Goodbye R850R, hello R1200S ...

[hirsty]

Woohoo! Finally made the upgrade...

Only thing that has put me off the bike for so long was the price in the UK which is crazy - you have to walk past a lot of class-leading machines for £9K / $18K. Anyway, found a dealer with a pre-registered machine but new & 4-miles only on the clock - and crucially nearly 25% off RRP. Bike is completely stock with no options other than heated-grips, but I don't really need anymore. Dealer was happy to take my previous '05 R850R as part-exchange at trade book price unseen, so I set off on Friday night for a cold wet 800-mile round trip from London to Edinburgh to do the deal:

Token dealership shot:


Scotland / England border:


The Angel of The North, near Newcastle:


Nearly home:


Shock / exhaust / shaft covered in #!%$ !



First impressions? Fabulous bike, somewhat intimidated by new tyres / brakes + big power hike for the first 20-minutes, but soon relaxed into it and now feel right at home. It's a strange mix of familiar from the 850R with a brand-new riding position, but quite a jump up to 122bhp from 70bhp & a considerable weight reduction.

- rear design underneath isn't great (exposed battery?!). Needs a hugger.
- seat is too hard for my tush currently, hopefully one or other will break-in soon?
- ergos seemingly v.comfy for all day rides, roomier than expected
- fuel light coming on earlier than I'd hoped, c.110-miles? Will that improve?
- screen is good, but will probably get double-bubble though soon

Power & torque are fabulous in all gears at all speeds - 70mph just feels like tootling along ... I'm going to have to watch that on the road! I've enjoyed reading all the 1150R & 1200R stuff on here, but decided that if I don't get a sportier bike this time then I probably never will. Good chance I will go back to an R12R or K12S with my next bike (or one after), so will definitely stay in touch with you all. Just looking forward to growing into this one now, so thanks to all again for all the support during my "R period".




Dan

[boxermania]

Dan

Congrats ofn your new bike, it sure looks good. I think you will enjoy it tremendously, your mileage should inprove to somewhere 160 to 170 miles before the light comes on, just around 4 gallons to fill up.

Make sure you don't lug the engine and insure you use the whole rpm range to get those rings broken in as you will use a bit of oil until that happens. Keep you eye on the oil level.

Just for my information, being that the pound is 2.01 vs US dollar. What did you end paying for the bike......just the bike. They are selling right at ~ $10,995 here.

BTW, the 850 made it to the US but didn't enjoy much success as the US public favors larger engines and BMW pulled it off, however, I always had a soft spot in my heart because that engine combination, IMO, was the right size for the opposed cylinders......it ran very smooth, unfortunately its weight was comparable to the larger CC counterparts.

[hirsty]

$11K USD would be great! The bike lists at £9,200 here (around $18K?) and I paid £7,150 all in, including the factory heated grips. That's still expensive here, but full-price is crazy - this dealer ended up with three bikes, of which he's done one in Boxer Cup colours and also pre-registered mine to qualify in his sales figures. The only other BMW that gets discounted in the UK is the K12R, for much the same reasons.

His best sellers are the F800S & ST apparently.

For reference, my "used" R12S was exactly the same price as the brand new '08 GSX-R600 will be at launch next month. The '08 CBR1000RR Fireblade has also just launched here and - not that I particularly fancy one myself - is available here for under £9K. I know we are preaching to the converted on this board, but people outside of our fold just don't see why you'd want to pay that kind of money for a slower, heavier bike if it's not a tourer or overland adventurer etc.

[maduko]

Very cool ride.

But what the hell is that picture of the giant guy holding the sailplane wings? It looks immense!

[Biff's R]

Nice looking ride.

[hirsty]

Maduko - that statue is an enormous 200-ton iron sculpture called The Angel of The North.

It's by the side of the main A1 'highway' linking England up into Scotland, in Gateshead near Newcastle Upon Tyne. It was commissioned by the City Council from sculptor Antony Gormley, who's quite famous here mostly for a number of much smaller (life-sized) figures that have been dotted around our coastline looking out to sea. It's very impressive from a distance, but I'd never been up to the foot of it before & was just passing on Saturday as the sun was going down - it's phenomenal.

