Updaten melted wiring harness

[PineGreen]

A few weeks ago I posted that the harness on my 02 Roadster melted in two. Bike is being repaired this coming Monday. $2500 is the price of repair. $1800 for harness and the rest is labor. Ins co. called me today and said so sorry, no pay. Bike shop told them that the meltdown was a result of Motolights that were installed. The lights worked great for 2 months. I removed them and found no chaffed or broken wires in light wiring. Fuse was not blown. Anyone familiar with these lights know that the lights shouldn't have been the cause of the meltdown. There was a service bulletin issued in 02 because early production run of Roadsters had a wire tie near the steering head that was either too tight or not positioned correctly causing chaffing of the harness. They were told to remove the tie. Can get no info on this bulletin,or the VINs affected. Don't know if I can get this info because the dealer and or BMW is not required to release this info if it doesn't , in their opinion , consist of a safety issue. Don't want anyone to know BMWs have problems. BMW AG make perfect bikes you know. Going to dealer tomorrow AM to ask questions. Looks like I'll be back on 2 wheels sometime next week. But, much poorer for it. Had a Concours last year but just had to go back to a Beemer. Think I should have kept it. Best of luck to all of you. Donations gladly accepted.

[Motorman]

Don't take no for an answer on the bike insurance issue. If you have the lights and wires for them and can demonstrate that they were not damaged you might be able to convince the insurance company. Secondly since it's less than $2500.00 you can go the small claims court route for very little money. It will likely cost the insurance company more than that to defend against it. Make sure you get the burned harness from the shop. Check where the majority of damage was.

Lastly if the shop was "unhappy" that you did the wiring yourself after they gave you a high estimate I wouldn't trust their judgement on any issues now or in the future. They may figure if you get burned on this you'll let them work on it all the time.

[AntonLargiader]

There was a service bulletin issued in 02 because early production run of Roadsters had a wire tie near the steering head that was either too tight or not positioned correctly causing chaffing of the harness. They were told to remove the tie. Can get no info on this bulletin,or the VINs affected.
That affected earlier bikes. It may have been reissued in '02 but it was written in '97 or '98 about the R1100 and R850 models.

You are not the only person this has happened to, and not all of the failed bikes had accesories installed on the circuit. If you did, you might be in a tough spot, but the OEM wiring seems to be capable of failing all by itself in some cases.