GS to RT - Opinions?

[mylovelyhorse]

I test rode an R1150RT some months back. Here's my impressions:

- The seat's too wide & my knees (28" inside leg) too bent
- Seating position felt tipped forward compared to the GS
- My collarbone grumbled after 40 miles or so (compared to 200 before
it grumbled on the GS on the Welsh National Rally)
- The engine doesn't feel as flexible
- The whole thing weighs too much & I felt I could feel the weight
when chucking it around
- I like Tourances. I don't particularly like BT020s
- You don't get the "sitting up above the crowd" feeling that you get on the GS
- The fairing's good in bad weather (it rained on the test ride, hard)
but only once above 30 mph

I still have a GS didn't get the RT.

 

[Steptoe]

- The seat's too wide & my knees (28" inside leg) too bent
- Seating position felt tipped forward compared to the GS
.

The seat height is adjustable, with more range than on a GS.

 

[ianboydsnr]

I test rode an R1150RT some months back. Here's my impressions:

- The seat's too wide & my knees (28" inside leg) too bent
- Seating position felt tipped forward compared to the GS
- My collarbone grumbled after 40 miles or so (compared to 200 before
it grumbled on the GS on the Welsh National Rally)
- The engine doesn't feel as flexible
- The whole thing weighs too much & I felt I could feel the weight
when chucking it around
- I like Tourances. I don't particularly like BT020s
- You don't get the "sitting up above the crowd" feeling that you get on the GS
- The fairing's good in bad weather (it rained on the test ride, hard)
but only once above 30 mph

I still have a GS didn't get the RT.

I found plenty of leg space, even on the lowest setting, and I have trouble with most bikes, seating position is great once you chock up the front of the seat, the engine is more powerfull, fit the Gs induction tubes and it performes as well as the Gs for mid range, you soon get used to the weight, after you get used to the front being heavy it rides like a sportsbike, I have both a Gs and a Rt, both fantastic bikes

 

[GS TRV]

i'm too young for an RT

 

[Steptoe]

i'm too young for an RT

Don't worry. Knowledge comes with age, same as wisdom.

 

[moly]

DEAUVILLE no no no no no no its not even in the same leauge

 

[daveg]

I've had:

R1100RT and R1100GS at the same time
R1150RT and R1200GS ditto
and now R1200RT and R1150GSA which I think is the best combination IF you can have both.

I've tried to live with just one or the other but always end up yearning for both

 

[Wrigsby1]

When my M94 gearbox was getting rebuilt last year I bought a cheap bike to soak up some big miles up and down the country. I saw a cheap PC800 and went for it and found it's engine was similar to the Deaville. i used ot have Hondas and instructed for years so Deauvilles were popular etc.

Well I did about 6k miles in a couple of months and it was reliable, economical, cheap on tyres , could be lugged up with stuff etc but was so boring. I used to courier and thought it would have made the perfect London Commuter as it was so easy to lane split but again sooooo boring. Sorry Mr Honda!

Short on power in the country and lacking in smiles. I had the same off a St11 many years ago. I eBayed it on a trip just for the hell of it and bought a K11LT at short notice. The K is great but it's still not the GS.

The RT is the modern KLT but it still is not as much fun as the GS.

There is "sooo much Luurve" for RT's coming out that I wonder if in fact it's a closet RT forum

 

[MikeP]

There is "sooo much Luurve" for RT's coming out that I wonder if in fact it's a closet RT forum

Probably some truth in that (as far as the older, BMW owners are concerned) and it's probably explained by the fact that the RT is as much a signature BMW as the GS has become lately. I know that I have done a lot of miles behind an R-RT or K-RT fairing.

You have to remember that until BMW came-up with the RT, there was nothing really like it. None of the major manufacturers produced a bike with such a well integrated fairing, the rest looked what they were, a badly finished plastic bin attached by odd bits of dexion-shelf rail off-cuts.

To have ridden something with an after-thought, or worse an after-market, fairing makes you realise just how good the early RT's were. No matter how much I try, I can never forget riding a Honda with an after-market fairing and finding that in the wet, the thing was so badly designed/matched to the bike, that even after the rain stopped, I was still in my own little storm caused by the spray being sucked-up inside the fairing and chucked back over me.

 

[moly]

most gser riders are secret R T admirers ,but thet like to dress up like charlie and urine with white alpine strar boots and off road gear for the macho look!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Myke Rocks]

Probably some truth in that (as far as the older, BMW owners are concerned) and it's probably explained by the fact that the RT is as much a signature BMW as the GS has become lately. I know that I have done a lot of miles behind an R-RT or K-RT fairing.

