BMW R1200RT

Kawasaki Z1000SX

2011-09-23T18:18:00.000+02:00

Today I hired the Kawasaki Z1000SX because it's a candidate to be my next bike. My new bike must be a bit exciting power- and handlingwise and must be able to do long trips. I think the Kawi more or less fits the bill. The engine is very nice: you can dabble along with low revs, or you can wind on the power and experience the impressive acceleration. Shifting gears goes well, except when you want to shift back while standing still. This goes not very smooth.
The frontbrakes are fine. Not as perfect as the Brembo's of the Agusta, but they do the trick.
Seating position is good, no pressure on my wrists. Only my but started to hurt after no more than 100km. I think the seat must be replaced by something more fitting my behind to be able to do longer trips. Wind protection is okay. It ain't no ST1300, that's for sure ;)
Fuel range is with 280km good enough.
So, all in all, the Z1000SX might be my next bike.

MV Agusta F4 1000

2011-09-10T17:54:00.003+02:00

Three months after my last ride I couldn't take it anymore: I had to get on a bike again. So I hired an MV Agusta F4. Quite something else compared to a Beemer, indeed. It is a great sportsbike. It's power above 9,000rpm is awesome. Brakes are perfect. As is the suspension and handling. Windprotection above 250kmh on the other hand is not that good, but hey, that's twice the allowed speed ;)
For a short sprint of a couple of hours this is a very fine bike, but for longer trips it is, for me, not suitable. Especially seen the fuel consumption.

August 6 2011, 34,285km

2011-08-06T14:38:00.000+02:00

At last some news after almost exactly 2 months after the last posting. Well, 'some' news... It's kinda big: I've sold the Beemer! I loved it for its perfect touring capabilities, but, like I wrote before, I missed the pure fun in riding a motorcycle. That's why I didn't drive it lately and that's why I'm going to look for something else (next year?).
I think I'm going back to an inline four, sporty but with decent touring possibilities. Like the Kawasaki Z1000SX. Who knows...

THE END

June 5 2011, 34,285km

2011-06-06T19:50:00.009+02:00

Short Vacation in Normandy France
Day 1, Thursday June 2 (Ascension Day), 773km
Today Erwin and I left for Normandy to have a look overthere. First we left asap The Netherlands and crossed equally quick Belgium. We drove to Cap Gris Nez from where we could see England. Then on to Ambleteuse to have a look at the fort that's lying in the water.

After that we drove to Amiens to have a look at the beautiful cathedral.

Then over the high bridge Pont de Normandie further Normandy in. I thought we could easily find an hotel in the seaside resort Cabourg, but I was wrong. It looked like the French had vacation as well and went to the sea en masse. We diverted to Ouistreham and found a room in hotel Le Phare where we stayed for three nights.

Day 2, Friday June 3, 290km
On the second day we first went to Bayeux to have a look ad the medieval tapestry. But here too a lot of people wanted to do the same, and since we didn´t want to wait we left again.
Next stop was at the American War Cemetery at Colleville, an impressive sight. Omaha beach was nearby, so we visited that too.

In Saint-Mere-Eglise people were celebrating the 67th anniversary of D-Day.

Through the bocage landscape we went back to our hotel.

Day 3, Saturday June 4, 312km

Today we went to see Suisse Normande, a country side that resembles that of Switzerland. We had a short stop at Beuvron-En-Auge, the most beautiful village of France(?).

Near Vimoutiers we passed a German Tiger tank.

Day 4, Sunday June 5, 670km
Time to go home again. The idea was to avoid the highway and head North over secundary roads until time would run out and we had to use the highway to get home at a decent time. The roads near the coast were clogged with slow driving cars, so we went further inland. Soon after we passed the bridge at Tancarville Erwin's Yamaha started to make strange noises emanating from the front wheel. Besides the fact that the wheel rotated heavily we couldn't find anything wrong. We phoned the autoclub and after an hour a mechanic arrived. He couldn't see what it was wrong either and towed the bike away.

That left Erwin without a bike, 500kms from home. So I put the ESA in 2 person mode, took Erwin as a passenger and hit the highway. After 5 long hours we were home again.

The Route

Update July 12: Erwin's bike is finally back from France. It's now at the dealer who's going to have a look at it.

Update August 6: Erwin's bike is fixed. The front wheel bearing was the culprit.

May 25 2011, 32,145km

2011-05-25T17:06:00.000+02:00

Tried the Beemer on a longer run. Everything seems to be fine again. So the TPS must have been the culprit.

