• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

R1200GSA Something Clunks when going on/off power

C

CodyShaw

New member
Joined
Mar 27, 2020
Location
Morgan Hill
Moto(s)
2009 BMW R1200GSA
Hey all,

As the title says, when I'm riding around and fully take off power, I hear and feel something clunk. Same for when I go back on power.

My experience would tell me this could be a few things, thrust bearings (doubt, it would be VERY severe thrust bearing wear) or something between the clutch and the driveshaft (maybe the flywheel clunking)? All of my mechanical experience is with taking apart car engines and stuff like that, so I'm not 100% sure if there is something in the bike that could be causing this that isn't of concern.

Just to be clear, this is a used bike I recently bought, and it's my first bike since having dirt bikes as a kid, so I'm not totally sure if this is normal. Everything else seems OK, engine sounds happy, no warning lights, oil level fine, all that stuff, plus the bike had a full service around 2000 miles ago at BMW SF (it's now at 70k miles and had a clutch replacement around 35k miles) and it was given a perfect bill of health. I didn't notice this when riding it around before I bought, I only got comfortable enough with the bike today to notice it.

Might be of importance, but I've been spending a lot of time in empty parking lots practicing low speed u turns and figure 8's and standstills and all that stuff... Which has caused a lot of drops. The bike has all the engine guards on it, so I don't think anything got knocked, but I thought I'd mention it in case someone has some experience with frequent drops causing something to come loose. A longshot I'd hope.

Just wondering what this is, if it's something I should fix immediately, and if its normal. Maybe y'all have some other tests I can do. I do plan on using this bike extensively for motocamping and adventuring so I'll be relying on it heavily, I don't want it dying in the middle of Death Valley or somewhere else far from civilization.

Thanks!
 
Sounds like one of the u-joints in the driveshaft is bad... 70k miles is about the right time for it. They cost about $1000 plus labor
 
Last edited:
motomania2007 said:
Sounds like one of the u-joints in the driveshaft is bad... 70k miles is about the right tie for it. They cost about $1000 plus labor
Click to expand...


I have a 2018 that had the same issue and it was the ujoint. If it goes it can destroy the swing arm so get it checked out
 
Also If you like riding BMWs Check our BMWNorcal.org. Lots of riding and camping opportunities once the shelter in place is liftesn
 
motomania2007 said:
Sounds like one of the u-joints in the driveshaft is bad... 70k miles is about the right time for it. They cost about $1000 plus labor
Click to expand...

Hmm, googled this just now, seems like the options are a new driveshaft (1000$) or rebuild the u-joints (way cheaper but more work) on the current one. In either case I'd do the labour. Alternatively, I'm reading from a lot of posts online that say the whole drivetrain of the R1200GS has about 3 inches of wiggle to the rear wheel and the clunk is normal... so I'll have to do some more research. If there are any GS wizards around I'd love to hear (or if you are one motomania!)

I'll definitely be hooking up with NorCalBMW folks once the shelter in place is lifted :)
 
I am not a GS wizard. I have had BMWs since about 1979 and done most of my own work, but never had or worked on a GS. The last couple of BMW driveshafts ( R100RS, R1100RT) that failed were not rebuildable.
Maybe the GS driveshaft is rebuildable.
 
motomania2007 said:
I am not a GS wizard. I have had BMWs since about 1979 and done most of my own work, but never had or worked on a GS. The last couple of BMW driveshafts ( R100RS, R1100RT) that failed were not rebuildable.
Maybe the GS driveshaft is rebuildable.
Click to expand...

Gotcha, thanks for the insight. I'll keep that in mind, just want to do a bit more research before I buy a new driveshaft and then the bike still clunks.
 
CodyShaw said:
Gotcha, thanks for the insight. I'll keep that in mind, just want to do a bit more research before I buy a new driveshaft and then the bike still clunks.
Click to expand...

Call Ted Porter's Beemer Shop in Scotts Valley and call Tom Cutter of the Rubber Chicken Racing Garage. Tom was the BMW tech for BMWNA that trained most BMW factory certified techs for 20+ years. Both sources have a wealth of info.
 
Might consider practicing figure eights on your bicycle.
 
Before taking anything apart, do two things. First, is the clunk in all gears? (To one degree or another.)

