My 2011 R1200GS, Beta 1409, and ESA Calibration - Why and When??

[David McDougall]

Hi,

I was playing around with the Beta 1409 on my 2011 R1200GS but was afraid to try the ESA calibration.  As far as I can tell, my ESA is working fine.  So, I have a couple of questions:

1.  Why, and when, would somebody want to calibrate their ESA?
2.  Is there a risk that calibrating the ESA might screw something up?  (i.e. if it ain't broke, don't fix it).

Thanks for any insights and clarification.

Sincerely,

David McDougall

[kobus]

A few reasons for calibrating the ESA off the top of my head:

1) When you get a error code regarding ESA calibration that is corrupt. In this case your ESA will not be adjustable until you do a calibration.
2) Some people have reported that their ESA gets "stuck" in a certain position, ie. it will stay on a 2 helmet setting. Calibration seems to sort this out most of the time.
3) After market shock fitters - they use GS-911 to calibrate the new ESA compatible after market shock.
4) Naturally when you replace a shock.
5) After a few years of use the ESA starts to loose a bit of range.  Recalibration restores the operation to the full preload range.

For what it's worth, I must have done it a hundred times or so on our test bike with no adverse effects.

When you should NOT do it:
If you have after market shocks that are NOT ESA compatible. This will typically raise an error during calibration in your cluster and can only be cleared by refitting the original ESA sensors (which by now is typically "lost").