May 7 2011, 32,025km

2011-05-07T14:35:00.000+02:00

The problem with the lousy running of the engine was probably caused by a faulty throttle position sensor. The thing got replaced under warranty and the bike seems to be running fine again. A longer ride than the one back from my dealer must confirm this....

May 1 2011, 32,014km

2011-05-01T19:06:00.005+02:00

A new sunny Sunday, a new long trip. This time another visit of Luxembourg. Because I've seen the A2 highway so often and I'm starting to hate it, I decided to go to Luxembourg via Germany. This is a detour of about one hour, but I expected it to be less because a big part of the route in Germany led over the speedlimitless Autobahn. On the Autobahn I set the cruise control at its highest speed, i.e. 175kmh. In this way the kilometers flew by. After a tankstop the engine ran a bit irregular, I thought maybe due to crappy gas or a dirty spark plug. After a little while the bike ran fine again, although it vibrated a little bit more than it used to. I noticed this vibration earlier after I tried the BMW 6 cilinder. I thought that it was because the six ran so smooth, so the boxer vibrated a lot more in comparison. But now I think there was something wrong at that time too. I can't imagine the dealer upset things while he changed the light bulb that day, I mean, how on earth can you do that?

The Route

Anyway, back to Luxembourg. The roads were good and curvy, as expected. After a second fuel stop the bike didn't run better, so there goes that theory. In a small town the engine started to run irregular again and stopped altogether. I could get it going again, but on the dash the pictogram of the engine management system was shown. Time to get home asap. Happily the gastank was as good as completely full, so I didn't have to stop and risk not getting the engine going again. It took me about 3 hours to travel the 375km back home. My but hurt, my knees ache, my back painfull, but I made it :) In total the trip was 870km in length.
Next Tuesday I'm gonna phone the dealer to make an appointment to have the Beemer fixed.

April 23 2011, 31,138km

2011-04-24T00:07:00.000+02:00

On this day before Easter Pim and I took part in a tour organized by the Dutch Suzuki SV club. It led us through parts of Germany and Belgium and was quite nice. Somewhere along the route a warning lite lit on my dash and the tire pressures were shown. According to the bike the pressure of the rear tire was way too high: 4.4 atm instead of 3.0 (when warm). Since there was nothing out of the ordinary (it was not an extremely hot day, and the tire wasn't touching anything) I thought it must be a faulty warning. And indeed, a couple of kilometers further the warning light went out and tire pressures were normal again.

The route

The trip was further (happily) quite uneventfull. To get home I had to ride about 200km over a very boring highway. The cruise control was a great help here. The trip had for me a total length of 570km.

Speaking about the cruise control... After more than a year being the owner of the R1200RT I think I now can answer the subtitle of this blog: 'High tech = high fun?'. The answer is... (drumroll..) ... NO!
High tech (abs, asc, esa, heated grips and seats, boardcomputer, cruise control, etc) equals high safety and high comfort, but it doesn't add (much) to the pure fun in riding. For this the most simple motorbike is enough. I am e.g. always surprised how much fun a smaller bike is when I get one as a loaner.
On the other hand, when I'm making a big trip abroad all this high tech makes life aboard the RT much more pleasant. In this case riding the bike is less about pure riding, and more about getting somewhere and enjoying the surroundings.

April 9 2011, 30,567km

2011-04-09T15:34:00.005+02:00

Today I could testride the BMW K1600GT six cilinder. At first I wasn't too impressed. I followed some cars over a busy road, and the bike felt okay, but nothing special. Until I reached the winding dyke. Here the six could really show what it's about: comfy as a tourer, but (almost as) fast as a sportsbike when wanted. The engine is so smooth and powerfull, changing gears is optional. You could leave it in fourth, or whatever, the whole day long. The gearbox itself was a little bit cluncky, but not disturbingly. Only thing I didn't like was the dashboard, it looks oldfashioned, but that's no big problem. Oh, and it could use some other exhausts. You can hardly hear the beautiful sound the bike makes.
While I was at the dealer they replaced the left headlight bulb of the RT which was broken. Indicated on the dashboard by a very cryptic icon. I also bought some bags for the side cases of the RT.

