I had an unnerving experience the other day. As I finally reached a parking place at Clingman's Dome I lost the gear indicator function as I pulled into a space. The bike, 2016 RT, would not start, would not show by dashboard indicator what gear I was in.
The last 1/2 mile or so of the climb up had been stop and go, inching forward one car length at a time, using the hill-hold function a lot. When turning the bike on, the hill-hold emblem would light up, a different color than usual, and the exclamation point symbol would flash rapidly. After trying repeatedly to restart, then trying to make sense of the information in the owners manual, so detailed
(not!) I eventually called the dealership. The phone was answered by a young fellow who said he'd never heard of such a thing, and the only recourse would be to connect it to a diagnostic machine. He also informed me that it would be several weeks before the shop would be able to check this out for me. 6,000 feet up the mountain, this was no help.
I did find something in the manual regarding a "Timeout", 20 minutes according to the manual, which would occur in cases of overheating. I suspect that this is what happened, although it was about 40 minutes before I was able to start the bike again.
By keeping the kickstand up and finding neutral by feel I started the bike. Putting the kickstand down, in neutral, killed the engine. Hoping for the best, we got on, started the bike with the kickstand up, and headed down the mountain. About half-way down, the gear indicator came on once again, and since then the bike has functioned normally.
So, my question is, was this just a timeout from excessive use of hill-hold? Overheated the clutch perhaps? This is my best guess. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm not sure whether to be seriously concerned, or if this was just a normal safety intervention programmed into the machine. I asked that of the young man answering the phone at the Service Department, but, as he said "no way to know without a diagnostic machine". I'm hoping that those with more experience might have better answers. Thanks.
The last 1/2 mile or so of the climb up had been stop and go, inching forward one car length at a time, using the hill-hold function a lot. When turning the bike on, the hill-hold emblem would light up, a different color than usual, and the exclamation point symbol would flash rapidly. After trying repeatedly to restart, then trying to make sense of the information in the owners manual, so detailed
(not!) I eventually called the dealership. The phone was answered by a young fellow who said he'd never heard of such a thing, and the only recourse would be to connect it to a diagnostic machine. He also informed me that it would be several weeks before the shop would be able to check this out for me. 6,000 feet up the mountain, this was no help.I did find something in the manual regarding a "Timeout", 20 minutes according to the manual, which would occur in cases of overheating. I suspect that this is what happened, although it was about 40 minutes before I was able to start the bike again.
By keeping the kickstand up and finding neutral by feel I started the bike. Putting the kickstand down, in neutral, killed the engine. Hoping for the best, we got on, started the bike with the kickstand up, and headed down the mountain. About half-way down, the gear indicator came on once again, and since then the bike has functioned normally.
So, my question is, was this just a timeout from excessive use of hill-hold? Overheated the clutch perhaps? This is my best guess. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm not sure whether to be seriously concerned, or if this was just a normal safety intervention programmed into the machine. I asked that of the young man answering the phone at the Service Department, but, as he said "no way to know without a diagnostic machine". I'm hoping that those with more experience might have better answers. Thanks.
