180 miles around the leafy lanes, villages, main roads and towns of Kent.
Thoughts:
The bike was red.
The ergonomics of the bike feel much the same as the old bike, you could tell it was a 1200 family bike just by sitting on it.
I have small hands but was not troubled by the spacing between the grip and the bike's left hand controls, horn, indicator switch and whirly wheel.
The singe switch indicator is fine. I regularly ride bikes with both the 'traditional' BMW layout and the Japanese single switch, never encountering any difficulty switching between both.
The screen vibrates / flexes. I only really became conscious of this when I first set off. Tilting the screen upwards a bit reduced the flexing and / or I just ignored it. The screen's adjustment knob was easy to use on the move.
The bike's engine spins up well and its charicteristics favour short shifting up the gearbox.
The bike I rode was not fitted with a quickshifter but clutches gearshifts up the box under acceleration were smooth and easy. The acceleration / pick-up was certainly good but nothing extraordinary.
Yes, there was a clunk into first gear.
The bike favoured blips on the throttle to when changing down gears.
The brakes are good, the ABS not intrusive.
The soft suspension option is horrible, just as it is on other ESA equipped bikes I have ridden. Normal and hard are fine. I didn't muck about in the 'one up, two up, two up with luggage options'.
The cruise control works, just as it does on my 1600.
The mirrors, once I had adjusted them a touch, were fine.
The tyres (I have no idea what they were) were, according to the TPS at least, at the correct pressures and were as 'awesome' as one might expect. They were not squared off too badly. The bike did shimmy across road markings and get light at the front on hard acceleration, nothing untoward at all.
The analogue speedometer was easy to read.
The digital information screen was easy to read and it was similarly easy to flick between its options.
The top portion of the rev counter was obscured by the bottom edge of the Nav V's cradle.
The whirly wheel worked the Nav V's screen changes easily. The device's screen was in easy 'finger poking' range.
The exhaust note through the standard can was fine, not intrusive.
The seat is odd. BMW seem to have gone for what feels like a gel filled seat. I prefer a harder seat. Softer seats are fine but 'squish' on longer journeys, albeit 180 miles with a breakfast stop is not that far. Seats, like screens, bar positions, suspension settings, helmets, gloves and ultimately how hard and for how long you twist the throttle for are a personal thing anyway.
The bike was fitted with BMW's own Vario topbox; no panniers. I had forgotten how good the Vario feature is. It took a full face Arai, my gloves and Nav V quite hapilly when I made the (compulsory) stop at a Tesco carpark.
The engine's noise is bizarre, sounding as if the big end bearing is on the way out. You don't notice it on fast acceleration as the noise of the exhaust obscures it. At lower speeds and when cruising (neutral throttle) at higher speeds there is an obtrusive noise, despite wearing good earplugs. It certainly wasn't there on the vanilla 1200 engine versions of the bike that I clocked-up many miles on. I found it awful.
If I were looking for a 1200 GS type bike, I would certainly also try out the offerings from Ducatti, Triumph, KTM and Yamaha to see how they compared. I would also ride a late generation pre-water cooled 1200 GS, too. I might well also wait to see what the S1000F had to offer, assuming it does launch later this year or early next.
If I were looking for a 'Touring' type bike, I would try the 1600 and the 1200 RT, too. If nothing else it would be interesting to see if the RT's additional fairing deaden or increased the dreadful background engine 'big end failure' noise.
Was it, based on 180 miles, a Road to Damascuss experience? No.
Thoughts:
The bike was red.
The ergonomics of the bike feel much the same as the old bike, you could tell it was a 1200 family bike just by sitting on it.
I have small hands but was not troubled by the spacing between the grip and the bike's left hand controls, horn, indicator switch and whirly wheel.
The singe switch indicator is fine. I regularly ride bikes with both the 'traditional' BMW layout and the Japanese single switch, never encountering any difficulty switching between both.
The screen vibrates / flexes. I only really became conscious of this when I first set off. Tilting the screen upwards a bit reduced the flexing and / or I just ignored it. The screen's adjustment knob was easy to use on the move.
The bike's engine spins up well and its charicteristics favour short shifting up the gearbox.
The bike I rode was not fitted with a quickshifter but clutches gearshifts up the box under acceleration were smooth and easy. The acceleration / pick-up was certainly good but nothing extraordinary.
Yes, there was a clunk into first gear.
The bike favoured blips on the throttle to when changing down gears.
The brakes are good, the ABS not intrusive.
The soft suspension option is horrible, just as it is on other ESA equipped bikes I have ridden. Normal and hard are fine. I didn't muck about in the 'one up, two up, two up with luggage options'.
The cruise control works, just as it does on my 1600.
The mirrors, once I had adjusted them a touch, were fine.
The tyres (I have no idea what they were) were, according to the TPS at least, at the correct pressures and were as 'awesome' as one might expect. They were not squared off too badly. The bike did shimmy across road markings and get light at the front on hard acceleration, nothing untoward at all.
The analogue speedometer was easy to read.
The digital information screen was easy to read and it was similarly easy to flick between its options.
The top portion of the rev counter was obscured by the bottom edge of the Nav V's cradle.
The whirly wheel worked the Nav V's screen changes easily. The device's screen was in easy 'finger poking' range.
The exhaust note through the standard can was fine, not intrusive.
The seat is odd. BMW seem to have gone for what feels like a gel filled seat. I prefer a harder seat. Softer seats are fine but 'squish' on longer journeys, albeit 180 miles with a breakfast stop is not that far. Seats, like screens, bar positions, suspension settings, helmets, gloves and ultimately how hard and for how long you twist the throttle for are a personal thing anyway.
The bike was fitted with BMW's own Vario topbox; no panniers. I had forgotten how good the Vario feature is. It took a full face Arai, my gloves and Nav V quite hapilly when I made the (compulsory) stop at a Tesco carpark.
The engine's noise is bizarre, sounding as if the big end bearing is on the way out. You don't notice it on fast acceleration as the noise of the exhaust obscures it. At lower speeds and when cruising (neutral throttle) at higher speeds there is an obtrusive noise, despite wearing good earplugs. It certainly wasn't there on the vanilla 1200 engine versions of the bike that I clocked-up many miles on. I found it awful.
If I were looking for a 1200 GS type bike, I would certainly also try out the offerings from Ducatti, Triumph, KTM and Yamaha to see how they compared. I would also ride a late generation pre-water cooled 1200 GS, too. I might well also wait to see what the S1000F had to offer, assuming it does launch later this year or early next.
If I were looking for a 'Touring' type bike, I would try the 1600 and the 1200 RT, too. If nothing else it would be interesting to see if the RT's additional fairing deaden or increased the dreadful background engine 'big end failure' noise.
Was it, based on 180 miles, a Road to Damascuss experience? No.
I wear earplugs.
). It's the best bike I've owned or ridden.
there is one worse thing about the WC - the big hole in the rear wheel is not as shiny as the air/oil cooled 1200 
