Everywhere Virtually

The 800 was in for it’s service today at BMW. Not that it really needed it in some ways. It just keeps going and going. It’s the first service it has had since Sibirsky Extreme. I’ve had the chain and sprockets done prior to the service and I fitted brake pads in Macedonia and did other minor maintenance en route.

I digress. So I was booked in for 08:30 on Saturday morning and not being the early riser sort this is normally a challenge. I wanted to try out a 1200 loan bike and BMW said it works on a first come first serve basis. So determined not to sleep in and already exhausted from a weeks work I fell asleep at 8pm on Friday. Missed dinner, in fact missed everything that was planned for Friday and woke up at 6am. (Highly unusual for the Foxmeister)

So at 8am I was at Williams BMW champing at the bit. by 08:30 I got my paws on the prize. The BMW R1200 R.

This machine is a very different animal to mine. It’s naked of course so 70mph flies pinging off your face do hurt

It’s a 1200cc and thus has a lot of umph. Too much umph for me. I just didn’t have anywhere to use that kind of power. At idle the engine rocks from side to side ever so gently. Give the engine a rev and it moves to the right. I liked this effect. The bike handled well and had a 19″ front wheel. I am used to the 21″ of my 800 so I had to get used to the 19″ again.

despite me being a 5′ 7″ short arse it felt cramped. My hips and knees hurt after a while. I also missed the commanding position I have on the 800. I noticed that with the standard headlamp and the fact the bike was black people were not seeing me as they do normally. I would not ride without a HID50 headlight now.

Switch gear and instrumentation was identical to the 800 and very welcome.

Provisions for the pillion were limited. no side grab handles, a small seat area and small pegs gave the sensation that one could fall off.

The styling of the of the bike was pleasing and it had a good mix of old and new.

The indicators used LED’s although I’m not sure if the rear light you see above did too?

In summary it was fun to have for a day but I love my Adventure bike and despite the R1200R looking smaller than mine it was just that bit heavier than mine which meant I didn’t have the weight to get it up onto the centre stand!

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