BMW shirks responsibility - stonewalls pleas for help over serious safety issue

BMW shirks responsibility and stonewalls pleas for assistance by Husqvarna 650 owner to overcome serious safety issue – random stalling.

The following has been posted on the follwing FB pages, without a single reply.
We all know how dangerous this issue is, so feel free to voice your opinion on these FB pages too;

https://www.facebook.com/BMWMotorrad?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/BMW.Motorrad.Deutschland
https://www.facebook.com/BMW.Motorrad.Italia?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/BMWMotorrad.Turkiye?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/pages/BMW-Motorrad-Chile/353975854746124?fref=ts

Is BMW Motorrad a helpful responsible and highly respected company, or a misleading, deceiving, arrogant and irresponsible company?....you decide….


Some 12 months has now passed since I raised the safety issue of a "random stall" on the Husqvarna TR650 motorcycle with the distributor of that time in New Zealand.

The random stall places the rider in a potentially dangerous situation when starting off from intersections, from either being hit from behind or from approaching vehicles. The fault is not peculiar to my bike with many other owners around the world complaining of the same fault.

The subsequent sale of Husqvarna to KTM meant KTM were now responsible with assisting me in finding a resolution and I contacted them in December 2014. Since then KTM have advised that due to BMW owning and holding the code for the ECU's in these bikes and the refusal of BMW to assist them in resolving this issue, KTM cannot help me any further.

With no choice left but to contact BMW Motorrad directly, I emailed them in early April 2015 and heres what they have said to date.

April 14th, 7:04pm

Hi Mike, our colleagues are currently looking into it and will reply directly once they have an answer. Thanks in advance for your patience. Best regards, Jayden of the BMW Motorrad Facebook Team ------------------------------------------------------------------ Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft Board of Management: Norbert Reithofer, Chairman, Milagros Caiña Carreiro-Andree, Klaus Fröhlich, Klaus Draeger, Friedrich Eichiner, Harald Krüger, Ian Robertson, Peter Schwarzenbauer. Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Joachim Milberg Registered in: Munich HRB 42243 ------------------------------------------------------------------

April 16th, 9:37pm

Hi Mike, please send the information via direct message if possible. Or you can send it directly to Steffen: motorrad@bmw.de Best regards, Jessica of the BMW Motorrad Facebook Team ------------------------------------------------------------------ Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft Board of Management: Norbert Reithofer, Chairman, Milagros Caiña Carreiro-Andree, Klaus Fröhlich, Klaus Draeger, Friedrich Eichiner, Harald Krüger, Ian Robertson, Peter Schwarzenbauer. Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Joachim Milberg Registered in: Munich HRB 42243 ------------------------------------------------------------------

April 23rd, 7:00pm

Hi Mike, we will indicate our responsible colleagues to look into your case as soon as possible. They will reply to directly. Thank you for your patience and good ride. Best regards, Jessica of the BMW Motorrad Facebook Team ------------------------------------------------------------------ Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft Board of Management: Norbert Reithofer, Chairman, Milagros Caiña Carreiro-Andree, Klaus Fröhlich, Klaus Draeger, Friedrich Eichiner, Harald Krüger, Ian Robertson, Peter Schwarzenbauer. Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Joachim Milberg Registered in: Munich HRB 42243 ------------------------------------------------------------------

Since the above reply which is now some seven weeks ago, I’v sent another 7 messages and not had one reply from BMW, so I can only assume they are stonewalling me in the hope I will just go away.

When I consider the seriousness of this fault and the potential for personal injury, one would have expected at the very least, for BMW to request I take my bike to a BMW service agent for diagnosis while offering some suggestions, but so far I have heard nothing, nada, zip, zilch. I can only assume in a weird BMW way, assisting a customer who is having a problem is admitting their is a fault and BMW don’t make vehicles with faults do they…..?

If BMW were some half baked company from the back of beyond, I would say, "what more did you expect", but this is suppose to be one of the worlds leading automotive manufactures producing state of the art vehicles to the highest standards of safety.

I’m not doing this for fun, I’ve got better things to do.


I am not alone in saying, “BMW has a duty of care to its customers and this fault needs to be rectified forthwith before some gets injured or worse”.

I fully agree with all of the above and eagerly await any more information on the Company answer to the dangerous stalling issues we have with this bike.

Charlie says it is not a Lemon, I disagree !!

Fine, that's your right. I did say it wasn't perfect. But, speaking for myself I knew that going in. I also knew it was a bastard bike. I am all for a class action suit of some kind. Lets do it.

And from what I remember, it is not KTM: it is a corporation owned by the cheesy ceo of KTM. So he is not only the deepest pockets, but he is the easiest to show negligence at the least, and massive fraud by any reasonable person's judgment. The Euro common law would be supreme, even though cutting off KTM's American revenues would be significant. However, there is not a direct relationship to KTM except the CEO who intentionally screwed Husky and especially TR650 owners by making a pledge of support for 10 years (which suckered many owners in.) So a Euro court who is not a home country to KTM would be best. But all the courts go to the highest bidder.

