What Part Is This?

Pardon this absolute noob question. I'm still getting familiar with my 2004 R1150R and have the Clymer manual, but since there is no general diagram pointing out parts of the bike and their names, I'm having a hard time looking for it.

Here is a picture of what I am curious about. What is this part called and what does it do? Anything that needs to be maintenanced? I assume it is part of the fuel system, since there are rubber hoses attached.

That is a charcoal canister intended to capture vapors from the fuel tank when the bike is not running and to then return those vapors to the carburetor air stream when the engine is running and warmed up. The intent is to prevent the vented fuel vapors from entering the atmosphere.

That is the infamous charcoal canister, part of the alleged smog-alleviation.
Lots of good reasons to do away with it completely; a search in this Oilheads forum will show you how to do it right.
Dr G, you've got quick fingers!

PGlaves said:

That is a charcoal canister intended to capture vapors from the fuel tank when the bike is not running and to then return those vapors to the carburetor air stream when the engine is running and warmed up. The intent is to prevent the vented fuel vapors from entering the atmosphere.

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Pauls1150 said:

That is the infamous charcoal canister, part of the alleged smog-alleviation.
Lots of good reasons to do away with it completely; a search in this Oilheads forum will show you how to do it right.
Dr G, you've got quick fingers!

Click to expand...

Now that is what I call a prompt reply! :-D

And interesting on the charcoal canister. I've seen some pictures of the R1150R with them and others without, that's why I was curious.

I'll dig through the forum to do more research. Appreciate the input, as always!

Quick follow-up:

I haven't dug through all posts re: removing the canister, but what i have seen so far is points for and against removing it. I've seen a post that describes bits and pieces of how to do it, but from some of the comments on drawbacks of removing it, I am concerned that I open up a can of worms.

I'm in Texas and temperatures in the summer definitely need to take expansion of air and fuel in the tank into consideration.

I'll read up a bit more about it, but can see why you labeled it "infamous".

jbtex said:

I'm in Texas and temperatures in the summer definitely need to take expansion of air and fuel in the tank into consideration.

I'll read up a bit more about it, but can see why you labeled it "infamous".

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There is the fuel tank vent hose that runs from the tank to the canister. Then a hose runs to an electronic valve, and then when the valve opens to the two stub pipes on the throttle bodies. To disable the canister system one only need run the vent hose beside the "drain" hose down to the right foot peg and close off the throttle body stub pipes with push-on caps. Then the canister and other hoses can be removed. Once this is done the tank is vented to the atmosphere via that hose down to by the foot peg.

This has no impact on the operating of the engine. It does allow fuel vapors to escape to the atmosphere rather than be absorbed by the charcoal.

JB Tex, You should become familiar with the BMW parts catalog or fiche. Just about every dealer website has one, as do several independent vendors that sell OEM parts. Personally I use the fiche on the Max BMW site, because they include lots of photos and also some pdf files with installation instructions.

During summer, it’s plenty hot here in North Carolina too. My nearest gas station is just 5 miles away and I fill up at the end of the ride. I have never had a problem with gas fumes in the garage and the charcoal canister is gone for a long time. The big problem with the canister is when it clogs up. An over fill or a tip over can get gasoline into the canister. This can lead to charcoal getting into the fuel supply, or if vapor can not pass through the charcoal anymore then your tank will not have a vent anymore and as gas is consumed a vacuum will start to form in the fuel tank.