[hirsty]

[GypsyRR]

Dan:

Congratulations. What a bike! I test rode one last fall and almost, almost, almost traded........ but I was worried about all day touring on it. And there was quite a bit of vibration in the mirrors and instrument panel at idle - so much so that the mirrors were useless to see anything coming up behind me. Maybe it was just a poor dealer setup. I'd like to believe that it was, because I really did enjoy the bike.

Would you please stick around long enough to post a couple of ride reports and let us know how you hold up at the end of the day on the bike. The first ride, is understandable about the seat - but I'd like to know what you think about the bike in a couple of months and if you think a rider could do 300-400 mile days on it easily enough. Is there luggage for it?


Boxermania: I've not seen any for $11,000 yet. In fact, I looked at one Saturday and it was still listed at $14,000!!!!

[hirsty]

No worries Gypsy, I shall still be sticking my nose in here weekly - I love reading the ride reports from Chi, DJ, yourself & many others. Besides, I'm still part of the R-family, if just the slightly odd cousins kid at the reunion now. I first rode an R12S not long after launch & the experience was dominated by a Remus endcan with the baffles removed, sounded like some kind of biplane chasing me... but it definitely made an impression & I've been looking for one I could afford since then.

The new one (mine) has a stock exhaust for now & I've been more concentrating on not crashing it before the inspection service! I've done two 200-mile days on it so far, and think it'll be fine for middle-distance work with a few tweaks which I'll work out over time. There is a Corbin seat available & a Sargent in development, no word from the Meyers yet.

- The stock seat is very firm and quite triangular, catches right at very, very top of thighs, not buttocks (sorry). Can flat-foot it both sides much easier than my old RR
- As the seat pad is quite long from front to back there is quite a lot of choice to vary where to plant your backside on a run, depending on how long your arms are
- Sharp engine braking does push you forward into the fuel tank though (!) and there's little grab from the back of the shiny tank for your knees to hold on to
- No issues with pegs / seat / bars ratio, surprisingly comfy - but felt really weird leaning down, got used to it amazingly quickly, it's not extreme
- Pillion seems almost out of the question to me, unless in an absolute emergency ...
- No problems with my mirrors at all. They are a neat design, and also fold back & forth for narrower spaces in the garage etc
- Steering lock, and therefore turning circle, ain't that great
- Bike is vastly quicker than what I'm used to, 70mph is just tootling in an upright straight back commuter position, speed drifts up almost without noticing (care needed)
- Wind noise & buffeting (my constant battle with the RR) is far less of a problem. I've read that the Puig & Wunderlich double-bubble screens make it better still
- Bike needs a hugger big-time. The exhaust, shock, shaft & battery are all very exposed & will pick up a lot of road cr@p and spray

Luggage - quite good options:
- BMW OEM bags & rails now available, like those on the K12R
- Ventura tail rack with either their bags or any other
- Bags Connection rear bags & quick-lock tankbags seem good for sports bikes to me too
- Bagster / Baglux tank cover opens up a world of tankbags (I had one on RR, excellent)

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/ ... =EPI-89927



http://www.ventura-bike.com/content/fit ... delPK=3086



http://www.bags-connection.com/hecktaschen/


http://www.bagster.com/en/moto/catalogu ... _moto=4460

[GypsyRR]

Thanks Dan. Now I have new bike syndrome again. If I could sell my bike for a good price and find one in the $10,500 range.............

[digga]

Congrats on the new ride Dan, and, as others said drop in from time to time to let us know how you're getting on..


was that the Dalkeith Branch you bought from??
i almost bought a silver 1150r from there if it was.. seemed very helpful on the phone.
they offered me book for my old Deauville over the phone and with just e-mailed pics.

They were willing for me to ride up there on the Honda and back again on the RR
I found a nice Black one a little nearer home with half the miles.

Your step up in power seems about the same height step as i experienced up from 55 to 85 Brake' nice

If you fancy the soft luggage. maybe check out a mates offerings http://www.windingroads.co.uk

Martin sells quality gear Famsa and Wolfman, the latter our friends across the pond will be familiar with