March 29 2011, 30,557km

2011-03-29T21:09:00.001+02:00

Knokke, Belgium

Today I had a day off from work and by coincidence the wheather was great for a trip. So, at around 9 o'clock I started the Beemer and drove to the coast of Belgium. I've seen pics of the coastal towns (spa's), but I've never been there myself and I was kinda curious how it looked like in real life. Well, to be honest, it's not my cup of tea. Kinda boring. Not much different from their Dutch counterparts. Since I was in the neighbourhood I visited the French Dunkerque as well. Nothing special either, except for its history. I was now so far South that Calais wasn't far off, so I went there to check if I could see the English coast from its beach. Well, I couldn't. A frenchman told me I had to use binoculars on a clear day and then maybe I could see something...
It was now around 5 o'clock, time to head home. First I had to get some gas, even the big fuel tank of the Beemer gets empty after a while. With gas left for only 16 more kilometers I finally found a gas station.
With the gas tank filled I hit the highway and was home after 3 hours and (in total) more than 700km.

The route

February 6 2011, 29,682km

2011-02-06T15:06:00.000+01:00

Made the first ride of 2011 with the RT today. It was quite nice with temps of around 12 Celcius. The new frontbrakes worked very fine. I guess they're comparable with the Pan's now.

January 12 2011, 29,628km

2011-01-12T19:20:00.000+01:00

Got the beemer back from the dealer. It now has new front brake discs and -pads. I'm curious if braking has improved...

January 1 2011, 29,628km

2011-01-01T12:02:00.002+01:00

Happy New Year!

December 28 2010, 29,628km

2010-12-28T22:57:00.000+01:00

Today the dealer picked up the beemer to do some maintenance. I complained about the front brakes that vibrate and they told me they would replace the disks under warranty.
The roads are still covered with snow and ice...

October 29 2010, 29,628km

2010-10-30T16:45:00.001+02:00

Dam in Belgium

Today I had a day off from work and decided to tour in Luxembourg. It was a perfect autumn day and the roads in Luxembourg were great. This probably was the last longish (780km) trip this year.

The route in Luxembourg

The end of the great N25

Autumn...

October 9 2010, 28,800km

2010-10-09T23:08:00.002+02:00

Pim, Vincent and I went to the German Intermot motorshow in Cologne today (by car...). Here we saw most of the new models for 2011. Some factories (like Honda) saved their news for the next big show in Milan. My main interest went to the Kawasaki Z1000SX. In real life it's jus as nice as on the pictures. I sat on one and ergonomics are just fine I guess. The handlebar e.g. is not to low and the footpegs are in a comfortable position. A testdrive is necessary to confirm this.

Babe magnet?

Maybe not... ;)

BMW K1600GT

The other new Kawi, the ZX-10R, looked in real life better than on the pictures. Must be a beast of a machine with more than 200hp.

The other bike I wanted to see was the BMW K1600GT. When I first saw it I thought 'is that all?'. Despite the inline 6 the bike isn't as big as you would expect. It resembles the K1300GT in appearance at first glance. I sat on it and could see me conquering Europe with it, but not in the next 10 years. I first want my bikes to be a bit more sporty.

After about six hours we left the show, tired, filled with impressions, German sausages and beer (except our designated driver Pim) :)

October 8 2010, 28,800km

2010-10-08T20:27:00.000+02:00

Picked up the bike at the dealer. While it was there they replaced the brakelines because of the recall.

October 6 2010, 28,800km

2010-10-06T18:51:00.001+02:00

The expert of the insurance company had a look at the bike and was willing to pay 650 euro for the damage. I agreed since the few scratches are hardly visible.

Movie of the Kawasaki Z1000SX:

Me like :)
I only find it a pity that there's only one of the two headlights burning.

October 2 2010, 28,800km

2010-10-02T21:51:00.002+02:00

Wow! Kawasaki is going to introduce the Z1000SX. At first sight I like it a lot. Gonna have to see it in person next week on the motorshow in Cologne, Germany. Is there another Kawi in my future? :)

Got some news from my insurance company too. As expected the insurance company of the car driver want to see the damage themselves, so I have to make an appointment with them.

September 11 2010, 28,311km

2010-09-11T18:28:00.000+02:00

The dealer estimated today the damage done to my bike last week. He found more scratches and stuff than I did. It's going to cost about 1,300 euro to have it all repaired. Because this figure is above 750 euro it means that an insurance expert must have a look at it to see if it is reasonable. Will be continued...

