Violation of the Eilenberger Rule: Epilog

[ka5ysy]

http://www.dualsportridersoflouisiana.c ... post151082

[angellr]

You were a test ride victim before, how did you think you would not be another one? Anyway, congrats on the new ride ... its a beauty!

[ka5ysy]

You were a test ride victim before, how did you think you would not be another one? Anyway, congrats on the new ride ... its a beauty!

Yea, yea... I know better. I have to say the Camhead engine is amazing. It rockets that extra 80 pounds along nicely, and the handling is outstanding. Besides, since I put all the mileage on the bike, I kinda hated to lose it given all the miles we were together. Those BMW nanites got me again.

As great a bike as the RR is/was, I have to admit that this RT is a better machine for long range riding, and a hoot around town.

The really great thing is that since I had 5 years experience in farkeling the RR, the RT took all of one week for most stuff, and two weeks for the seats to run out to Kontour for their rebuild.

[redwing]

you baaaad... bad.... bad..... bad
Very clean looking bike ....like the color.... glad you got it....
A local rider who has an R1150RT said once you ride a bike with fairing you'll never go back....maybe that's true???
Looking forward to a comparison to the two bikes....as time goes by.

Robert

[deilenberger]

A local rider who has an R1150RT said once you ride a bike with fairing you'll never go back....maybe that's true???
Robert

Untrue. My BMW history:

- Naked R65, added an R90S like shield. I enjoyed that bike a lot.
- '85 K100RT - full fairing. BIG mistake. I ended up hating that bike.
- 87 K75S (THE K75S..) - smaller fairing, I liked that bike a lot, except it was top heavy
- '04 R1150RS - medium size fairing. I grew to dislike the bike a bunch (mostly because of buzz, but also the fairing.. and whizzy brakes.)
' 07 R1200R - love it. Have 52,000 miles on it and can't imagine another bike I'd like better. Light low weight, easy to see where my feet will end up when I stop, does everything I want a bike to do.

I tried an R1200RT before I got the R12R - drove it as far as the exit of the dealer's lot, turned around and gave it back to them. Didn't like the weight, didn't like that I couldn't say with any certainty where my feet would end up when I stopped, and it also had whizzy brakes. More or less a scary 100 yard ride.

Good luck with the new bike! Now you know the rule holds true.. (Never ride a bike you don't intend to buy..)

[snag]

Predictable outcome if most of your riding is long distance. I rented a 2011 RT this year on our annual Arizona trip; prior years have been on a GS. I also spent some time on my buddy's K1300 GT. The GT is a license loser and a little tight in the knees, but the RT simply seduces you with the ease with which it eats miles. We had rain, snow, 50mph gusts and 32F temperatures, but I was warm and dry on the RT.

When I returned the bike to the dealer, I was ready to put a deposit on a new one when I got back home. That was two weeks ago and I've waffled back and forth since; great tourer .... 650lbs! - 650lbs .... Great tourer. The Bride would love the RT, but I dare not take her for a ride on one. I would have all of $26,000 into a new RT and would probably only get $10,000 for my '08, so drop $12,000 on the RR and suddenly the new RT is a $38,000 bike. Getting into Harley range!

I've got a new 23" CB coming and will wait to see how that works (windshield #4). A lot of this forum is taken up with windshield discussions and it strikes me that we are all looking for RT protection on a naked bike; not sure that's possible. Love the RT, but hate to think of all that bike around town. As I get weak with old age, I'd rather push an RR around the garage than an RT. One day I'm sure I'd drop the RT in the garage and then I'd really be pi**ed.

It wil be an interesting summer; nice to have these kind of dilemmas, most have much worse.

Doug

[ka5ysy]

Well, I have to say that at this point of comparison, I actually have no problem maneuvering the RT around the same tight areas that I ran the RR, and the RT in some instances is easier to ride. As a general rule, to me, there is no appreciable difference at slow speed maneuvering. I guess I have good balance and the fact that I practice the "slow race" technique a lot in traffic and when teaching Riders Edge classes tends to help with that. If you look around the net, you will see a lot of complaint about the RT being top-heavy and hard to ride slowly. I have to believe that the comments are from occasional riders who have had no formal training and have not learned to stay away from the front brake.

Snag: I took a ride a couple of years ago on the K12GT with the bride. She vetoed that thing after 5 minutes on the interstate and told me to go back to the dealership on a secondary road at less than 30mph. The buffeting she was getting was really bad. We took a ride on the new K16GTL, but that thing is big and long, and I realized that I am fully a dedicated boxer fan. The K is nice, but the RT and RR are better rides for me.

The RT has been on her radar for a long time as she love that seating position much better than the RR, even with the Rick Mayer seat on the bike. She was actually happy with the stock RT split seat, but I was not, so the Kontour was ordered. That is a fantastic seat, and she actually prefers that now. Since the thinks the bike is "cute" that is girl-speak for "It's cool.. buy it!"

I agree that a lot of us spent a whole lot of money for windscreens to avoid the buffeting that the BMW screens caused. My solution was the tilted CalSci, thus the choice of screen on the RT. It is a much better screen even fully down than the OEM.

