Ok..
Edit 12/17/2021:
A few impressions so far after just over 1k miles.
Service
- The 1st service reminder showed up at 600 miles for the break-in oil change.
- That was very easy, I purchased a OBDLink LX OBD2 Bluetooth Scanner for Android and Windows and the Motoscan app, that allowed me to reset the service reminder and will allow me to read any codes the computer throws.
- There's a guy Boxflyer that has tons of videos out on youtube for doing regular maintenance and does a great job with those so valve checks/adjustments don't appear to be any more difficult that on most bikes, easier is some cases as the heads are exposed so no need to remove plastic.
- Plastic - The plastic is well thought out. I was able to do some stuff without the need for a service manual because it just looks obvious where panels are connected and what you need to do to remove them, it's no puzzle. The aforementioned Boxflyer videos helped as well.
- Fear - Yes, I've avoided BMW for a while mostly due to all the talk about electrical issues, final drive failures etc... however, BMW has redesigned the final drives so the bearing that was an issue in the 1150 series of bikes is now bathed in FD oil and they also added a breather to allow for air expansion - I know, Honda has been doing this for awhile... Well, I also had one of the ST1300s that had a u-joint failure around 50k miles and I was lucky as I found out while the bike was in the garage and not on the road where some failures have caused fires. So, I figured the current BMW offerings were at least as good as what Honda has in that regard.
Comfort and Ergos
- I did some 200 and 300 mile rides to help me gauge how an 800-1000 mile ride would go.
- I got some risers to help with my arm angle and did end up getting a Sargent seat. The OEM seat was actually not bad but I could tell that after 200 miles I was starting to feel some discomfort. With the Sargent, it feels broken in already and the seat is no longer something I'm even thinking about. The Sargent was always a good seat on the ST so I decided to go that route this time.
- Height - wow... that's all I can say, this bike looks like it should be tall but with the seat on low I can just about flat foot both feet. I haven't been able to do that since the Wing. Even with the seat in the high position, it feels lower than the Super Ten or Tracer ergos.
- Weight - wow again, It does not show it's weight at all to me. Again, reminds me of the Wing in how it just doesn't feel heavy. I don't think I've found a bike until now that I feel so comfortable doing u-turns so soon, it's balanced quite well.
- Wind/Buffeting - It's been a while since I've been on an ST or Wing so hard to remember enough to compare but on those I always was looking for different windshield options and coming off a Super Ten and Tracer the RT feels like I'm in a car. There's just a slight hint of some wind noise and maybe a small percentage of buffeting but it's so slight it feels like nothing. Again, coming off a Tracer that would bounce my head around no matter what I did it feels like a dream. On the Tracer and even Super Ten I would have to adjust my glasses several time, maybe every 10 miles. On the RT, I forget to adjust my glasses and do it more out of habit than necessity. So, high marks there.
Performance
- I thought the boxer would be tractor-like and more like my previous SuperTen but it's amazingly smooth. The power is very linear. This thing is surprisingly quick and the motor never feels like it's working hard, I've yet to get it into some nice twisties but can't wait to see how easy it's going to feel given that power band.
- There is no snatchy throttle even though it's throttle by wire. Nothing like my previous SuperTen/Tracer 900. On both of those I would tame the ride modes so the throttle was smoother but you would swear this bike has carburetors, I stalled it a few times when I first rode it because I was expecting that on/off behavior of Throttle By Wire systems.
- Oddly enough, the speedometer is off by 1-2mph on slow speeds and 3.5-ish in higher speeds... My Super Ten and Tracer were almost dead on-maybe 1mph off... not sure why this is but I have to do what I used to do on my Wings/STs - at 10 mph to the speed limit so I know I'm only 5mph off..
- Suspension - I think all the RTs are delivered with the ESA suspension unless you order one without (guessing). The Dynamic ride mode puts the suspension in a very tight setup and the Road mode allows for a more cushy ride, you can tell the difference although it's not huge but I've been in Dynamic most of the time.
- Ride Modes - I believe Dynamic and Road are the same engine mapping and only suspension differences. ECO and Rain change the mapping including different ABS/Traction settings. I don't have a lot of details on this and I think the same system that's been available for a while. I know that in ECO mode, the throttle is very lazy and not sure I'd ever use it unless I was on reserve and no idea where the next gas station is.
- Range - Still not in the ST category but I'm getting right around 222 miles before hitting the reserve which is 1 gallon, the computer shows 42-44 mpg so you could stretch it to 240 before panicking - a big diff from the Tracer which would hit reserve at 150 most of the time.
