Make ride a test
When I ordered my new BMW Motorrad R1300 GS back in January I was already looking forward to my summer tour which would take me back to my favourite vacation spot in Brittany, France.
As this bike is the fourth GS model I have purchased from BMW Motorrad since I have passed my motorcycle driving license 25 years ago and the only times the first two of these bikes have broken down were due to a dead battery (I had not yet considered using a charger during the periods when I would not ride) and a puncture, I could not have dreamt that my experience with this completely new developed motorbike which was produced in the first quarter of 2024 would eventually ruin the shiny image of the constructor I had adopted over the years as a happy rider of BMW motorcycles.
After I finally got stuck at a petrol station two days agos right during the third stint of the ride to my vacation destination I had to realise that relying on the BMW Road Assist package that came with my purchase was very naive. BMW Motorrad may well suggest their customers to make life a ride, but with the bugs that seem to accompany some of their newly delivered products they are forcing them into the role of involuntary beta testers. So I have decided to write it all down and blog about my experiences as a beta tester of R_0M21.
The problems began already at the initially fixed delivery date when my BMW Motorrad dealership called me that they had to reschedule the delivery as there was a problem with the keyless system so that they had to order a replacement key before I could come pick up the bike. The dealer told me also that the constructor had unfortunately stopped deliveries of the side panniers (which I had ordered and consequently already paid at the time of the delivery at the beginning of May) and he could not even tell me if the panniers would be available on time for my trip which I had planned for the second half of July.
As I did not want to travel without the possibility of securing at least a part of my luggage on the bike I ordered an Overlander bag from LoneRider together with a Steelcore luggage strap which allows me to lock the bag on the bike. So, this purchases resulted in further costs on top of the total price of around 28K € (which includes the price of the side panniers that have not yet been delivered).
However all these inconveniences did not lessen the pleasure of riding my new GS which has so far fulfilled in every aspect the expectations I had built up after watching hours of Youtube contents from moto vloggers and test riders during the time I had to wait before the delivery.
Besides my very positive impression of the responsive engine and drivetrain and the nimble handling of the motorbike it dawns on me that the electronics seem to be not as reliable as the mechanics though. As a matter of fact right from the get go, the radio controlled activation of the anti-theft alarm does not work as indicated in the rider‘s manual which states that pressing twice the button on the radio-operated key activates the alarm, as my GS‘s alarm only activates after three button presses.
One week before my departure to France I noticed a second issue affecting the Multi-Controller which had suddenly stopped to operate the BMW ConnectedRide app I was using until then without fault in the smartphone cradle mounted on the preparation for navigation system. I first tried if the issue would disappear after unpairing the device and reinstalling the app, but without success. Therefore I rode back to the dealership to show them the issue hoping for a rapid solution as I was about to leave for my trip. After they checked with another cradle and even a ConnectedRide Navigator device it appeared that the Multi-Controller would still not operate the mounted devices, so they proposed me an appointment after my return from vacation to check if the issue was related to the preparation for navigation system which would then be replaced on the spot.
The day before I started my trip the cradle then seemed to be responsive again to the input of the Multi-Controller, although it was only partly functioning when the ConnectedRide app was put in the navigation tab. As soon as I swiped manually on the device to one of the other tabs, the Multi-Controller stopped working in navigation mode.
Two days ago when I was already on reserve fuel and the TFT showed me there were only 13 km left to ride I stopped on the N165 from Nantes to Brest in Brittany at the TotalEnergies gas station near Theix. As I needed more time to put my heavily loaded GS on the centre stand and the waiting time for opening the fuel filler cap had passed I had to pass to Variant 2 to be able to open the fuel filler cap. Although I followed the instructions of the rider‘s manual step by step I could not open the fuel filler cap and finally had to park my motorcycle on the gas station‘s area and call for some assistance.
At that moment I was still confident that the BMW Road Assist team would take care of my situation and be able to help me out of trouble first by going through a phone assistance phase and if that would not be successful they would send me asap a technician on site. How naive again to have thought like that.
I want to point out first that Luxembourg is a too small country to have an independent franchised dealer network so that most of the bigger Grand Duchy‘s local car and motorbike dealerships have in the past years already been taken over by Belgian companies as traditionally vehicles have always been imported to Luxembourg from the Belgian market. So I was not surprised when I called the international BMW Road Assist number that I first had to dial through to a french talking support person.
What surprised me however was the robotic style of the first person that answered my call. He first collected my personal data and that of my vehicle and my position. If they were organised why did he have to collect my personal data as I have already shared all that data both with my dealer and online with my BMW ID? As soon as he heard that I was in France he tried to convince me that I call the number 17 which is the emergency number of the local police because French law rules that this is the way to operate on motorways in France. I then explained to him, that I was not on a proper motorway, but on a „Route nationale“ and I wanted him to try and guide me first by telephone in case of the issue could be solved by myself. He then put the call on hold and as I did not hear anything back from him for minutes I finally hung up.
Several minutes later I called BMW Road Assist again and then I had a woman on the line. She also tried directly to convince me to call the police but when I insisted that I was not on a motorway she took again all my data but she explained me better than the guy during my first call that they would only try to find a local roadside assistance they would then send to me on site. After everything was discussed she told me that I would get an SMS message sent to my mobile phone with the file number which I would need for every further correspondance.
I waited for over a quarter of an hour but the promised SMS message would still not arrive. I then called a third time the BMW Road Assist number dialling again for a new case as I did not have a file number I could have entered to get back to the person in charge of my case. This time it was again a rather grumpy guy who answered my call and I told him that I was now really fed up with their so called „assistance“ so that I would call the ACL roadside assistance number where I have subscribed as a member since the day I passed my first driving license over 35 years ago. May the best roadside assistance win then.
It should finally have been the right decision and never again will I use any so called „road assist“ package organised by any car or motorbike constructor backed foreign operation in case my vehicle will break down on a road. The person from the ACL turned out to be a very competent guy talking also Luxembourgish as he managed to send me within less than an hour during the summer vacation in the country that is currently hosting the Olympics a roadside assistance mechanic from a nearby Renault dealership who was even equipped with a trailer so that he could also have transported my motorbike straight to the next BMW Motorrad dealership (probably situated in Lorient). Although the mechanic had not yet to deal with an issue like this he rapidly found a workaround on Youtube which consisted in unmounting the locking piece of the fuel filler by unscrewing two screws. He suggested that I then filled up my tank and after remounting the locking piece we tested if the fuel filler cap would again open normally which surprisingly it did straight away.
Before I finish this report I want to mention however that on the side of BMW Motorrad there was in fact one person operating the constructor’s social media presence on Instagram who did actually care by reaching out to me via direct message after I posted a story where I ranted about my road assist experience. I really appreciated their message although support had already arrived so that there was no use going any further by the time I read that message.
By the way, some funny thing happened after I took the road again with a full fuel tank from the gas station where I was stranded for a couple of hours: The Multi-Controller has had no issues since in navigation mode so that I was again able to operate every tab of the BMW ConnectedRide app on the device in my cradle.
As far as I am concerned from this experience I conclude that at least regarding fuel filler caps mechanics still rule over electronics. So my callout to fellow engineers is: Why bother connecting a fuel filler cap to a radio controlled device as long as a Torx T25 screw driver permits anybody who wants to open the fuel tank to do so?
