R1200 RT Glamour Pics

[TILAM]

Ticks me off. When I test-rode a BMW R1200RT, it gave me the biggest smile I thought I could get. I love EVERYTHING about that bike...except the paranoia it would give me by owning one. AWESOME bike, PERFECT for me (height, weight, power, smoothness), but worrying about whether I'm going to make it....kills me.

I'm not sure what my next one will be. I'm getting the itch slowly for a new bike, and a 2nd Gen FJR is way up on the list, but I still wanna do a little more reading about the Tiger 800....sounds great for me, but I wonder how it'd handle me and the wife simultaneously....

On the RT note, a friend of mine has a 05 R1200RT and recently had the rear shock pack it in. Unfortionately he has the expensive ESC option. It had something like 30,000 miles and the replacement cost was going to be $2200. He ended up installing an Olins for about half that but it was still quite a shock for what he thought was a premium bike. He's looking to replace the bike with something a little more reasonable.

Now on to question of the Triumph Tiger 800. I just bought one and love it. It doesn't have the grunt of the my old FJR but I would describe it as very entertaining. It might be the best balanced bike I have ever ridden. I don't do any two up and while could handle it I doubt it would be ideal especially on a long haul. Either wait for the 1200 version or keep the FJR. Not many that are much better than a nice blue 06.

 

[Speedygg]

Update on my brothers bike:

After 7 days, the master mechanics at NJ BMW dealership got a new seal and put his bike back together. It appears that the design of the seal changed for the 2012 RT models, probably for the worse. You would think that the dealership would have been extremely apologetic about the problem, however my brother said they treated this like as if it was "routine". Oh well, at least he is now riding and crossing fingers that bike holds up.

On another note, he had purchased a Schubert helmet last year with the blue tooth assembly. These are the helmets that are being pushed pretty heavily by BMW (at least on the west coast). He now learned that the bluetooth on the RT is not compatible with the bluetooth of these helmets. Are you kidding me!!!! :dribble:

 

[Fontanaman]

.... You would think that the dealership would have been extremely apologetic about the problem, however my brother said they treated this like as if it was "routine". Oh well, at least he is now riding and crossing fingers that bike holds up......

For BMW this is routine. He is going to need more than crossed fingers. Before hanging out here I spent some time with BMW riders - nothings changed.

 

[Khunajawdge]

For me one bike us enough. The other tends to sit and devalue.

Yeah, I have the same 2 bikes as you, but I will go the other way and keep the Suzuki. I have some neck and wrist issues that just won't go away when I ride the FJR. :dribble: