All I can say is WOW! Obviously, this is by far the most powerful bike I've ever owned, but I was astonished at just how different it was from the Scrambler. First of all, I have to say my early concerns about the seating position seem to have been unfounded. The seating position is perfectly fine, even with my knees bent way back. I did about 6 1/2 hours and 240 miles through the Eastern plains yesterday and it never felt uncomfortable.
The power took me somewhat by surprise. I don't think I really appreciated it until I was on a stretch of fairly empty interstate (I-76) about 50 miles Northeast of Denver. There were a few big trucks on the road so I zipped around them and was loping along in the left lane, didn't even feel like I was going particularly fast. RPMs were about 4000 (the BMW redlines at 8500) and it just felt smooth and easy, when I looked down at the speedo and saw that it read about 95mph! Of course it was an exaggeration but even the GPS showed me doing a little over 90, and I felt like I had plenty of power left.
With my small windshield and the fact that the High Plains were VERY windy yesterday, I did feel a little bit buffeted by the wind. But overall it was a very pleasant ride.
One thing I noticed is that my MPG was pretty low. I figured with a 5.5 gallon tank, I'd have at least a 200 - 250 mile range. Well, that was based on my experiences with the Scrambler, which could almost always beat 50mpg. On the R1150R, though,my fuel consumption was down to around 39mpg (filled up at 123 miles with 3.13 gallons.) I attributed this to the simple fact that it's so hard to keep my speed down on that bike! Seriously, even keeping it under 80mph was a chore! I would imagine that my range is not going to be much more than the Scrambler, which could do 160 between fillups pretty easily.
Of course, once the Summer hits and I'm riding in the mountains, my speed will come down quite a bit, and this will help my MPG as well as increasing my range. The flat, deserted, two- and 4-lane high-plains roads don't have much to discourage high speed.
So overall, so far I'm very happy with it. I snapped a few pictures at an abandoned homestead in Northeastern CO. Here's one:
Here's a close-up of what it looks like now that I have the trunk on.
This is my normal "riding configuration." Even though I don't need them I normally ride with the side cases on. My thought is that if I tip the bike over or low-side it, the cases might protect the bodywork of the bike a little bit. The trunk is much easier to use than the side cases for the things I normally carry with me (tools, extra clothing, etc) and the tank bag is there because I like to take my phone and charger and that's about the only way I can run the charger with the cord coming up from the Powerlet socket which is located near my left footpeg. The tank bag also gives me an easy way to carry and view a road map.
I brought my heated liner, since it was cold, but discovered that the little cheapie adapter to connect it to the powerlet doesn't let enough juice through to power the liner. I blew two fuses before I figured that out! I'll pick up a more correct adapter this week or next week, along with a rheostat controller for the heat. The heated grips are SO nice! My only quibble is that my figertips still get kind of cold, but not enough for me to shell out $150 for heated gloves.
Anyway, so far I'm really happy with the bike. I haven't had any of the notorious mechanical problems that has made some people label the brand Bring More Wallet (knock on wood!)
