Voted most helpful review
Reviewed on March 8, 2003
BMW 1150 RT. 2002. What an all weather mile eater. After resisting my thoughts of spoiling my image I brought one. I don't know why I felt like that about BMW, always have from old. My son rides a GSX R 600, wear's fine leathers and cuts a dash on the road. His Dad (now pushing 43) has...
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BMW 1150 RT. 2002. What an all weather mile eater. After resisting my thoughts of spoiling my image I brought one. I don't know why I felt like that about BMW, always have from old. My son rides a GSX R 600, wear's fine leathers and cuts a dash on the road. His Dad (now pushing 43) has taught him everything he knows but now has this over whelming urge to bring the knee tight into the bike instead of trying to scrape the road and watches his son disappear around the bend like a professional on our favorite piece of road. I hear him talking to his mates about "Stoppies" and "Wheelees" and Nearly high sided it throttling out of a bend- sends a shiver down my spine. A true sign of getting old and bold and the need for "steadiness" grows within me. I punish myself with a 100 mile daily commute to work and decided that I would have to buy a bike that could cope with long term galactic mileage and use and leave the car at home. So the polished Sunday toy had to go - Ducati 900 M went as part-ex against a BMW R 1150 RT. It was Beemers metallic blue, an ex-Demo and had just over 6K on the clock. Nice model but was perturbed by the number of "old guys" loafing around the show room. God I felt old. I hopped on the bike for a test ride the week before. It was absolutely poring down, stair rods in fact. The mechanic warned me about the brakes as they are like meeting a brick wall if you over do it. So I gingerly made my way out of town, getting soaked at the lights. At one point I stopped outside a shop window and looked at myself - Sat upright like a Posing Matador. I tried to shift my position but slid either away from the tank or away from the pillion seat back to the middle. The rider's seat is curved and makes you sit in one spot. I assume the ergonomic guys at BMW have done there stuff (Yar vill sit in der middle of der seat - dis is bitter for yar!). Being only 5'10" I needed to take advantage of the adjustable seat and embarrassingly set it on the lowest for my little stubby legs. But I still need to semi tip tow at a stop because the thing is so damm wide. Although once used to the bike I did not find this a problem. It is also a very tall bike and parked around other machines it looks abnormal. Fortunately the design of the new fairing, nose and lights reinstate the credibility as it looks quite sporty. With the electric screen down once stopped - it looks even better. Trouble is as I plan to stop about half a mile away it's a question of keeping the wind out my face and timing the slow lowering to perfection without looking like I am crying once the helmet comes off. When the screen is lowered and your visor is up it feels like the fairing is concentrating everything between your chin and the top of your head with a strong and sudden blast in the face. With the screen up it looks like Daddy Tourer has arrived, down it looks like a smart impressive sports tourer. So the screen Up/Down thing is all about balancing image and watering eyes. There have been occasions when the dam thing does not come down quick enough and you have to stop and work the clutch - some time a little to late. So don't mess with the thing when in traffic - trust me. The screen itself works like magic - all weather is kept off you. In heavy rain you only get a dribble or two running down your visor - yes strangely running vertically down and not blowing away. At higher speeds you start to get the feeling of needing to push away from the bars as an invisible pillion has started to lean on you! I found after a while that if you dropped the screen just a tad from full up the wind noise around your helmet increased slightly but the pushing forward feeling subsided. You get buffeted about a bit more than normal especially when coming up to Lorries but you get used to that. This is the payback for hiding for the weather behind that huge screen and fairing. So it was an OK screen that did its job. Turbulence. Yes it gets it bad. So much in fact the better half hates it. I sit in the front in comparative quietness and the pay back is the pillion gets beaten up big style by the wind. Well BMW I think you have blown it. If she does not like it the bike very soon bites the dust for another. I took her out on what should have been a nice 100 mile jaunt one Sunday, her first time on the big Beemer. We were back after 15 miles. She could not hold her head still and ended up holding the helmet with her hands to keep her head still. I tried moving the screen in every conceivable position and every speed. I even blamed it on the wind direction but road and course alterations did not make a difference. She has refused to get on it again. Now this is coming from a woman who has toured as a pillion on the back of my Hayabusa (Sunday toy). I am amazed that BMW have blown this. Great for the rider and just bad for the pillion. I even lent the bike to a friend and his wife for an hour - she was just as annoyed. So how can they claim that 2 up for long distance is good on the R 1150 RT? Great on my own but I wouldn't with a passenger. The wing mirrors are in an odd position - under your handle bars? - But as soon as you sit on the bike you realize that this could not be better - you see everything behind - I felt safe with them and confident that I would spot "white&qot cars following with ease. You will also realize that at speed you hands are actually in the drag of these mirrors and the wind is not blasting at your gloves. But just remember if you decide to wave at a fellow motor cyclist while doing 90 on the motorway don't bring your hand up to far as it will suddenly be grabbed by the slip stream an your arm will then be violently thrown backwards. That didn't look cool and I am sure the guy must have thought I was trying to throw something at him! The legs and body are also well protected and you can quite seriously maintain high speeds for long periods in all winds and weathers. Other normally bike riders will join the motorway, spot you, throttle up to display their feathers and blast away with a roar but the number of times that I over take them some 5 miles further on I have lost count. I STAY at 95mph - THEY DO NOT. The bike wants to cruise at over a 100 and you have to force yourself to shut back and keep it to respectful 80 and stay around the law but the good feeling of being so well protected slides in now and aging and your up their again. In one full throttle burst to over take a line of traffic got me smoothly and quickly to almost 130 and it felt OK. Once ahead I closed back to 90 and stayed there for the length of Somerset's M5. The bike has a great range of 240 miles or so stops are not so frequent and you do not get tired. Now and again the feeling of a Matador comes back and I wish that the rider position was just a little bit more prone. But that is the only bad point I could think of about this bike and that's not really and bad one. I think I will still be smiling after a 500 mile run. The ride at first seems like you are on some sort of hover craft - it does not nose dive when breaking hard and the suspension does its stuff in all conditions. I got a bit bouncy at speed on an A road but simple adjustment of the rear end got rid of that. The clever suspension system is second to none and seems to adapt itself to any type of riding - twisty A road fun or on the rails of a motorway. Most sports bike riders would be impressed with this bike they way it handles around bends and thunders out of trouble. You are reminded that it's a huge bike though when you look down at the tank - is it a Boat? Is it a Barge? no it's a BMW ! That fairing looks absolutely huge - but it works. It does not feel heavy and to be quite honest somebody moving up from a smaller machine would not notice that it's so large if they just don't look down. It feels light, torquey and very, very controllable.
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