahn at a steady speed.

I noted down the exact times and dates and when I got home had it checked by the dealer , no faults recorded .

In both cases the bike immediately restarted on the button and drove fine afterwards, first one was particularly worrying .

kurienp said:

Considering that the video file is also corrupted, seems like an electrical glitch. Have you saved the video file to try and recover it somehow later on?

What format is the video file?

Ride safe.

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Ref the camera's, I found the same corrupt files to my cost following a recent car incident, if you read up carefully, most camera manufacturers are now recommending completely wiping all files (re-formatting) every couple of weeks in order to ensure clean recording. cheap ebay counterfeit sd cards are also an issue as often unbranded (slow transfer) units re packaged as reputable fast transfer units. good to hear you are OK, I will watch to see how this unfolds

I've had something similar letting the clutch out - lift the revs slightly on the throttle and suddenly the needle went to the redline and the front wheel lifted with no traction control light. I suspect the dodgy clutch engagement on the big GS - reminded of it as I had one as a loan bike yesterday. Very glad to get back on the 700GS!