Computer Diagnostic GS-911 Tool For BMWs
Ricardo Perez
Since we have a few BMW bikes to maintain we decided to get one of these tools. My bikes are a 2008 K1200S and a 2010 R1200RT. I've used the tool a few times on both bikes and two other friend's bikes. I'm impressed with the information that you can view with this tool and even better are the different functions that you can perform on various systems. Something to note is that the newer the bike the more information and functions that you can perform.
The software included with the purchase is strictly Windows but it ran perfectly fine on a Mac running a Windows emulation program. As a matter of fact it ran better in that way than on my Windows Laptop. The laptop is older than the Mac but it's one of the higher cost laptops, i.e., it cost more than the Mac. There is also limited functionality on certain phones (no iPhones!).
Software running on a MacBook Air
A detail review of this tool will follow after I have used it much more. At this time I do want to report that my K1200S seems to be idling and running at slow speed much better than before. I also used it to help bleed the ABS module that I had replaced when I purchased the bike earlier this year. That made a big difference with the front brake feel. I had run an entire bottle of brake fluid (12 oz) through the system before I did the ABS cycle function. I do have a MityVac but did not use it when I was doing the bleed. The MityVac might (should?) have done a better job than regular bleeding but cycling the ABS module is best and there is no way of doing that in the garage or under a shade tree.
I'll give a thumbs up to the software also. It seems to be updated several times a year. I like that. Being a techie I hate stale software. As you can see from the picture above I'm running the beta version. If you don't want to be at the bleeding edge stick to the release versions but it's easy to downgrade if you need to do that.
Short and to the point
No rating of this product yet but it looks like it will be a high rating. In addition, with software upgrades it can only get better. I recommend this product if you do a lot of your own maintenance. Heck, for me, it's worth half the cost just to be able to reset the service reminder.
Warning: If shopping for one of these be careful because there are Chinese copies out there. The Chinese copies are not supported by the manufacturer and you won't be able to upgrade the software of your unit.
Thanks for reading...
tsp