BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

This is not a big deal but according to the manual (Sec 4 page 60) "The turn indicators are cancelled
automatically after the defined time and distance. min 10s min 300m"  Does this work for anyone?
Geoff

The BMW dealer told me it's 30 seconds, but I'm not exactly sure when the count-down starts.  I know I've sat at stoplights longer than 30 and it stays on the whole time.  On my Vespa it will stay on forever as long as the brakes are engaged, but once you release the brake a count-down starts and it will shut off.

At very low speed or at a standstill they do not cancel and will not cancel once you start moving again. When you are moving though the time they stay on for depends on your speed.  Don't ask me how long for though as I've never bothered to time them, life's too short for things like that.

I always cancel mine way before the auto-cancel cuts in...

I've experimented with this just because, like Everest, it's there.

They do auto cancel once you are moving but take too long to cancel after the turn. So I consider them a little unsafe because they can continue to give a false turn signal to traffic ahead or behind you. So for safety I cancel manually and suspect that most others do too.

I'd say that the real benefit of auto cancel is that it solves those embarrassing situations where you forget to turn off the indicators after a turn. Something a lot of us have probably done at times.

As an interesting contrast, I rode Harleys for many years and they also had auto cancel. But it was the opposite to BM, they frequently cancelled too soon which could prove annoying or even a bit risky at times if they turned off just when you needed them on to warn traffic of an impending turn. You had to keep checking on the dash to ensure they were still on.

Don't think it applies to the RT but on the 1600 they could have linked the self cancelling to the headlight gyro so that when it sensed a corner it could self cancel. But I'm guessing its quite difficult to achieve the ideal for all circumstances.

Think Harley have sorted the auto cancel, on my 2014 RK the indicator cancelling works great. Caught me out when I got the RT, not used to having to think about cancelling them. Also having them on the left grip was new, on the Harley, left is on the left and right is on the right -novel idea 

Not so novel.  BMW did that up to 2009 when they bowed to MCN and the rest who said it was daft to have more than one switch when it could all be done with one.  They have spent the last 7 years saying what a pity it's gone.

250m is the limit. Try it next time you leave a motorway.  Turn on at the 300 marker and they will have cancelled before the exit.

Alf170 wrote: 250m is the limit. Try it next time you leave a motorway. Turn on at the 300 marker and they will have cancelled before the exit.

+1 although I think it is closer to 300 meters but for sure they often (annoyingly) cancel just before you get to the actual slip road!  Peter

Peter Baker wrote: +1 although I think it is closer to 300 meters but for sure they often (annoyingly) cancel just before you get to the actual slip road!  Peter

+1. Yes, very annoying too. Just at the point when you don't need it to switch off! I'm under the impression that this indicator flash interval is adjustable by the dealer tweaking the relevant software. Anybody had this done, assuming it actually is possible....?

Just done a bit if anoraking. At 75mph at the first count down marker switched then on. Switched itself off about 100 m up the slip road still doing 75.  So that's a total distance of 400m.  Obviously speed and time related. No more comments from me on this as I wasn't aware they were anything but perfect before this post.

^
To be more precise, that would be 300 yards and 100m.

I too felt that I had to test this. I attempted to leave it on on several occasions, but there always seemed to be other road users around who would probably think i'd mad that classic mistake of leaving the indicator on by accident (we've all done it!!). Eventually I found one long motorway junction that was long enough to get it to work, which it does.


I think that only real benefit is to stop you being embarrassed when you forget to cancel them.  Bit of a shame really as I had a GT550 that had self cancelling indicators - at 70/80MPH these normally cancelled after 3 to 4 flashes and was really useful.

^
To be more precise, that would be 300 yards and 100m.


Good idea, let's make it 400 yds.  The next trick is to try the same thing in the same place at half the speed.  On the M1 though that could be a little less than safe.