Shift Assist - Both up and down quick shifting - 1st to 2nd and sometimes 3rd can be abrupt unless you are accelerating aggressively - so for 1-to-2 and 2-to-3 I use the clutch but not the rest of the way up or all the way down except I typically pull in the clutch when coming to a stop and going from 2-to-1.
Hiss Start Control - I turned that off, it's kind a neat as it holds the brake on an incline like going into my driveway but takes more throttle to get it going and move forward - I can just see me screwing that up - maybe I need more practice later but for now I just disable that and hold the brake - old school style lol
Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) - I hardly ever used the Cruise Control on previous bikes so I would have preferred to not have ACC and get a discount on the bike but that wasn't an option. However, I did try it a few times and it works well, just like on newer cars.
Technology
- Dash - Pretty sweet - I test rode an F 850 GS Adventure and the dash on that was incredible, my old eyes could actually see all the info whereas on the Tracer I had to look under my glasses and move forward, some of the info was just too small - I'm nearsighted. The RT has the larger 10.25" dash and it only takes a few mins to configure it the way you want.
- System Software Updates - The bike has wifi, so to me it should be able to download/install updates without having to go to a dealer but that's not currently an option. Since I got a '21 and not a '22 it is one version behind but the updates were not enough for me to justify waiting for the 3-hour process of performing the update. If future updates provide a lot more functionality I may give it a shot but for now the bike does everything I need it to do.
- BMW Motorrad Connected App - The app is free and once you sign up/in and connect to the bike you can download maps to your phone. The bike will then, connect the phone via wifi and allow for viewing a map on the dash screen, it will also allow streaming audio or mp3 music to be used. You pair your headset and phone to the bike as well of course. Well, it's just ok, it has a few buggy issues but the nice part is the app is being updated and you get those updates just like any other phone app, free and quick and issues are being worked/fixed.
- You can import a gpx file to the app and select on the phone to get a zumo-like experience, sorta... I still prefer my zumo as many times I'll change routes or search for things and while that's somewhat possible w/bike switches it's a bit more cumbersome and the zumo is just less effort - maybe with more app updates it will be better. We'll see.
Misc -
- Wheels - integrated Valve stems and they appear to have a very tough powder coating.
Edit 12/17/2021:
A few impressions so far after just over 1k miles.
Service
- The 1st service reminder showed up at 600 miles for the break-in oil change.
- That was very easy, I purchased a OBDLink LX OBD2 Bluetooth Scanner for Android and Windows and the Motoscan app, that allowed me to reset the service reminder and will allow me to read any codes the computer throws.
- There's a guy Boxflyer that has tons of videos out on youtube for doing regular maintenance and does a great job with those so valve checks/adjustments don't appear to be any more difficult that on most bikes, easier is some cases as the heads are exposed so no need to remove plastic.
- Plastic - The plastic is well thought out. I was able to do some stuff without the need for a service manual because it just looks obvious where panels are connected and what you need to do to remove them, it's no puzzle. The aforementioned Boxflyer videos helped as well.
- Fear - Yes, I've avoided BMW for a while mostly due to all the talk about electrical issues, final drive failures etc... however, BMW has redesigned the final drives so the bearing that was an issue in the 1150 series of bikes is now bathed in FD oil and they also added a breather to allow for air expansion - I know, Honda has been doing this for awhile... Well, I also had one of the ST1300s that had a u-joint failure around 50k miles and I was lucky as I found out while the bike was in the garage and not on the road where some failures have caused fires. So, I figured the current BMW offerings were at least as good as what Honda has in that regard.
Comfort and Ergos
- I did some 200 and 300 mile rides to help me gauge how an 800-1000 mile ride would go.
- I got some risers to help with my arm angle and did end up getting a Sargent seat. The OEM seat was actually not bad but I could tell that after 200 miles I was starting to feel some discomfort. With the Sargent, it feels broken in already and the seat is no longer something I'm even thinking about. The Sargent was always a good seat on the ST so I decided to go that route this time.
- Height - wow... that's all I can say, this bike looks like it should be tall but with the seat on low I can just about flat foot both feet. I haven't been able to do that since the Wing. Even with the seat in the high position, it feels lower than the Super Ten or Tracer ergos.
- Weight - wow again, It does not show it's weight at all to me. Again, reminds me of the Wing in how it just doesn't feel heavy. I don't think I've found a bike until now that I feel so comfortable doing u-turns so soon, it's balanced quite well.
