Newbie Introduction plus a couple of questions

[bjemmavu]

Hello all,

Thanks for such a fantastic resource! Just browsing here has already helped me quite a bit.

My name is Udo and I'm in southern England. I have been the proud owner of what some of you call the 'Limey Monster' for 2 weeks now and am really enjoying it. I bought it from a celebrated local BMW dealer (CW Motorcylces, Dorchester, UK) as a 4 year old (2004) with 5000 odd miles on the clock and looking like new. I will attach a picture when I figured out how!

Compared to the Honda Blackbird I part exchanged for it, it's quite a different animal, but I fell in love after a test ride. What fun! I have managed to get 2nd hand panniers via Ebay and had a Givi plate fitted, since I need the large top box space to ferry equipment around occasionally. I shall also be fitting a Ztechnik screen, not by choice but because it was the only one available in the UK *now* and I need it urgently to go on a trip to Austria at the end of July. My first choice was the Wunderlich 'Trimm' (after reading all your recommendations for it here), but it appears they have difficulty delivering those until mid August, which is too late for me. I shall be contributing my experiences with the Ztechnik on a long journey here in the 'Windscreen thread'.

One thing I find interesting about this bike - and probably all other boxers - and I have not seen any comments on it anywhere - is that it's quite a 'snatchy' ride. It will probably take time to get used to the boxer after a smooth inline-four, but having ridden it a few times since I had it, I'm not sure it's even possible to ride the R1150R really smoothly. Opening the throttle is quite controllable but shutting it has quite a dramatic effect, as have the powered brakes (!). I would be very interested in how other riders here feel about this and how they deal with it. I find it a particular pain riding in thick traffic and when there are lots of obstacles, such as traffic calming. The endlessly long first gear doesn't help here, either. Would love to hear your comments.

My other question is about the oil level. How often do you check your oil and how often do you have to top up roughly? What oil do we use?

Many thanks in advance for any responses and happy riding! I'm happy, anyway!

Happy weekends everyone!
Udo.

[cworley5150]

One thing I find interesting about this bike - and probably all other boxers - and I have not seen any comments on it anywhere - is that it's quite a 'snatchy' ride. It will probably take time to get used to the boxer after a smooth inline-four, but having ridden it a few times since I had it, I'm not sure it's even possible to ride the R1150R really smoothly. Opening the throttle is quite controllable but shutting it has quite a dramatic effect, as have the powered brakes (!). I would be very interested in how other riders here feel about this and how they deal with it. I find it a particular pain riding in thick traffic and when there are lots of obstacles, such as traffic calming. The endlessly long first gear doesn't help here, either. Would love to hear your comments.

My other question is about the oil level. How often do you check your oil and how often do you have to top up roughly? What oil do we use?

Many thanks in advance for any responses and happy riding! I'm happy, anyway!

Happy weekends everyone!
Udo.

The Boxer engine has much more "engine braking" than what you are used to with an inline 4 cylinder. You will get used to it. I can ride my Rockster with a passenger so smooth that they can't even tell when I transition of and on throttle. You will learn to roll the throttle open and shut as opposed to a "twist on/ twist off" type of technique. The shaft drive will exaggerate this as well.

As far as oil, well you are going to get many different responses there. I guess this will be thread number 345897238745 or something like that concerning oil questions.

Since your bike has only 5k miles on it, Check the oil after every ride to get an idea of your bikes consumption. BMW's will use a little oil until fully broken in. It took my bike about 25k miles until it stopped needing topping off between changes. Consumption and break in time will vay from bike to bike. Also, keep the oil level in the middle of the glass when it is on the center stand or when you or someone is sitting on the bike upright. In other words not on the side stand. There is also the whole "oil level checking dance routine" that needs to be done in order to insure an accurate level check. I'm sure you will get more info on that shortly.

Welcome to the site. You made a good choice in bike. I have 31k trouble free miles on mine now. Great bike, easy to work on and is a hoot to ride. Very versatile.