So it's his word which everyone knew was bs, and no other organization to uphold him to his word: Husky is his company and BMW does not care (bastards.) So in effect the cheesy ceo had NO ONE holding him to his word, except ripped off owners who would need a class action suit: which if it wins would mean less than a dollar per owner after lawyer fees. But it would still stick in the cheesy ceo's rib cage. And what's bad is NO ONE can resurrect the Husky service to the bike legally: because it can effectively beat the baddest KTM ever made.

So wherever the Msft court ruled against the Msft non-competitive OS, that made the giant tear it's OS apart would be my first choice (the giant slayer court.) But that was an American company and not their own #7 Motorcycle oem in the world. A slippery slope indeed, but truth is on your side. And maybe just maybe, BMW #6 Motorcycle oem in the world would not mind joining an easy roast of their lesser competitor (??) Let the fireworks begin!

And of course, BMW could also be held liable for even deeper pockets, but they could also be your greatest friend of huge proportions. And realistically, going against #6 and #7 oem's in the world in Europe would be pissing in the wind.

So did Cagiva when they bought Husky and so on and so on.... The Italian and BMW husky is not the Husky of Legend its a Swedish bike people.... We all know you guys have a HUGE HARD ON against KTM... WE GET IT.... Face it the Italian husky is GONE so move on.... Most rode Husky because it wasnt a KTM including me and come to like them (even tho i owned many in the 80s)... But is the Austrian husky better than the italian husky.... YES.... Could some thing be better on a current husky but a TON needed to be improved on the old ones.... so just stop already or better yet class action sue KTM make it go out of business and the rest of us real riders will have to buy hondas while you move on to your next sport to ruin....

If we start now, we can get signatures from members of every motorcycle forum on the web (except KTM, maybe.) NO ONE likes to be handled like crap and pushed aside by slick corporate lawyers, whether it's KTM, Microsoft, or Walmart. If hundreds of thousands of world wide signatures meant anything at all, it would be a good start to catch some greedy (and hopefully successful) lawyers' attention.

The world saw it unfold and knew how it would end up from day one. Everyone was hoping for the best, but knew the cheesy KTM ceo's character to begin with: it was a losing battle from the start. It was not right for Microsoft, and it is not right for KTM either. It's time for Euro Courts to save the world again!

Back on topic.

Boil this down and it is firstly a defect and secondly and most importantly a safety issue. Who, how, brands likes and dislikes are irrelevant.

KTM now own Husky and they cannot fix this issue because BMW hold the code and no one can argue with that!

I have a brief based on a previous successful action against BMW which I can post, but it will require some to dedicate part of there life to and I dont have the time for that as much as I would like to.

Poke the Bear. I spammed Motorrad Facebook just to see how they would react..intially it looked promising (as you can see), but then silence. I am only one if they get spammed buy many Husky owners and who actively then duplicate this on every forum and provoke discussion...the squeaky wheel may get some oil.

I have a key contact detail for KTM and I can also show you the Motorrad ones I have used.

Does anyone speak German?.....there are key contact names on the FB post, we need someone to phone BMW and talk with the CEO and ask the hard question, "when will it be fixed?" ...anyone keen?

Knowing how bike companies work the more you talk lawyer the less cooperation you will get...

Why not sell it and get a bike that is going to be supported

I'd like to help and here is why. Two weeks ago I took my Husky Strada into the dealer because the engine would cut out three or four times every time I rode it and the check engine light came on each time. It was like hitting the rev limiter and if I pulled in the clutch, the bike would stall at speed; a very BIG safety issue. Turns out that they found a bad "crankcase sensor" and Husky will not cover the $1,300.00 part because they have never heard of a problem like this on other Husky TR-650s. I have just over 12,000 miles on the bike, so of course it is not under warranty. There is a BIG safety problem and my bike is sitting 40 miles away from KTM USA's headquarters with the big problem diagnosed by a MOSS tool.

Please PM me and let me know who I can flame about this issue. I am so mad I'd join a lawsuit, too.

1300.00 for a sensor HOLY SHIT

This is similar to the very poor factory tune of the TE449/511 which also flames-out.
Both of these BMW owned models are also road registrable and neither has an acceptable easy 'fix' for the issue on ALL bikes.
Some respond to a racing pipe tune update, others do not.
If ridden on the road they face the same dangers a stall in traffic can bring as the TR650.

The maps are locked behind a BMW specific wall & without further investment in the bike by the owner, aren't able to be corrected.

The Keihin ECU is easily tuneable, the basic unit is used on all the Japanese EFI bikes where they have plugs/hand controllers/usb tuning of the maps, but BMW's firewall is yet to be broken (Any code breakers out there???)

Italian based Husky Dealers are nearly non-existent here in Oz, so we're on our own..... very poor all round!

Instead of approaching Husky/KTM/BMW, what about trying to initiate a government product recall?
Just a thought... and perhaps already thought of.

Like this...

http://www.recalls.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/1067190

If it were me i'd find another dealer.... Whats the part number? Doubt theres a $1300 sensor on that bike.... A real dealer could probably get it "good willed" I did it all the time.... or I just gave it to the person for cost....

u no this just makes realize more n more i just don't think EFI on motorcycles is a good idea IMHO

Yeah that's what I said. But the bike is totally unrideable like this and it will keep happening if I just plug the sensor off, so there is not much choice for me. I'm just glad I didn't pay much for the MOST poorly supported new motorcycle I've ever purchased.