- Wind/Buffeting - It's been a while since I've been on an ST or Wing so hard to remember enough to compare but on those I always was looking for different windshield options and coming off a Super Ten and Tracer the RT feels like I'm in a car. There's just a slight hint of some wind noise and maybe a small percentage of buffeting but it's so slight it feels like nothing. Again, coming off a Tracer that would bounce my head around no matter what I did it feels like a dream. On the Tracer and even Super Ten I would have to adjust my glasses several time, maybe every 10 miles. On the RT, I forget to adjust my glasses and do it more out of habit than necessity. So, high marks there.
Performance
- I thought the boxer would be tractor-like and more like my previous SuperTen but it's amazingly smooth. The power is very linear. This thing is surprisingly quick and the motor never feels like it's working hard, I've yet to get it into some nice twisties but can't wait to see how easy it's going to feel given that power band.
- There is no snatchy throttle even though it's throttle by wire. Nothing like my previous SuperTen/Tracer 900. On both of those I would tame the ride modes so the throttle was smoother but you would swear this bike has carburetors, I stalled it a few times when I first rode it because I was expecting that on/off behavior of Throttle By Wire systems.
- Oddly enough, the speedometer is off by 1-2mph on slow speeds and 3.5-ish in higher speeds... My Super Ten and Tracer were almost dead on-maybe 1mph off... not sure why this is but I have to do what I used to do on my Wings/STs - at 10 mph to the speed limit so I know I'm only 5mph off..
- Suspension - I think all the RTs are delivered with the ESA suspension unless you order one without (guessing). The Dynamic ride mode puts the suspension in a very tight setup and the Road mode allows for a more cushy ride, you can tell the difference although it's not huge but I've been in Dynamic most of the time.
- Ride Modes - I believe Dynamic and Road are the same engine mapping and only suspension differences. ECO and Rain change the mapping including different ABS/Traction settings. I don't have a lot of details on this and I think the same system that's been available for a while. I know that in ECO mode, the throttle is very lazy and not sure I'd ever use it unless I was on reserve and no idea where the next gas station is.
- Range - Still not in the ST category but I'm getting right around 222 miles before hitting the reserve which is 1 gallon, the computer shows 42-44 mpg so you could stretch it to 240 before panicking - a big diff from the Tracer which would hit reserve at 150 most of the time.
Shift Assist - Both up and down quick shifting - 1st to 2nd and sometimes 3rd can be abrupt unless you are accelerating aggressively - so for 1-to-2 and 2-to-3 I use the clutch but not the rest of the way up or all the way down except I typically pull in the clutch when coming to a stop and going from 2-to-1.
Hiss Start Control - I turned that off, it's kind a neat as it holds the brake on an incline like going into my driveway but takes more throttle to get it going and move forward - I can just see me screwing that up - maybe I need more practice later but for now I just disable that and hold the brake - old school style lol
Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) - I hardly ever used the Cruise Control on previous bikes so I would have preferred to not have ACC and get a discount on the bike but that wasn't an option. However, I did try it a few times and it works well, just like on newer cars.
Technology
- Dash - Pretty sweet - I test rode an F 850 GS Adventure and the dash on that was incredible, my old eyes could actually see all the info whereas on the Tracer I had to look under my glasses and move forward, some of the info was just too small - I'm nearsighted. The RT has the larger 10.25" dash and it only takes a few mins to configure it the way you want.
- System Software Updates - The bike has wifi, so to me it should be able to download/install updates without having to go to a dealer but that's not currently an option. Since I got a '21 and not a '22 it is one version behind but the updates were not enough for me to justify waiting for the 3-hour process of performing the update. If future updates provide a lot more functionality I may give it a shot but for now the bike does everything I need it to do.
- BMW Motorrad Connected App - The app is free and once you sign up/in and connect to the bike you can download maps to your phone. The bike will then, connect the phone via wifi and allow for viewing a map on the dash screen, it will also allow streaming audio or mp3 music to be used. You pair your headset and phone to the bike as well of course. Well, it's just ok, it has a few buggy issues but the nice part is the app is being updated and you get those updates just like any other phone app, free and quick and issues are being worked/fixed.
- You can import a gpx file to the app and select on the phone to get a zumo-like experience, sorta... I still prefer my zumo as many times I'll change routes or search for things and while that's somewhat possible w/bike switches it's a bit more cumbersome and the zumo is just less effort - maybe with more app updates it will be better. We'll see.
Misc -
- Wheels - integrated Valve stems and they appear to have a very tough powder coating.
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. Hope you have many smiles and miles for you. PS, Merry is jealous of you now….
