So today I popped up to Douglas Park BMW in East Kilbride.
I took out their R1250R Sport. £250 quid excess – nice – nothing to worry about there.
They had to first explain to me the keyless ignition. They dialled in standard settings and left me to it. Got my hat and gloves on, then after 2- or 3-minutes fiddling with the ignition I got it to fire up. I then shut it down, checked I could open the fuel cap, closed it and fired it up again. I didn’t want to get a few miles down the road and find I could neither start it or get fuel in it. What the foc is wrong with a bleedin key.
Straight off there is a lovely boxer thrum. Also the best part of 1300cc and two big pots. It swings the bike from side to side as you blip the throttle at a standstill – lovely.
The clutch is fine, just as always takes a little care and getting used to as is the case anytime you switch bikes.
So first I had to get out of East Kilbride, which is no mean feat, but at least the endless roundabouts were fun.
She’s softly sprung and soaks up all the bumps. It’s a different feel to the Japanese bikes, much softer, the bike moves about under you but at no time does she feel out of shape.
The engine is just incredible. It picks up like an MT10, but without the shit yourself wheelies all the time. It is a seriously rapid motorcycle. It piles on torque from low revs and keeps on going. It sounds good too, even on the standard can the sound track is infectious.
She weighs in at a portly 240kg but is easy to pick up off the side stand and at no time do you feel she’s a big heavy bike.
The riding position is lovely, and you have a nice big tank to wrap yer legs round. The bars are just where you want em, the pegs feel relatively low. It’s all day comfortable.
The TFT dash for once is really sweet, everything I want is there at a glance, speed, rpm, time, gear selection, fuel – all for once easy to read. Just don’t press any buttons or you’ll find yourself lost in endless, and as far as VNA is concerned pointless menus.
I had her for the best part of 2hrs and I grinned the whole time.
Fuel consumption. The book says it has a range of 230 miles – ho ho ho. I gave her plenty of stick, probably did the best part of 100 miles and no she didn’t seem to use a heck of a lot of juice. I’m guessing it should a wee bit more economical than the fazer and give similar range (18ltr tank).
So, so far MT10, CB1000R and R1250R.
The MT10 is nuts. Great riding position. It’s great fun. But it’s way more than most half sane people will ever need. If you are a mentalist and you don’t mind spending half your day on filling station forecourts, have no fear of running out of fuel and you like a scrap with your bike now and again – it’s the one to get. If you feel the need to tune it then you probably need a little psychological therapy, or some anger management.
The CB1000R is a lovely looking thing. But you sit on top of it. The TFT thing is hopeless. It would make the perfect big bore city bike or short distance commute. But I’m not sure I’d want to spend all day on or even think about touring. And I hate to say it, it just didn’t gel with me – what is it everybody says about Hondas. And I wanted so much to like it.
The R1250R makes me lauch wi oot me huvin tae soil ma troosers. That boxer engine has character. It’s a boxer that is fast as foc, you can throw it about about, it looks good in its own BMW weird sort of way and yeah it’s day after day comfortable.
Foccin ell, I must be getting old, I fear I’m about to become a BMW wank.
