General topics » No longer a tourer

This is now a sports bike.that can tour.
Rode my three year old 33k. mile RS to try out my dealer's demo 1250 RS today, an imperial blue Exclusive fully loaded apart from no back rack.
First thing I noticed apart from the TFT and rear seat was the lack of sideways and forward vibration it's a lot smoother and quieter at idling. I pull away on the Z8s which are harder and pointier than my Road 5s. Two auto suspension settings road and dynamic and four traction settings rain, road, dynamic and pro dynamic where you can personalize your own settings - I remember when blah blah...
I chose road and road to get me out of town on the A40, the bike feels lighter - tyre profile? The TFT needs more time than I've got, large MPH, time, temp, gear and radius curve rev counter. Demo bike low revs sadly.Through the traffic of central London steering is accurate, brakes are sharper, engine is smoother and quicker.
On the A40 40mph avge. speed cameras require cruise control set at 42mph but delighted to find I can change up without disengaging not so pleased with with the nav angle it's unreadable. 42 in fourth comfortably where before my bike preferred third.
Up to 50 feeling nimble, planted and precise. Now no limit at last, filtering at speed is when it came alive, think about a manoeuvre and it's done, no idea where the headroom is.
Start of M40 there are three pronounced bumps, before I would warn my pillion to brace, now it's unnecessary.. Triple figures appear far too quickly and the headroom is still unknown and I'm only doing 5k.revs.
Coming off the M40 onto long sweepers think about overtaking and I'm effortlessly past, the power delivery and throttle response is immediate. The suspension now on dynamic auto seems not to notice the banding, rough surfaces or lack of aggregate it remains steadfastly on track like a GS without the wallowing.
30,40,50 all calm and serene over 50 she flies -as Joey Dunlop said "There is a grey blur and a green blur. I try and stay on the grey one."
The automatic hill start set at 5 degrees made me question my sanity as I had no idea why I was struggling to park.
I'm still smiling from that ride, I ordered one in Feb. it'll be here early Sept. It will have been worth the wait.
Thanks to Phil at BMW Pk. Lane for scrubbing the tyres and brakes and risking his only demo bike.

Nice write up,the 1250 may be a better bike but your 1200 is far prettier and less Kawasaki like.

Okal,
Are you a poet in disguise - that was a lyrical and picture painting review
I love Z8s and I am delighted to see they are still being fitted ...

I've always thought of my 1200 as a sports bike that can tour. Good spot on the changing up without disengaging cruise control, I'd not spotted that.

Thanks for the interesting report. Got to agree with the post above though about preferring the look of the 1200. What do you mean by “headroom”?

that has cheered me up as was in 2 minds as to whether to take the ordered bike when it arrives in September. great write up, hope to have the test ride on the demo shortly. found your point about parking up and the hill start interesting will need to check that out.

if only they did it in lupin blue!!!!

Graham

Zitat von okal im Beitrag #1

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speed cameras require cruise control set at 42mph but delighted to find I can change up without disengaging not so pleased with with the nav angle it's unreadable.

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Zitat von Jetpilot5 im Beitrag #5

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Thanks for the interesting report. Got to agree with the post above though about preferring the look of the 1200. What do you mean by “headroom”?

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Zitat von Lee im Beitrag #7

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Zitat von okal im Beitrag #1

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speed cameras require cruise control set at 42mph but delighted to find I can change up without disengaging not so pleased with with the nav angle it's unreadable.

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Thanks for the report.
With the current cruise control you can change your speed up and down without disengaging the cruise.
The angle of the BMW Navigator is poor as delivered but it only takes a few seconds to change the angle.

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I assume that you mean with clutchless gear changes - or am I wrong? Operating the clutch on my brand new RT disengages the cruise.

Thanks all for your responses would love to hear how your test drives go, US riders warm welcome in London awaits.
Andy, When I was growing up I tried poetry and bikes, the bikes worked better.
Headroom is where the limit is, function must trump form, hill start can/should be set to manual, cruise control will cancel if you use anything other than the throttle to slow down.

Got it. Thanks!

Zitat von okal im Beitrag #11

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cruise control will cancel if you use anything other than the throttle to slow down.

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Thank you for the assessment. Mine never was a tourer (it will tour).

It's, quintessentially, a motorcycle. Before marketing and identity matching became commonplace they were all motorcycles.

Speaking of touring, I recently returned from a 1700-mile ride on my RS and on two legs of my trip got 59 mpg while riding at a steady 60 mph. I probably could have been able to get even better fuel mileage if I hadn't had my SHAD saddlebags installed.