Miss Alf is just under 9 months pregnant so as a special treat I took her along to our new local BMW dealer on Saturday to witness the launch of 3 new bikes – F800R, S1000RR 2015 and the R1200R WC. I had no real interest in the first two but the R1200R seemed like an interesting combination - slightly re-tuned 12 WC motor, S1000 based forks rather than a telelever, 4 maps – road, rain, dynamic and user, D-ESA, gear assist (AKA quick shifter) and traction control. Quite a long way removed from my manual everything 1150 POS which hasn’t even got ABS.
I hadn’t ridden since last Oct and the roads were greasy, salty and slippery – perfect conditions for a test ride on a brand new bike. Having only recently moved to the area I had no idea of a good test route and had to rely on a predefined route from the helpful sales guy which I immediately forgot and then got lost. Anyway 2 things were of interest to me – the lack of telelever and the quick shifter. I’m a big fan of telelever equipped bikes and suspected that the move back to a telescopic front end may well have been based on improved financials for BMW rather than benefiting the riding experience – i.e. economies of scale with the S1000XX range. Consequently I wasn’t expecting to like the new forks. But I was wrong – the front end is rock solid and despite my best efforts proved to be pretty much unshakable on very slippery roads and with minimal noticeable fork dive even under very heavy braking. Worth noting that the test bike was equipped with PR4’s which as far as I’m concerned are the best wet weather tyres available.
The gear assist was a new experience for me – I’m aware that it’s been available on the RT and GS WC bikes for a while and have to admit to being quite envious of Nutty’s QS equipped WC on last year’s Wales trip. It took me a while to get used to it and I found I had to consciously control gear changes as the act of throttling off and clutching in is second nature to me. But what an improvement – gear changes are almost instantaneous and the experience is quite addictive, I found myself changing gears all the time just to experience the QS. I’m very impressed and want one.
The R1200R certainly felt very fast although I suspect that a lot of this is due to the wind blast. When I take the screen off my old 1150 it feels smaller, more nimble and faster. Overall the R1200R WC is quite a hooligan weapon – although heavily reined in by the restrictive traction control. I’d like another go on the 12R but next time on twisty dry B roads that I know well rather than wet and slippery dual carriageways and A roads.
I hadn’t ridden since last Oct and the roads were greasy, salty and slippery – perfect conditions for a test ride on a brand new bike. Having only recently moved to the area I had no idea of a good test route and had to rely on a predefined route from the helpful sales guy which I immediately forgot and then got lost. Anyway 2 things were of interest to me – the lack of telelever and the quick shifter. I’m a big fan of telelever equipped bikes and suspected that the move back to a telescopic front end may well have been based on improved financials for BMW rather than benefiting the riding experience – i.e. economies of scale with the S1000XX range. Consequently I wasn’t expecting to like the new forks. But I was wrong – the front end is rock solid and despite my best efforts proved to be pretty much unshakable on very slippery roads and with minimal noticeable fork dive even under very heavy braking. Worth noting that the test bike was equipped with PR4’s which as far as I’m concerned are the best wet weather tyres available.
The gear assist was a new experience for me – I’m aware that it’s been available on the RT and GS WC bikes for a while and have to admit to being quite envious of Nutty’s QS equipped WC on last year’s Wales trip. It took me a while to get used to it and I found I had to consciously control gear changes as the act of throttling off and clutching in is second nature to me. But what an improvement – gear changes are almost instantaneous and the experience is quite addictive, I found myself changing gears all the time just to experience the QS. I’m very impressed and want one.
The R1200R certainly felt very fast although I suspect that a lot of this is due to the wind blast. When I take the screen off my old 1150 it feels smaller, more nimble and faster. Overall the R1200R WC is quite a hooligan weapon – although heavily reined in by the restrictive traction control. I’d like another go on the 12R but next time on twisty dry B roads that I know well rather than wet and slippery dual carriageways and A roads.