Fuel Pump Controller

Last Friday, coming back from the Valley, my R1200RT died suddenly as I reached Akerley blvd. A call to CSA got me home in their special bike wagon (nice!). Looking on the internet led to a guess it might be the pump controller, which is a common failure, apparently. I rigged up a bypass cable and fed 12 volts directly to the pump, at which point the bike started. I then tore the defective controller apart and made a neat bypass cable using the old connectors.
Now for the good part. Called Atlantic Motoplex Monday, received the part today (Tues.) and since I only bought the bike two weeks ago, there was no charge. Good service deserves praise, and I consider this excellent service from AM.  My bike is now running with the new part installed and ready to take it to Moncton Thursday to have the rear flange recall done. Can't fault Atlantic Motoplex, but BMW could be doing better :-)
I will be carrying the bypass cable from now on, but give me a call if you need it temporarily. (I understand the pump controller is a recall item for the GS's in Canada).

It's a shame engineers are still designing products in what appears to be such a stupid manner. Simple solution would have been to design the fail mode to bypass and supply "constant pressure" fuel. Yes, there would be a little bit of fuel evaporation, but you'd be mobile for heavens sake.

Very similar to the crazy radiator cap design most vehicles use. Fail mode is cap closed = no cooling which leads to engine overheat/failure if not addressed quickly. I can't think of a reason that the reverse wouldn't be better - fail mode is cap open = no heating - still operational, nowhere near optimal, but still operational and you can actually drive/ride to buy the replacement part rather than being towed!

Perhaps I'm missing something but both of these issues seem simple things that have been complicated in the quest for the ideal with complete disregard for the realities of real world failures.

Well said we should vote you in as president...

Ken - Nice to hear about the good service from Atlantic Motoplex. The controller on my bike failed the day I was to pick it up (Greg replaced it within a few days). I haven't yet made up the bypass cable, but I haven't had an issue with it either.

I cut the plug off the old controller and started to make up a bypass cable to carry with me. Read in the BMWMOA that the black replacement controllers do not have the same problem. The new controller on Glen's RT was a black model. Go figure.