[Roxster]

Welcome to the board. I am a new member as well but I can tell you already that you won't find a better place to share information. The blackbird is a sweet riding bike and I too had some difficulty devolping that smooth touch on the bmw. It will come with time and you will soon wonder what is wrong with your budies inline 4 the next time you swap bikes.

Cheers..

[riceburner]

One thing I find interesting about this bike - and probably all other boxers - and I have not seen any comments on it anywhere - is that it's quite a 'snatchy' ride. It will probably take time to get used to the boxer after a smooth inline-four, but having ridden it a few times since I had it, I'm not sure it's even possible to ride the R1150R really smoothly. Opening the throttle is quite controllable but shutting it has quite a dramatic effect, as have the powered brakes (!). I would be very interested in how other riders here feel about this and how they deal with it. I find it a particular pain riding in thick traffic and when there are lots of obstacles, such as traffic calming. The endlessly long first gear doesn't help here, either. Would love to hear your comments.

You'll get used to it - low speed stuff is really not hard once you adjust to the engine characteristics.

My other question is about the oil level. How often do you check your oil and how often do you have to top up roughly? What oil do we use?

Many thanks in advance for any responses and happy riding! I'm happy, anyway!

Happy weekends everyone!
Udo.

I check it roughly once a week (or so), leave it for 5 mins on sidestand, then put it on the centrestand to check it.

need to top it up roughly every 2K miles or so. (still need to put oil in, even after 45K+ miles)

[atldinan3]

One thing I find interesting about this bike - and probably all other boxers - and I have not seen any comments on it anywhere - is that it's quite a 'snatchy' ride. It will probably take time to get used to the boxer after a smooth inline-four, but having ridden it a few times since I had it, I'm not sure it's even possible to ride the R1150R really smoothly. Opening the throttle is quite controllable but shutting it has quite a dramatic effect, as have the powered brakes (!). I would be very interested in how other riders here feel about this and how they deal with it. I find it a particular pain riding in thick traffic and when there are lots of obstacles, such as traffic calming. The endlessly long first gear doesn't help here, either. Would love to hear your comments.

Udo,

I wrestled with the same problem. I've always been more comfortable with the inline fours for this very reason (and a few others). On top of that, the fact that we've got a shaft drive instead of a chain drive contributes to the same issue. It used to really distract me - at first. I've got about 1,200 miles in the saddle now of my r1200r and somewhere along the line had forgotten about this issue until I just read your post. So give it a little more time and, like the other folks said, you'll get used to it.

[sweatmark]

Welcome Udo.

As mentioned, several of our Rocksters' attributes make smooth riding difficult: boxer motor's torque, dry plate clutch, driveline lash in the shaft final drive, "power" brakes in the ABS Evo2 implementation. I've never been able to ride a BMW oilhead as smoothly as 4-cylinder wet-clutch bikes from my past, but I don't really care; a bit of smoothness is small sacrifice for the boxer motor's real world tractability (or "tractor" ability, depending on who you ask). I can even ride my Buell more smoothly that my Rockster (if comparing stops and starts) and that's with even more torque, albeit with wet clutch and better clutch "feel" that the Beemer. But the BMW is the do-all machine for me, no doubt about it.

For stop & go traffic, I've tried keeping the bike in 2nd gear and slipping the clutch for some smoothness.

Enjoy the Rockster.

[bjemmavu]

Thanks very much for all your replies, it's good to have some confirmation that it's not (just) me being too stupid to ride the thing! My friend, who is a motorcycle instructor, always says: "Boxers? They just stop when you close the throttle, don't they?", and I could never imagine it, but they actually more or less do!

Then again, as you all say, you get used to it and also, it doesn't really matter. In fact, it's really fun to have to learn to ride a bike anew and to have to change one's riding style according to the bike's abilities and idiosyncrasies. Whether I still feel that way after my first 1600 mile trip, we shall see.....

Didn't have time to ride over the weekend, really dying to go for a ride now!

Happy and safe riding!