On a ride in the Shenandoah valley I was coming off a fairly straight stretch of road and just entering a left hand decreasing radius with the cruise control set at 60. As the turn tightened I applied a bit of rear break to bleed off some speed. The bike did not slow down. Over the next 3-4 seconds I continually applied more rear break pressure until the Ultra started shaking/wobbling and the pucker factor was at least 8 out of 10. By now I grabbed for the front brake and as soon as I touched it the bike smoothed out, I regained some semblance of control and composure.

Now that my brain was out of "I'm gonna die!" mode I realized almost immediately what had transpired. A couple of controlled "tests" and sure enough, the rear break was not disengaging the cruise control. During those few fleeting seconds the engine, under command of the cruise control, was trying to maintain 60mph while my right foot on the break was trying to do something less than that. I applied enough rear breaking that the anti-lock kicked in and contributed to the unusual shaking/wobbling feel. This was probably a good thing and the fact that the front break did disengage the cruise was even better.

The rest of my trip I left the cruise control turned off.

I'm curious if anyone else has experienced similar issues? I could not help but think of Toyota and some of the "uncontrolled acceleration" issues they have been facing in their cars.

Anyway, all's well that ends well and the bike is now in the shop. I should find out in a few days what went wrong.

 

I would have crapped my pants if that had happened to me.

 

Runs off the brake light switch I think.
Check your brake light?

I hate using cruise on the bike. I use it when I can't feel my right hand anymore..

I also hate using it on the car. Must be a "control" thing

 

I've never tried to disengage my cruise with the rear brake. I almost always use the method of rolling the throttle grip forward, so I can do some engine braking. If I need to slow immediately, I'll tap the front brake.

Now I'm curious if the rear brakes don't disengage the cruise....

 

I'm a bit curious - why didn't you pull in the clutch when the problem became apparent?

That should have disengaged the cruise control but more importantly would have taken power off the rear wheel and let you control your speed.

 

They are 5 ways to turn off the cruise control.
One of the cruise disconnects is connected to your "rear brake switch".
So when using your rear brake only, your brake light is not coming on either.

It's a simple fix "new rear brake swtich".

I use the cruise control all the time and love it.
I have the habbit of just a tap on the front brake to disengage. So I had the problem and didn't know it for a while.

I had noticed the rear break not disengaging it, but I always forgot to tell them about it because of my habbit of tapping the front break.
I think I even went through a "state inspection" and a "25,000 mile service". Makes you feel good about spending $380 for a service huh?

 

I agree, sounds like a rear brake swithch problem. I don't know exactly what I would have done, but the clutch and then the front brake probably would have been involved, along with the right thumb to try to get the cruise to decelerate. I'm glad all ended well for you.

 

I was thinking this as well, but usually the cruise wont even engage if the switch is out.

Beary

 

If the switch is "shorted" (usually melted together) to a closed circuit it will not let the cruise activate, but if the switch is bad so that it does not close the circuit when the brake is applied then the cruise would activate and the pedal would not de-activate.


I had originally wrote about how there were 5 ways to disengage the cruise, and my question was why the OP only used 1 and let the "pucker factor" come into play, but I see that TFB edited his reply to add the 5 way statement, so I will do away with mine.

 

My bike at 40 K has been through 2 rear ones and one front brake light switch. Pretty sad for such an important part. My bike does not have cruse control. As sorry as these (light duty) switches are if yours are no better on a bike with cruse control I would make it a habit of practicing brake and then instinctive cruse off switch. The clutch is a third option and should work but would be my last option. Engine would not over-rev Most all modern cruse have an over-rev built into them so they sense the engine reving too fast. They would sense it as a spinning wheel on a slick road and turn them-self off. When my front one went it would work and then it would not and back to working. Using cruse control with junk like these switches is like playing Russian Roulette. Just my opinion.