Two, measure the play in the drive train at the wheel rim. Engine off, bike in gear. Turn wheel by hand one way, then the other. All gears.

Report back.
 
ST Guy said:
Before taking anything apart, do two things. First, is the clunk in all gears? (To one degree or another.)

Two, measure the play in the drive train at the wheel rim. Engine off, bike in gear. Turn wheel by hand one way, then the other. All gears.

Report back.
Click to expand...

I'll try to check this tomorrow and will report back. Thanks!
 
I have a 2007 GSA with 150k. I notice that my luggage has some play now in the luggage frame, that sometimes makes noises. There is some play in the drive train. And the bike likes to backfire when I ride slow and take the throttle fully back. It also stalled a couple times when cold and I was going slow. CalMoto said by design to meet emission numbers.
 
Tom G said:
I have a 2007 GSA with 150k. I notice that my luggage has some play now in the luggage frame, that sometimes makes noises. There is some play in the drive train. And the bike likes to backfire when I ride slow and take the throttle fully back. It also stalled a couple times when cold and I was going slow. CalMoto said by design to meet emission numbers.
Click to expand...

No luggage on the other day, so definitely not that. I do get the backfiring when you throttle back, and yep I've been told that's just a thing it does.
 
And I had the timing chain rattle a few times, blipped the throttle and got enough oil pressure for the noise to go away. Only after starting the engine.
 
ST Guy said:
Before taking anything apart, do two things. First, is the clunk in all gears? (To one degree or another.)

Two, measure the play in the drive train at the wheel rim. Engine off, bike in gear. Turn wheel by hand one way, then the other. All gears.

Report back.
Click to expand...

So I just checked this. Clunk happens in all gears but gets more noticeable going slow in higher gears. It's more like a clunk + the bike jerking forward a bit, feels like what it would feel like settling out a lot of slack in the drivetrain... but the extra torque at a higher ratio and lower speed makes it quite noticeable.

There is only about 1.5 to 2 inches of rotation at the rear rim in each gear stationary.

I'm starting to think I'm just overreacting, this all kinda seems expected.

Ted Porter got back to me, he said unfortunately he nor no one else would be able to tell really if there is an issue unless you x/y'd the bike against what a known good R1200GS feels like. However I'd quickly tell if there was a driveshaft issue if I opened it up. Apparently he also sells aftermarket driveshafts that are easier to service and significantly cheaper than stock, good to know.

I might just wait till I do some extra curricular courses for offroad, there will almost certainly be someone there with a R1200GS that we can check with.
 
I have an '11. Very similar to yours. Same drivetrain. Before that I had an '02 and an '01 before that one.

It should NOT do that. A little bit of lash but NO CLUNKING. Something is wrong. Park it, pull the driveshaft. It's not difficult. Riding it this way is dangerous.
 
If you determine the driveshaft to be the issue, rebuilding is possible. I had the one on my '07 rebuilt by http://beemersuberalles.com/index.html

They rebuilt it with serviceable u-joints. I think it was about $300 but not certain. I sent them a horribly rusted heap with bound u-joints and got a nicely painted and serviced one back.

Sam
 
MtnRider said:
If you determine the driveshaft to be the issue, rebuilding is possible. I had the one on my '07 rebuilt by http://beemersuberalles.com/index.html

They rebuilt it with serviceable u-joints. I think it was about $300 but not certain. I sent them a horribly rusted heap with bound u-joints and got a nicely painted and serviced one back.

Sam
Click to expand...

Thanks, I think if I do have driveshaft issues I'll buy one of the ones from Beemershop, apparently they are tougher than an OEM driveshaft, easier to service and cheaper.

I've kind of convinced myself at this point that there is not an issue and that what I'm feeling is the bike settling through this 2 inches of drivetrain lash when going off and coming onto power. It seems like the R1200GS iteration had about this much lash (50 to 60 mm). The clunking I hear is probably not as severe as some are making it out to be, since the bike essentially free accelerates through this section of lash it would be safe to say the bike will make a bit of noise when it hits the end of it and settles.

At this point I think I'll leave it (sans regular maintenance of course) until I can get out to some off-road courses in the area, there should be someone I can compare with there.
 
At the time the Beemershop shaft was not in the budget or not quite released (don't remember) so I didn't have that as an option.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top