• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

Harley Recall

"The motorcycle would stall while riding, increasing the risk of a crash," the agency (NHTSA) said.

Sounds like what could happen if you ran out of fuel due to an erroneous fuel level reading as a result of having a defective fuel strip.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/harley-recalls-bikes-ignition-switch-problem-24803206

(The qoute at the top is from today's Wall Street Journal)


Your informative post sheds light on the obvious - when it comes to a corporate philosophy about customer care and concern, Harley-Davidson and BMW live at opposite ends of the ethical yardstick. :banghead
 
It's here because this is the doomsday sayers site, and we like to hear bikes breaking down or being involved in a recalls.
 

/ Mod hat on /

Kent -

It would be best all the way around if you would provide more insight on your comments rather than just throw down a lawn sausage and walk off. Care to enlighten us as to your thought process?? :whistle

/ Mod hat off /
 
I have ridden plenty of motorcycles without gas gauges. And I do not trust any gas gauge on any motorcycle
or in any airplane I have ever flown.

I do not understand all of the curmudgeonly responses. The point of my post was that it seems that once
NHTSA determines that a vehicle has any possibility of stalling while being operated, they begin the process of
ordering a recall.

Jeez.
 
Your informative post sheds light on the obvious - when it comes to a corporate philosophy about customer care and concern, Harley-Davidson and BMW live at opposite ends of the ethical yardstick. :banghead

This post is unsupported by reality. Has HD ever 12-year warranted anything?
 
Wellston, Isn't it obvious why the HD and the BMW issues are different?

Just like the GM switch problem, there's no way to predict when the Harley ignition will switch itself off.
With the BMW fuel strip issue, if you just pay attention to how many miles you've ridden since fill up you have an idea when the engine will sputter and quit and not be surprised.

Jeez X 2
 
/ Mod hat on /

Kent -

It would be best all the way around if you would provide more insight on your comments rather than just throw down a lawn sausage and walk off. Care to enlighten us as to your thought process?? :whistle

/ Mod hat off /

Kent's reply might have been a bit abrupt, but Kevin's statement seems to have come out of nowhere..........
 
I have ridden plenty of motorcycles without gas gauges. And I do not trust any gas gauge on any motorcycle
or in any airplane I have ever flown.

Whether my bike has a gas gauge or not, I always reset the trip meter to zero when I fill up. I have had good fuel gauges and bad ones but the trip meter never lets me down.
 
Kent's reply might have been a bit abrupt, but Kevin's statement seems to have come out of nowhere..........

Not at all. As a Motor Officer, I lived in the 'Harley World' for seven years, well aware of customer service / recalls / warranty resolution.

Lived in the 'Harley World' longer than most everyone who take pot shots at that brand.

That Kent's use of abbreviated profanity directed to another member gets a 'pass' speaks to the issue of failed moderation - something I'm hopeful will be resolved soon.
 
How would a defective fuel-level sensor cause you to run out of fuel?

Because one might assume that when you're riding the most supposedly technologically sophisticated motorcycle made, that one could trust that this bike would have a reasonably accurate fuel gage. Not one that the info display shows 110 miles to empty and more than a quarter of a tank of fuel still left, as you coast over to the side of the road with an empty gas tank. The only time my bike has an accurate fuel reading is when I first fill up.

I have an 06 R12RT that has a potential fuel range of 300 miles or better, but I can't take advantage of it because my fuel gage has never shown a low fuel light even when it ran out of gas. So I am forced to stop and refuel around 225 miles just to allow for variances in gas consumption, since my fuel gage is basically useless.
 
Wellston, Isn't it obvious why the HD and the BMW issues are different?

Just like the GM switch problem, there's no way to predict when the Harley ignition will switch itself off.
With the BMW fuel strip issue, if you just pay attention to how many miles you've ridden since fill up you have an idea when the engine will sputter and quit and not be surprised.

Jeez X 2

Hey there ClassicVW,

If you were paying attention you would know that the Harley ignition issue is likely to occur when a bike has been modified to exceed
its 5600 RPM red line up to 5800 RPM. The ignition switch can vibrate from "on" into "accessory" when rev'd over 5600 RPM. In
any case, why do you think HD is voluntarily recalling thousands of bikes if in your words "there's no way to predict when the Harley
ignition will switch itself off." ? In fact, there sure is. It admittedly happened in their own lab when bikes were rev'd over 5600 RPM.

Relative to your statement about mileage being the best accounting of fuel useage...DUH DUDE. That's not the point. The point is that BMW
has been for years supplying fuel strips that are defective. I get really irritated when my $20,000 motorcycle has a full tank of gas but
throws a blinking yellow caution at me, along with "FUEL" on the panel.

So, ClassicVW, the issues are not different. Known issue by manufacturer equals remedy. Harley - Recall. BMW - Twelve year fuel strip warranty.

Thank you Harley for doing the right thing with the recall. And thank you BMW for doing the right thing with the twelve year fuel strip warranty.
 
Last edited:
I guess I don't get it.

If Harley could easily slightly raise their redline (for, I presume, a slight increase in power) with no other bad effects than the switch, why didn't they build the bike that way in the first place with a switch which would handle the extra RPM? (Would think that somehow increasing the redline on any BMW would VOID the warrantee - and should.) The companies must know SOMETHING when they set redlines.

If BMW fuel strips STILL frequently fail (so this wasn't just a question of installing a bad batch that needed one-time replacement) how does providing a 12 year warrantee serve either the company or the customer? A repeated expense for the company (part and labor) and BOTH an expense (taking the bike to a dealership,) and a nuisance for the customer. How does this make sense?

My '92 K100RS has a "low fuel" light which gives me fair warning and ALSO a very accurate fuel gauge. I rather doubt either were "state of the art" even then. So am I just one of the lucky ones that didn't have either go wonky over the years, or was there another reason for switching to fuel strips? Maybe the old system couldn't give a digital read-out?

My newest car has all this new fuel stuff (average mpg since last fill-up, projected range until fill-up, etc. and I don't trust it. When I do the arithmetic, the mpg is always a bit worse than the computer indicates.) But the fuel gauge does seem to be very accurate. Maybe we are all the beta testers as the companies work out the bugs for a much better way of telling how much farther you can go on that tank of gas. For BMW owners with "the strip," I understand you are paying a pretty high price.
 
Not at all. As a Motor Officer, I lived in the 'Harley World' for seven years, well aware of customer service / recalls / warranty resolution.

Lived in the 'Harley World' longer than most everyone who take pot shots at that brand.

That Kent's use of abbreviated profanity directed to another member gets a 'pass' speaks to the issue of failed moderation - something I'm hopeful will be resolved soon.

Failed moderation? Isn't that a bit heavy handed? And, doesn't your response imply a threat?

My third grade teacher never used the term "BS", but a lot of folks do.......
 
Wellston wrote:

"if you were paying attention..." "DUH DUDE"

You sir, are not a complete azzhole, but it's nice to see that with your fantastic people skills, you're working on it.
 
Back
Top