K11 Owners Group

RAL88

So a few days ago I noticed that my bike was shifting a little rough. I didn't think that much of it. Next day a little rougher but the bike still had good acceleration and torque. I thought maybe I needed to change the trans and gear oil even thought it only had 7000 miles on it. I changed it and it shifted a little better but the exhaust wasn't sounding right.

Yesterday I rode into work, 30 miles one way no problems. About 2/3 of the way home it started to bog down and if I let off the gas and then back on again it would jerk forward with acceleration. I thought I had gotten some bad gas so I drained the tank put in some new gas from a different station and added some Techron and some Stabil. Left this morning, got 10 miles and I thought I was not going to make it back home. Changed the fuel filter tonight and went for a 30 mile ride. The bike was back to normal, easy shifting, quiet and great acceleration.

I cut open the BMW filter and the paper does not look dirty or clogged at all.

So I don't know what the filters problem was.

Any other ideas?
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Rich

"If it ain't broke, take it apart and make it work better"
*************
'96' K1100LT-SE
'97' R850GS-R

Ted · Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 9:47 pm Post subject:

If you push water through a BMW fuel filter it will surely clog things up but it will look fine - try the Blue Stabil, among lots of other good things it protects against water in the gas and phase separation from ethanolated gas (it also has lots of detergent like the red Stabil so don't use it with Techron additive at the same time.)
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Ted

KOG#1

RAL88 · Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:21 pm Post subject:

Thanks Ted. I put a little of the blue stabil in and some techron. Hopefully it won't cause a problem
_________________
Rich

"If it ain't broke, take it apart and make it work better"
*************
'96' K1100LT-SE
'97' R850GS-R

Ted · Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 12:03 am Post subject:

Hah - unless you dumped in a whole bottle of Techron you should be fine Smile

I am a huge fan of the blue Stabil, I use a half-strength dose with every other fill up.
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Ted

KOG#1

m1ks · Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 5:56 am Post subject:

Hi Ted,
What's the blue Stabil? I'm wondering if we have an equivalent over here in the good old united kingdom of scotlandshire.

Common fuel additives we tend to have are Random injector cleaners from various auto parts manufacturers and Redex which has been a mainstay for fuel tanks here for years.

Just wondering if that could be related to my recent bogging / stutter / hesitation probs.
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I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, de-briefed or numbered!

Ted · Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 10:17 am Post subject:

First - this is for gasoline with ethanol in it, not sure what you have in Scottland but if you are lucky enough to have straight gas you might not need it.

Blue Stabil was developed as a marine formula specifically formulated to take care of ethanolated gas. I called StaBil and had a long talk with one of their engineers - the goal was to tweak StaBil to handle ethanol in gas and the often accompanying phase separation (where the ethanol separates from the gas and then does what alcohol likes to do, attracts water.) It also has more detergent to handle ethanol-related deposits in the tank, lines and combustion process. Lastly, it also protects against ethanol-related corrosion in the tank, lines and combustion process. All this plus the "regular" Red Stabil protections for the gasoline. The engineer quite agreed that it is well-suited for motorcycles especially fuel-injected ones not designed specifically for ethanolated gasoline (especially he made the point for motorcycles with aluminum components.)

It is a bit more expensive than the Red but not too bad, I bought a big 32oz bottle for I think it was $20 at West Marine. Because it is more concentrated you only use about half what you would for the Red stuff.
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Ted

KOG#1

m1ks · Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 4:16 pm Post subject:

Not entirely sure but I can have a dig about and see what I can find out.
I know there were a few rumours circulating locally that various people had gotten fuel from the local station down the road and had 'water in the fuel' type problems, it was thought that one of the tanks was contaminated but no definite answer on that and obviously most vehicles on subsequent fill ups were OK, if this is the case and water has contaminated the fuel filter then this may be why it's not clearing readily, (only on the first tank after the potential duff one mind and until today the weather hasn't been kind enough to encourage me to ride).

Haven't yet fitted the Throttlemeister BTW but it's sitting there waiting for me to do it when I have a minute.
_________________
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, de-briefed or numbered!