F800 & R1200GS: Switching off your headlamps

Tonight 20 December 2010 is the last Full moon of the year.

If you've never ridden your GS in the night, with no lights under a full moon, on farm roads or twee spoor, then you still have a very good reason for living.

Bugger Play station II or III or WEEE or whatever, there is no way to replace the fun of night riding by any computer game.

Want to see foxes, porcupines and the good ol' Aardvark on his evening scavenging?

I recommend riding in pairs, fairly close formation and speeds of 60 to 80 are easy to get accustomed to in relative safety.

You only need  a decent bucket of skill and a tiny bucket of luck.

Basically the cool, calm, quiet with no stars, just a bright moon overhead creates and out-this-world eerie environment that gives you a feeling of the pioneer. Many nocturnal animals of the furr and winged varieties will be surprised by you as they go about their solitary business.

As long as your dash board is covered and head lightas are off, your night vision is excellent and the thrill of almost silently covering ground quickly is very addictive.

Okay, so who knows how to swtich off the 1150 lights?

On my 1150GSA the procedure is quite complex:

1.  Observe the handlebars.

2. Look at the right hand switch cluster.

3. Move hand in direction of right hand cluster and rest thumb on vertically orientated On/Off switch.

4. Slide switch to lower position.

Switching lights on is the reverse of the switching off procedure.

If you get stuck in the bush and can't work this out you are welcome to call me (I don't think BMW OnCall will respond for this type of call).

Would you mind if we posted this on our website at all?

Graham Johnson

Biketique

Graham, be my guest,

Thanks for asking bru, you guys always rock!

Should you come up with any usefull info Andy please share it with us..

Always nice to have updates to keep the web-site active.

Thanks again

Graham

Thanks Andyman. The same procedure also works on the F800GS

when would you want to do this?

As soon as I read this, I ran to the garage and tried the procedure on my 2009 GSA. It did switch the lights off. However, as soon as I start riding, the lights come back on. A safety feature, maybe, protecting me against myself following Andy's nightriding stunts. It worked on my son, Byron's 2007GS, though.  Couldn't just park the bikes again, so Byron and I rode up Ou Kaapse Weg , WITH lights, to look at the moon....magic.

If your battery is dying and/or your charging system isn't working or some other crisis is forcing you to reduce the amount of electical power you draw from the bike, then you might need to turn off the lights to make it home.

And when you are doing a moonlight ride ...

Take the seat off and in the fusebox (under the tools) remove the yellow relay, could be handy when your alternator belt fails. That relay switches all headlights off

Thanks Andyman (and Rony ) , I would do that if I ever rode sand again , to save the battery from wearing down with all that short continual start and stopping involved . Also if you are racing at Killarney.

Wow thats alos correct Rynet.

Katoong, its useful to print out and keep handy, because most times i need to do it or help someine on a ride, I sure as heck cannot remember the recipe.

But as seen above there are several very valid reasons why you may want to be able to reduce load by switching off the headlamps.

Thanks for the info!

I think Rynet just gave the most valid use case for this :-)

Cheers,

Have a good xmas and new year!

I have just tested this on my 09 GSA, it works.

This procedure will also switch off the spotlights.

I have also noticed that you can get normal light operation back while the engine is still running by just flicking the bright light. You don't have to turn the bike off and on again.

On my 08 1200 GS it works, but as soon as I roll in 1st gear it switches back on.

Rynet, sorry but you are wrong: one does not need this for sand riding.  Just stay away from the bloody West Coast trip! (from an experienced victim with 7 falls on the last trip.....)