You have to remember that until BMW came-up with the RT, there was nothing really like it. None of the major manufacturers produced a bike with such a well integrated fairing, the rest looked what they were, a badly finished plastic bin attached by odd bits of dexion-shelf rail off-cuts.

To have ridden something with an after-thought, or worse an after-market, fairing makes you realise just how good the early RT's were. No matter how much I try, I can never forget riding a Honda with an after-market fairing and finding that in the wet, the thing was so badly designed/matched to the bike, that even after the rain stopped, I was still in my own little storm caused by the spray being sucked-up inside the fairing and chucked back over me.

Wouldn't by any chance have been a Deauville?

A fairing so badly "designed" that the bike would offer more wind protection without it!
Myke

 

[MikeP]

Wouldn't by any chance have been a Deauville?

No. It was a CB-something-or-other. The inside of the "fairing" was a mass of metal bars and glass-fibre matting. The wiring for the indicators and lights defies description.

The available Nortons and Triumphs of the time were no better and bailer-twine was in every (Craven) pannier to tie on the bits that inevitably fell-off on each ride.

Try telling the young folk today and they won't believe you!

 

[Steptoe]

I had a kawasaki fitted with a rickman fairing.

The fairing was fitted so far forward that when it rained the water used to go over the screen and around the fairing before coming back down to be dumped into your lap and face, same for the wind, offering no weather protection whatsoever.

And fibreglass splinters were the norm when ever your hand brushed the inside.

And the fitting kit included sections of dexion.

 

[MattW]

No. It was a CB-something-or-other. The inside of the "fairing" was a mass of metal bars and glass-fibre matting. The wiring for the indicators and lights defies description.

The available Nortons and Triumphs of the time were no better and bailer-twine was in every (Craven) pannier to tie on the bits that inevitably fell-off on each ride.

Try telling the young folk today and they won't believe you!

Sounds familiar - I had a CB650 with some big white ill-fitting fibreglass monstrosity bolted to it. About the only thing to commend it was that it looked a bit like a plod bike in a car's rear view mirror so they got out of your way

 

[ebbo]

I had a Rickman Polaris on a CX500. it was pure heaven riding behind that fairing

Looked rather like this one...

 

[jonnie comet]

I had a Rickman Polaris on a CX500. it was pure heaven riding behind that fairing

Looked rather like this one...

Ahhh..ebbo, you jogged my memory nicely there....I was trying to remember that monstrosity that riders used to fit on their CX's/Goldwings etc...The 'Rickman Polaris'....I decided not to fit one to my CX500 as I thought that it would spoil the looks......

 

[ebbo]

I thought that it would spoil the looks......

Spoil its looks! Cheeky monkey

 

[gabriel_gs]

Gawd... not to add more "lurve" to the debate, but I too have been thinking about an RT

I never take my GS off road - it's purely a commuting machine. But lately (with the lovely weather we've been having) I've started thinking that actually for 50 miles a day I'd rather a little more comfort and weather protection than my GS affords... I actually quite fancy the idea of a radio too

Added to that is the fact that I've always thought they were a handsome bike and I'd be kidding myself if there wasn't a small element of wanting to feel like I was riding a police bike (in a 'cool - look at me!' way - not a 'white helmet, reflective stickers and people will think i AM a copper' kind of way!)

Price-wise I guess I could almost do a straight swap with my GS, but my worry is this - what's it like through Central London traffic? My commute takes me up the M3, A316 through Richmond, then A4 into town through Hammersmith/Kensington

It's only really the last few miles where it gets 'shoulder to shoulder', but is a RT really too cumbersome to zoom around Soho on?

Also, I know it's not physically wider than a GS, but with all that plastic up front, is it as much of a pain to park as I imagine? Central London bike parking does get awfully 'cosy' and it can be a bit of a jigsaw puzzle getting in as it is

Answers on a postcard...

 

[Wrigsby1]

Should be an RT get together but mind to include a decent car park

Once took a K12LT around central London. Much fun and "the panniers are narrower than the mirrors" is the mantra

We sold a London customer an RT and he made use of the plastic pannier lids plenty! Bit worried with his next buy, an ADV with ali boxes as he might have struggled with the glancing blows

 

[gabriel_gs]

Not a bad idea - do a "swapsies-rideout"