September 4 2010, 28,048km

2010-09-04T22:46:00.001+02:00

RT in front of basilica

On this beautiful September day Pim and I went to Marc to do some touring near Marc's residence Oudenbosch, a small place in Brabant, famous for its basilica. After a nice ride we stopped for lunch, I parked my bike on the parking lot and went in for a pee. While I was busy a young guy in a car collided with my bike while leaving his parking spot. This in front of two motorcycle coppers who were having lunch at the same place as we. Damage seemed to be not much, some scratches, but still I'm gonna have my insurance take care of things so I won't be surprised later by some hidden damage.

The situation: red car on the left backed up

and hit my bike on the right...

After lunch we went on and ended at the end of the afternoon at Marc's place were we had a nice barbeque.

The route and place of collision

August 28 2010, 27,606km

2010-08-28T12:05:00.000+02:00

Had a new front tire fitted (MPR2, 166 euro).

August 20 2010, 27,597km

2010-08-21T10:14:00.001+02:00

Yesterday evenening Pim and I drove to Camping In den Hof in Heerlen to stay the night. This place would serve as a starting point to our trip of today in the German Eifel. The weather was great and the route very nice with lots of curves. At around 17.30 I thought it would be wise to head home, so I gave the Zumo instructions to lead us back over small roads, avoiding highways. You just gotta love navigation systems :)
At 22.30 I was back home, Pim had to ride about an hour longer.

August 2 - 12 2010, 26,677km, Vacation in Italy

2010-08-13T16:44:00.009+02:00

Monday August 2, 620km

This morning we left to have a vacation in the Dolomites, Italy. First we visited Wunderlich in Germany, a shop for BMW accessories. Here Paul picked up a new saddle.
Then we went asap to the Black Forest. Riding over a part of the Schwarzwaldhochstrasse we reached our hotel for that day at the end of the afternoon.

Tuesday August 3, 360km
Through the Black Forest we drove to Switzerland. Near the end of the route Paul and I got seperated from Edwin and Richard. Paul and I drove the nice Klausenpass while the other two took a different road to our destination of that day: the Swiss place Wassen. Here we stayed in Hotel Gerig.

Wednesday August 4, 330km
Today we drove over a couple of Swiss high passes, like the Susten and the Furka. I filmed our ride up and down the Furka pass.

(Please play the vid in HD (720p) for the best result)

Thursday August 5, 480km
A big disappointment when we woke up this morning: rain. Checking the forecast for that day and the next weren't hopefull either. So we decided to head asap to Italy in the hope things would get better there.
First we went through the Gotthard road tunnel. Outside the temperature was less than 12 degrees Celsius, halfway the tunnel the temp went up to 36.5 degrees. In Italy it was still raining heavily. My textile suit kept me reasonably dry. Only my ass became wet. After six wet hours we reached Hotel Steinmannwald in Steinmannwald/Pineta. Erwin and I stayed here two years ago too. We hadn't made reservations and the hotel was full for that night. So we stayed the night at the nearby located Hotel Raffl, ran by the sister of the owner of Hotel Steinmannwald.

Friday August 6, 275km
The weather cleared up, and in the afternoon temps went up to a hot 32 Celcius. We moved from our current hotel to Hotel Steinmannwald. Here we stayed a couple of days.
We drove a couple of Dolomite passes like Penser Joch and Timmelsjoch.
The latter led to an Austrian toll booth on top of it. We stopped in front of it, turned around and went the same way back. On this pass we found the only snow of this vacation. On the rest of the passes almost all was already molten.

Saturday August 7, 300km
We rode more passes today. Some were very busy because of the holiday season and because of the weekend.

Sunday August 8, 270km
Even more passes today. A special one was the Manghen pass because a great part of it leads through a dark forest.
Along the route was a long and straight tunnel with no other traffic. So we opened the throttle and I reached a topspeed of 230kmh. ;)

Monday August 9, 310km
Yep, more passes. At the afternoon temps went up to a blistering 36 Celcius.

Tuesday August 10, 350km
At last, the mother of all passes: The Stelvio. Maybe because we already have seen very beautifull passes, but I didn't find the Stelvio that special. It's fun to ride, and it's high and the views are great, but no different from other passes. At the top it was a busy madhouse with tourists, shops, restaurants, etc. So we soon went down again.
At the Gavia pass a motorcyclist had missed a corner, and they were recovering his bike. The first and only bike accident we've seen this vacation.
Back in Switzerland we rode fast over the Ofenpass with its good tarmac and wide corners. We ended this day in Hotel Alpina in Nauders, Austria.

