BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

uh oh..could this be the clutch or something more serious? Since getting my 2011 R1200R back from 12K service 6 weeks ago I have been noticing a slight burning smell and thought I felt some slippage occasionally last week. Since I was in the city most of the time I thought the burning smell might be other cars..very slight and not all the time. Tonight I went for a ride around Manhattan on the highway called FDR and motorcycle pulled fine through gears at first...and then toward the last couple of miles in 3-4-5th gear bike would rev but not accelerate much if at all. On the off ramp home noticed a strong burning smell and then 1st gear would only work and for a block or two and then finally no gears worked...put bike in first, 2nd and felt the shift but no movement in bike whatsoever! I have roadside assistance and thankfully the bike is 4 blocks from my apartment. Is this just a clutch or perhaps something more serious? Thank you!

Sounds like clutch from where I'm sitting but only a strip down will tell you for sure. Some good(ish) news is that to get to the clutch the box has to come off as well so no extra labour/time involved in that respect. Burning smell tells me you not going to get away with just a slave cylinder.

the bike went from slipping slightly and I mean slightly in 3rd and 4th gear to not moving at all when in any gear within the distance of a two miles. Would a bad clutch do that so quickly? The only other time I needed a clutch was years ago on my R1100R and I remember it slipping but being able to ride it gently or not reving very high....I should know today but thought I'd put it out there if it could be something else?
Thanks.

LeonardoNYC wrote:the bike went from slipping slightly and I mean slightly in 3rd and 4th gear to not moving at all when in any gear within the distance of a two miles. Would a bad clutch do that so quickly? The only other time I needed a clutch was years ago on my R1100R and I remember it slipping but being able to ride it gently or not reving very high....I should know today but thought I'd put it out there if it could be something else?
Thanks.

i would guess leaking clutch fluid or gear oil onto the disc, making it go bad.

It's a clutch. Rare on our bikes - but I guess it happens. Likely as others posited - leaking fluid of some type on the disk caused the failure. This won't be a cheap repair (I can suggest someone in NJ who would be less expensive than a dealer - but you'd have to get it to him. I know BMW-NY doesn't always seem to satisfy their customers.)

Don you're right , it is the clutch. The bike is at MaxBMW--not NYC BMW--thank goodness!
Found out yesterday. Best case scenario is $1500, worst case 2,000 depending on parts needed. Should have it back in time for Americade though.
Dealer said that it's not unusual for a bike with 14K miles ridden a lot in the city to do this.
Other than city riding, is there something I can do to prevent this? I have been riding for 25 years...yes a lot in the city but is there any technique I should be aware of to prevent this type of failure after a relatively short period of time/miles?

Hi Leonardo,

Dunno what to say. The amount of clutch release/engagement in a city has to be 10x the amount a bike would otherwise see. I think the best I can offer is to trust the bike to get going and keep going with very little slippage when taking off. The somewhat low gearing of the R12R makes it feel like it will stall if you don't give it enough fuel - but as I've learned it has plenty of torque and takes off rather easily even with very little RPM boost as the clutch is engaged. That said - it will be interesting to hear what they find as the actual cause of the failure. If it was a seal letting go that resulted in an oiled clutch disk - nothing you do riding it would change that failure. It would be a parts failure, uncommon, but not unknown.

Let us know what they say once they have it apart..