I have been more or less "coveting" this bike since I came back from my long ride to Ecuador and back.
It is only just recently available in North America (I couldnt get a test ride six months ago when I was here) and it looks to be the perfect type of bike for long overland touring like I have been doing.
Its got a twin cylinder 800cc engine. Its got good ground clearance and is styled like an over-sized trail bike. It has long travel suspension and a 21" diameter front tyre. It is reasonably light and narrow at the waist and has an excellent power to weight ratio.
As I said it looks excellent on paper... And if its as good as I hope it is then Im prepared to pay the money to buy it!
So, I made an appointment and today I got to take one for a ride for an hour or so.
Result is that Im not as enamoured with it as I had hoped!
Details:
First off, its a brand new bike and its a BMW with a price tag of $15000. Thats a lot! But its not quite as much as I thought considering that I just checked what it would cost to get a brand new bike the same as my current one (Suzuki DL650) and it turns out that that would cost me $10000... Wow, thats a lot too!
The initial look and feel of the bike is outstanding. The sound and feel of the motor when its running is reallllllly nice - classic BMW sound :)
So off for a ride I go...
And after an hour or so Im back...
0) Gee, brand new bikes are a pleasure to ride. This one is an absolute gem on the pavement and I had a great time on it. VERY smooth and so much power! The good stuff is all good. :)))
But there are issues and here is what I thought about the negatives...
1) Well, my biggest issue with the bike turns out to be the gears!
Specifically its the first gear...Its way too "tall". With the warmed up engine at idle (no throttle at all), and the bike in first gear, its strolling along at a cool 15kmh. Thats WAY too fast! Its fine for riding on pavement, but when you want to do low speed maneuvering in rough trail conditions its impossibly fast... My current bike moves at about 8kmh (half the speed) and its still too fast when things get tricky. You really want 5kmh. When its this low then you dont need to ride the clutch and brakes at the same time and its all SO much simpler. And there is basically nothing I can do to correct this issue. I could change the drive sprockets and I could get it to be about 10% slower but it just aint enough. I really need the bike to have a different set of gear ratios in the transmission... The current design is VERY much for highway riders.
2) The second issue is closely linked to the first one...There is basically no Torque in the motor at very low revs. This is probably because the motor is a parallel-twin rather than a V-twin but it matters not why, it matters only that it really is gutless at idle revs. This is no doubt why the engine idle is higher than I would otherwise expect - compensating for low torque. And this just compounds the 1st gear problem when riding really slowly in technical terrain. I tried a little of this type of riding and the damn thing is constantly stalling out on me (no Im not a complete Bozo with either the clutch or the throttle!).
3) The third issue is the throttle/power response. In general the power delivery is EXTREMELY smooth and EXTREMELY prompt. There is virtually no lag at all between turning the throttle and power change at the wheel... Its Magnificent! And there is so much power available... It really is a thing of beauty :)
BUT, there is so much power that when you just crack the throttle off of idle by the tiniest bit, you get a very sudden lurch forward in the bike if its in gear. There is absolutely no problem with this for street riding... I didnt notice it a bit. But, this effect just compounds the problems of low speed technical off-road riding that I have already mentioned - It just makes it even harder to get the smooth power control that you NEED to have.
Now its true that all three of these issues can be compensated for with the deft use of skilled hands... but it really is a huge effort and need not be that way. The simple fact is that the bike has been completely set up for highway riders. It has the look of an adventure tourer, and if you stick to pavement and good gravel roads, itll do great... but not for technical off-road!
I cant say I actually blame BMW for these choices though, since the type of riding that I do must account for way less than 1% off the market...There is just no money in it for them to cater to my types of desires... Mind you, when I ride my Suzuki, it behaves far better than the BMW for these kinds of issues; And it is very definitely a street bike, so I dont see why BMW couldnt do it too :)
4) And the last significant point is the vibration. The parallel twin format of the engine can cause quite a bit of vibration. Apparently they have a balancing weight design that deals with this.
BUT, not quite perfectly! Its EXTREMELY smooth from zero up to about 110kmh but above that (110 - 140kmh) there is an increasing "buzz" that would be quite noticeable for highway riding. Now this one is not too much of a problem for me since the truth is that I spent most of my time riding at between 80kmh and 110kmh, but for those people who just want to ride pavement Id think it would be a much more significant issue. :)
5) The only other big issue was the weight! The bike is supposedly quite light for its size, with the fuel tank in a very low position to help keep the CG low. It works well in that the bike feels very agile and responsive when you are maneuvering it at low speed and riding at highway speed too.
But, I found a patch of grass and gently laid the bike down on its side to see what parts of the bike touch the ground (for crash bar requirements). And then I picked the bike up (barely) but it took way more effort than I figured it would. I only just managed to lift it... and that was without crash bars and luggage added...so Its considerably heavier than hoped. Power to weight is great, but weight is high for ridding in sand or mud where you just cant help but lay it down every few minutes! But then again, its an 800cc bike and thats big in anyones language.
There were some other far more minor issues that I had.
The starter button is in a bad spot... Its really awkard to start the motor while trying to use the front brake (fairly normal hill start procedure!) And I dont know why they feel that the handgrip heater control needs to be super accessible... these two controls should be swapped!
The seat is pretty uncomfortable and with my long legs, there are some ridges in the plastic panels that line up with my knees and make it uncomfortable to "grip the bike" with my legs.
There is a lot of heat that is directed off the motor and onto the riders legs by the fan and ducting in the panels. This is great for riding in cold conditions but I suspect its a real uncomfortable feature when riding in desert conditions!
All in all, it was a bit disapointing...
I think Ill wait a year or two till I can get one second hand; or preferably till BMW releases an "Adventurer" version of the bike with different gear ratios and bigger fuel tanks and maybe a gentler power entry mapping in the bike ignition control computer. :))
My old Suzuki will have to do for the time being...That means lots of prep work to get it ready for the next long ride :)))