Wednesday August 11, 315km
First, because we were in the neighbourhood, we went to see the sunken churchtower in the Reschensee. Then on to the Silvretta pass. Regretfully it started to rain again and we could see not much of this beautifull pass.
At the end of the day we had some trouble finding an hotel because most were full. At last we found Hotel Stadler in Möggers, Austria. From our rooms we had a spectacular view over the Bodensee.

Thursday August 12, 790km
Alas, the weather turned sour again. Again lots of rain this morning. Study of several weather sites learned that there was no escaping it and because we had to be home next day anyway we decided to hit the highway and ride home this day.
And thus a great vacation of in total 4,400km ended.

To answer my own question: no, the Tuono having a small gastank wasn't a big problem. But I'm sure its owner Richard has been looking more on his fuelgauge than I have ;)

The Route

Pics of this vacation you'll find here.

July 31 2010, 22,280km

2010-07-31T11:54:00.000+02:00

Getting ready for a trip to Italy with three guys I've never met. Paul (R1200RT) asked on an internet forum for some fellow travellers and two other guys (Richard: Tuono, Edwin CBF600) and I reacted. We'll have to wait and see how this works out. I'm curious how the Tuono with its 18 liter tank performs. Are 18 liters indeed enough to do some serious touring, or is it way to little (like I'm suspecting)?

July 30 2010, 22,280km

2010-07-30T10:41:00.000+02:00

Fixed the sound output of my Zumo and cradle by cleaning the contacts. Sometimes solving a problem can be so easy :)

July 27 2010, 22,280km

2010-07-27T18:28:00.000+02:00

The sound output of my Zumo 550 motorcycle cradle isn't working anymore. My car cradle still works fine. So the problem has got to be in the motorcycle cradle and not in the Zumo. I'll clean the connector asap and see if this helps.

July 24 2010, 22,210km

2010-07-24T23:49:00.000+02:00

The route

Today Ton & son (FJR1300), Pim (TL1000S), Marc (TL1000S) and I went for a ride in the Eastern part of our country. Myself, I'm no fan of riding in the Netherlands (lots of speedbumps, speedtraps, busy traffic), but this trip was well worth the trouble. It lead us over quiet roads and through nice nature. The beemer did well today. Removal of the handlebar risers turned out very well: no more sore shoulders and arms.

Halfway we met Jack (Z1000)

July 23 2010, 21,830km

2010-07-23T20:39:00.001+02:00

Got a new rear tire (Michelin PR2). The old one wasn't worn completely but I'm planning to go next week to Italy and want to have my equipment in good order.
While the mechanic was changing the tire I could see the front and rear suspension. To answer my own question a couple of months ago: yes, it is White Power (WP) suspension. Not aftermarket, but stock, built in by BMW themselves.

July 19 2010, 21,750km

2010-07-19T18:32:00.001+02:00

Finally could try the new handlebar setup a bit while taking the bike to work. I think it's much better this way. A longer trip must confirm this.

July 14 2010, 21,661km

2010-07-14T22:26:00.000+02:00

YES! The first new Van Veen motorcycle has been produced!

It's going to cost 'only' 85,000 euro. Maybe I can sell a kidney or two? ;)

July 12 2010, 21,661km

2010-07-12T17:41:00.000+02:00

And me complaining about a bit of dirt on the road. Check this out:

Still haven't tried the new handlebar setup. Way too hot here to ride a bike for fun.

June 5 2010, 21,661km

2010-06-05T13:59:00.001+02:00

Removed the handlebar risers. I suspect them to be the cause of my shoulder and back problems on longer trips. Haven't been able to try the new setup though.

May 24 2010, 21,661km

2010-05-24T17:09:00.007+02:00

Just got home from a three day trip with Erwin to the German Sauerland. We stayed at a nice Dorint hotel near Winterberg. The roads were great for bikers and nature was at its best. The trip was for the rest quite uneventful until Erwin decided to take a nice little unpaved road to the top of a hill. The road was closed for all traffic except for foresters, but hey, we didn't come all this way to be stopped by road closures. As it turned out (for me) the road was torture with a very bad surface (rocks, mud, leaves, sand). Not something a fourwheel drive couldn't handle, but for a heavy touringbike it was no picknick. Erwin didn't mind that much... After half an hour we finally reached tarmac again where I told Erwin I wouldn't follow him anymore over unpaved roads ;)

At one of the (very well paved...) roads near Winterberg I managed to get a footpeg touch the ground. The beemer is a great handling bike.
This trip had a length of 1350km in total.

