T
here are all sorts of ways to ride these days and a BMW for every style. Luxury tourers have the K 1600 GTL. Racers have the S 1000 RR. Off-roaders have the GS in a variety of
displacements. We’ve been told that sport tourers have the R 1200 RT, but the people telling us that are only partially correct. I enjoy the luxury of having three BMWs
at my disposal. My mainstay, day-to-day bike is the 2005 R 1200 GS that was the sub- ject of the recent, multi-part tech series. In addition to the GS, I have a 1998 K 1200 RS with a Hannigan Classic sidecar that I use for taking my wife or kid on trips. Finally, for those lazy days, I picked up a 2003 R 1200 CLC over the winter and have been enjoying the cruiser lifestyle from time to time. When I got this 2016 R 1200 RT to test, I
wasn’t sure what to expect. I imagined I’d go into old man mode—after all, isn’t that who rides RTs? Old men? Stereotypes exist for a reason, right? Seeing as how I’m still under
50, I figured it would be a short test: I’d ride it, I’d hate it, I’d apologize for wasting every- body’s time. I couldn’t have been more wrong more
quickly. From the first time I rode the RT, I knew it was a bike that absolutely shouldn’t be restricted to old men. Instead of focusing on sport touring, by necessity I found myself focused on commuting. My round- trip between home and work totals 45 miles, and nearly all of it is interstate high- way. The first thing I noticed about the RT is that it compresses the highway time in a Star Trek-like fashion. Once I got on the highway, it seemed like the 19-mile highway stretch disappeared in time. Between the smooth power delivery and the cruise con- trol, eating up highway miles on the RT is simply effortless. After several weeks of commuting to
work and going on longer rides on the weekends, I recognized an odd dichotomy with the RT. It both requires you to think less and causes you to think more. Thinking less comes from the physical operation of the motorcycle. The throttle is smooth and responds cleanly and crisply no matter
what riding mode you’re in (naturally, in Dynamic mode the response is more linear, but even in Rain mode you feel the bike responding immediately). Shift Assist Pro makes changing gears
almost an afterthought, especially in gears three through six. Whether you’re shifting up or down, the computer does the hard work, and you just toe the shift lever. It seems trite to use the word effortless again, but shifting when you don’t have to worry about the clutch really is effortless. Up or down, it doesn’t matter. The only hitch is that Shift Assist Pro has some difficulty get- ting into or out of first gear. The transition up from second to third is a little rough if you’re going slowly. The procedure I found that works best is to shift north of 5,000 rpm; with the engine turning fast, Shift Assist Pro can do its work most efficiently. It’s an impressive bit of technology that suits tight, curvy roads, as you can shift up and down through the gears with impunity, never moving your left hand from the grip and never having to worry if you’re in the right gear. The suspension functions quite well
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BMW OWNERS NEWS August 2016
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