F650 running probs

[Sparky]

Hello folks, found a '97 F650 I am keen on but the test ride threw up some wobblies. Namely the rear brake caliper got stuck on and made the handling on roundabouts rather squirmy. Strangely the bike still went pretty quickly, much nippier than my TA, I guess thats the lower weight of the BMW.

Anyway, the bigger problem was the running, 2nd gear 30mph constant speed, not moving throttle position the bike was jumping all over the place, really surging badly. Coupled with rather poor cold starting or to be more accurate, it will start cold but it wont run properly while on choke, would a service sort this out or are we looking at carb overhaul?

Apart from that the bike was ok, bit smaller than the TA, the bars need to go forward a bit for me, lot less vibe than I expected, about the same as the TA. Front sprocket is allegedly 1 tooth less, have to work out what the result of that is.

The good news is the seller is booking the bike in to fix the back brake and the running but I am curious as to what is wrong. One pointer might be fuel, bike has been laid up since winter.

cheers

Sparky

[Annette]

Hi Sparky

The rear brake could just be that it needs a good clean and grease.

As for the running problems it could be that the valve clearance needs checking. If you're buying from a dealer/garage get them to check them for you.

Also take a quick look a www.f650.com absolutely everything about them is on there.

[Buggles]

Hi Sparky,

My brother has an F650 too, although the "Funduro" model, not GS. He's had a similar problem, with the bike surging, starting bad and stalling on him a lot.

The problem seemed fixed when we put carb cleaner in the petrol, but then came back this summer. It's now been fixed (we hope) and the problem seems to have been to connectors to the sparkplug were shot.

This caused the 2nd plug (there's two plugs in this single, twinspark) to misfire regularly and thus messed up the bike's running.

This has now been fixed and according to my brother the bike has never run smoother, especially at low revs...

Good luck,

JB

[Sparky]

Hello, I finally got on to the F650 site and someone said the same thing about plugs. The right side plug lead cover looks rusty and maybe of dubious quality so now that 2 folks have seen the same prob, that might be the fix. Hoping the dealer will find that when the seller puts it in for repair.

cheers

Sparky