As far as being a city commuter, I actually have no problem with that either. It is a hoot to zip around on, and draws a whole lot of comment. Don's problem with foot placement is valid to to restricted sight lines, but there is a trick to being able to stop on a specific spot that can be mastered without actually needing to see the point. That works mostly, but tonight I happened to stop and put a foot into an oil spill sitting in a depression in the road. Slightly thrilling when the foot slid, but otherwise uneventful.


Redwing: I am enjoying the fairing. The adjustable windscreen is great when combined with the CalSci screen. Very quiet ride without a lot of "up", and the couple of times I went for a ride in the rain, the fairing and screen kept me dry in very heavy rains at times.

Don: I know the rule is true: I get bit every so often so know the warning symptoms. The bike seduced me !

[MTBeemer]

I went from a 07 RT to an 08 R. I had the RT for almost 5 years (sold it last week) and it was a great bike, but it did have issues as Don mentioned above. It could be a handful at low speeds and I tired of having to pull off a ton of plastic to do simple tasks. Bought the R for my wife and ended up keeping it for myself. It is a much easier bike to ride and can be a good long distance bike as well as a bike that is fun around town. I'm betting you will love the RT, but will also miss the R.

[redwing]

ka5ysy...glad to hear you are liking the RT. The RT is geared more to riding long distances, two up, and that ain't bad. And riding at slow speed is an easy task...excellent.
I saw a part offered at Wunderlich for the R some time ago, but no longer. The part or paralever arm is offered for the RT. The claim is it changes the handling. From your evaluation handling seems not to be a concern. But IMHO I think one can never have to much information or options.

The wunderlich paralever might be a terrible farkel...? Does this part do what W. claims?

http://www.wunderlichamerica.com/motorc ... 61473.html

Robert

[ka5ysy]

Hi again Robert !

The RT handles quite nicely. This bike has the adjustable suspension option, and I usually ride it in the comfort mode (softer ride) due to the outstanding roads we have in LA. When I am riding twisties, the sport setting firms up everything and you have a nice road feel. I seldom ever run in the standard setting so no real opinions on that. I will play with it and see.

I have seen the adjustable paralever arm. I suppose it is useful to race setups, but I have no need to play with that, so no idea how it works. Looks nice though ...

More farkles on the way...

[Peter1200r]

Hi Doug,
Brilliant looking bike! I always thought the Polar Metallic colour was the best of the lot - pity it isn't a current colour, at least here in Australia.

I have had a couple of test rides on the R1200RT, the most recent being a 100 km ride this morning. A brand new 'fluid grey' 2012 SE model with the works, and 8 km on it, The sales guy said they assembled it yesterday, and the 8 km was a run down to the servo and back to fill the tank. So like you, I got to do the first break-in ride.

Anyway, something that concerned me slightly was that there was definitely a little more handlebar buzz on the RT at road speeds than I get on my 2009 R1200R (hexhead), which has nearly 60,000 km on it. I have the heavier Throttlemeister bar ends on mine, but I don't think that accounts for the difference. At idle, I think the RT was smoother though.

I am careful with the valve adjustment and TB sync on my bike (I do it myself), but I would be very surprised if I do it better than the guys who set up the brand new RT at the factory. I know that many people say that the BMW boxers smooth out when they are broken in, but I am wondering if anyone else has noticed that their older hex head seems smoother at speed than a brand new new cam head?

Cheers,
Peter

[ka5ysy]

Good Morning Peter:

I notice the buzz a bit at speed right now, and I also have the heavy Throttlemeister bars on the bike. Interesting thing is that these bar ends were put on the RR when I initially mounted the original style GS handguards to help with the buzz in the RR handlebars. Generally, most of the boxer engines I have ever fooled with tend to smooth out after 12000-15000 miles, so I have no doubt that you will see a difference after that time on the camhead engines.
One thing I noticed riding this past weekend is that the length of the bars and the end weights have an interesting effect: farther out toward the end of the bars vibrate a bit more than the clamp ends, so simply moving my hands inboard helped a lot. I have the Wunderlich Vario bar risers that can be move outward as well as back, so I may play with moving the handlebars outboard and see how the resonance buzz is effected.

A quick solution a lot of the RT guys have done is to put grip gaitors (foam padding) over the bars, and they seem to think that stops the buss they feel. I have done a couple of 400 mile days playing with the bike, but really do not have any problem with the stock setup as the combined cruise control and throttlemeisters for around town make for being able to avoid long contact with the handlebars for either hand. This bike rocks !! (The adjustable windscreen is outstanding )

One thing to remember about the camhead engine is that it has a different valve adjustment setup using shims instead of the setup on the hexheads, so you would have to have a set of shims to be able to play with adjustment. The good thing is that there should not be as much need to check the camhead settings. TB sync seems to be the same setup, though I have not really tried it. Been too busy riding

Latest farkle: three lamp HID lighting upgrade. Outstanding !!.

[RT-Mike]

Congrats on your new RT. I went from an RT to an R a couple of years ago and have yet to regret the move.

The RT is everything you need and more for distance touring. The biggest downfall for me was that the wonderful fairing that protects so well, would cook you in hot summertime heat.

Does it get very warm in La. ?? J/K, enjoy your new ride, the RT is a mile eater for sure.