1150 RT ABS Bypass--Any First-hand experience?

[ltownsend]

I've gound a good bit of anecdotal information about people who know someone who did an ABS bypass, and a couple of forums where folk were in the process of doing it, but nothing on OUTCOME of the procedure or first-hand accounts from people who successfully made this modification. Anyone have first hand experience?

[Dave_Faria]

Go over to bmwsporttouring.com. Go to the oilhead page on their forum. At the bottom of the page is the list of moderators. Look for Twisty1. Click on him and open his profile. You will see his personal email address. If I remember correctly he said he had done a couple of the IABS removals with success.

Good Luck

[Andy VH]

This post has come up in the past. And I have to ask, if your ABS is working, why would you want to bypass it? It does not affect the normal braking on your bike in any manner whatsoever. It does not delay braking action as some people have wrongly theorized. It does cause the brakes to be mushy or unrepsonsive as some others have theorized.

In fact, even if the ABS has quit on your bike altogether, at again does not impact brake performance in any way. Its simply along for the ride at that point. And aside from carrying some additional weight and components it does not deter from the bike in any way.

Guess I just don't understand the rationale of the idea. What do you hope to gain from disabling the ABS? Or does your bike have that wacky power-servo brakes, and you are really trying to diasable the servo-brakes? I would not buy a BMW with the servo-brake system.

The ABS on my 94 RS quit back in 98. So I pulled the power relay to shut off the lights and rode the bike that way for another 40,000 miles. Then in 2006 I installed a salvage ABS unit and got the ABS working again. All is fine now at nearly 140k miles.

[BubbaZanetti]

Guess I just don't understand the rationale of the idea. What do you hope to gain from disabling the ABS? Or does your bike have that wacky power-servo brakes, and you are really trying to diasable the servo-brakes? I would not buy a BMW with the servo-brake system.




those blinking lights will drive a man insane.:laugh

i drove my R11S from May of last year till Feb of this year with those lights flashing due to a broken pin in the connector for the rear wheel sensor. when i finally got up the time to sell it, i replaced the sensor, shorted the abs unit at the connector and it was like heaven.

[ragtoplvr]

[QUOTE=Andy VH;448095]

In fact, even if the ABS has quit on your bike altogether, at again does not impact brake performance in any way. Its simply along for the ride at that point. And aside from carrying some additional weight and components it does not deter from the bike in any way.
/QUOTE]

Sorry, this is not true on the servo assisted system like the Original Poster has. It is an entirely different system than the one on your 94. They have a failure mode called "residual brakes". This is exactly what it says, residual as in all fingers on the lever and squeeze. Your Lever and Petal force increases at least 10 times.

This system must be fixed or removed. It is widely considered to be one of BMW's worst ideas and I am being kind. I have one, and just in case, I do occasional parking lot practice in the residual mode at times, so if I have a sudden failure I have some muscle memory to help me survive.

Rod

[ltownsend]

I would not remove it EXCEPT, the rear circuit has failed, it is servo assisted. The rear brake does not work at all and the new modulator alone is $2300. I cannot find a used unit that will work. Unless I'm willing to pay half of what the bike is worth to fix the ABS, I will have to remove it. My past experience with this bike tells me that if the servo is not working (which happened temporarily in the past for another reason) I am SOL on stopping the bike at all. So, I may be faced with removing the system or parking the bike. ltownsend

[Andy VH]

I stand corrected, and enlightened, and now even more firm in my stance that the power-servo brake system was the worst idea BMW has come up with in a very long time. I will NOT buy a BMW with that system, even though a pristine 2004 R1150RS is a very tempting idea to replace my 94.

Unneccesary, complicated, prone to "non-standard" operation when it shuts down, and for what? Some wizz-bang brake system that isn't anymore effective than proper use of the great brake power all bikes have. The fact that the brakes require more than normal effort when the ABS fails, sounds like a lawyers wise come true for a lawsuit waiting to happen. To me, it seemed that BMW was simply trying to "dumb down" motorcycle riding by taking away the rider's responsibility of being effective and practiced on the brakes.

Enough of my postulating. Now I understand your rationale. On my bike, when the ABS quit I had normal brakes and simply pulling the power relay stopped the blinking lights. See? Simple and effective, and BMW had to mess it up.

[SpongeBob Squarepants]

You can purchase a new iABS modulator from Chicago BMW at a %20 discount. I know because I have one on order right now. Cost $1813.82 + 20 shipping. I have an RS, and they are easy to remove and replace, once the tank is removed. The bleeding take longer than the R & R. (but then I have had much practice this year) It seems to be very difficult to obtain a working used unit. I know because I installed 2 used ones, and both of them would not pass the self tests, but both had different failure symptons.

Since you want to just remove the iABS, here are some links to assist. Not specific to an RT, but should be helpful

http://r1150r.org/board/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13571

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1342017#post1342017

I suspect you will require the following parts.

61312305729 front stop light switch (normally open switch)
61311459747 rear brake switch (normally open switch)
34327650965 distribution piece (from an RS)
34211236793 Vent screw

The iABS modulator powers the brake light, and the brake switches are normally closed, which is reversed from normal switches. So removing the iABS leaves you with no brake light! You will need to replace the switches, and find a way to power and wire them up to the brake light. Its all explained in the links above.

[cooney]

I have an 04 GS ADV that HAD a servo assist unit on it. It went out and i had to come through Baton Rouge traffic with it. SUCKED! Anyway I also checked the price for a new one from Chicago. Not me Joe! Yanked that sucker out of there. I lost my ABS and that sucked but I also lost about 10 pounds up high under the tank. I had to buy new switches from a non - abs bike and do some wireing which was the hardest part till i figured it out. Steptoe on the ADV forum hooked me up with the wiring. The rear brake line just hooked up to the rear master cylinder and the front brake line had to go to a "distributor" from a non abs bike. Look on the ADV and do a search. It was under the title Servos Suck. Good luck