Go here for the pics of this trip

May 18 2010, 20,308km

2010-05-18T18:40:00.000+02:00

There's a safety recall for mine and other beemers. It has something to do with the front brake lines. I'll just wait for a notice from my dealer.

May 2 2010, 20,308km

2010-05-02T21:16:00.008+02:00

The last three days Erwin and I made a tour of about 1450km through Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. The first day led us around the Ruhr reservoirs. There are some nice roads there, but closed in the weekend for bikers. Probably due to accidents and/or nuisance. Then we went through the Belgian and Luxemburgian Ardennes to the American cemetery near Luxembourg city where General Patton has been buried. I wanted to visit this because I want to ride the 'Liberty Road' one of these days, which follows for a part the route Patton has taken while 'touring France'. Hence I got interested in Patton. Afterwards we found a nice little hotel somewhere in Germany.

During day two we followed the Moselle river and the Rhine. In Trier we had a look at some ancient Roman ruins like the Porta Nigra, the Roman baths and the amphitheatre .We stopped in Bingen in a nice NH Hoteles hotel which was located beautifully on the shore of the Rhine.

On day three we took the long way home. On the Autobahn we had a funny encounter with a sportsbike rider. He was doing around 200kmh and we were faster at that time (the Beemer did 225kmh with big topcase and side cases, the FJR1300 of Erwin was even faster) and we wanted to overtake him. But he didn't look in his mirrors so we buzzed him with our fully loaded heavy touring bikes. We scared the hell out of him :)

During these three days we had very nice dry weather with temperatures of over 20 degrees Celcius. When we approached The Netherlands temps dropped to below 10 and it started to rain heavily. It's always good to be back home...

Go here for the trip album

April 29 2010, 18,859km

2010-04-29T15:22:00.000+02:00

While cleaning the bike I noticed the white rear spring. Is this stock, or is this a WP replacement? Anybody?

April 28 2010, 18,859km

2010-04-28T18:12:00.000+02:00

Went to the National Liberation Museum today. I took the long way to get there since it was a beautiful, warm, day. The museum was ok, not too impressive. The road back home was terrible due to traffic jams and accidents. I drove today 400km.

April 18 2010, 18,459km

2010-04-18T20:54:00.002+02:00

Made a little trip of about 650km to the Teutoburgerwald in Germany. Between the boring and crowded roads there were some worth the trouble, but all in all the Teutoburgerwald won't rank high in my list of places with great roads.

The route

Btw it seems the previous owner of the beemer has installed a real horn as well, in stead of the standard tin beep thingy. I could use it today to let a Danish car driver know I wasn't happy with the fact he kept on driving on the left lane while the right one was free. Eventually he got the message ;)

April 5 2010, 17,834km

2010-04-06T19:49:00.000+02:00

Second Easter Day and the weather was quite nice, so I took the beemer for a trip. In a motormagazine I've read something about the road N645 in the Belgian Ardennes. This road was being recommended for bikers because of its tarmac and curves.

So I went to the Ardennes and rode this road (see movie). It was indeed a nice one, but maybe a bit short. But there are lots of nice roads in the Ardennes, so I enjoyed myself for some hours. Because this trip wasn't that long I took a detour near home over some dykes. After 725km I was home again.

March 27 2010, 16,206km

2010-03-27T14:56:00.001+01:00

F*ck, kicked a hole in the passenger seat with my boot :(
I installed a Ram mount on the steering head stem. I think this'll be better than on top of the cockpit. Only problem could be direct sunlight.

March 18 2010, 16,206km

2010-03-18T21:32:00.005+01:00

Because the weatherforcasts were very promising for today I took the day off to make the first decent ride of this year and to test the R1200RT.

At 8.30 I left for Germany, target of today was the river Mosel. Again? Yep, again. It's a nice ride and the surroundings are great overthere. First a quick dash to Koblenz, the city near the river. On the Autobahn the beemer reached a topspeed of 230kmh. At that speed the bike was still very stable (are you reading this Honda? ;) ). The screen doesn't protect you as wel as the one on the ST1300, but you can put it in such a height that it creates a clean airflow around your helmet. When I just had the bike I thought I had to buy a bigger screen, but I think now the stock one is good enough.

Near Koblenz I started to follow the river westward. The beemer was a joy to ride. Very good handling, very few vibrations from the engine, good brakes (though the ST1300's are better), comfortable. ESA works perfect. I used the setup for one rider and luggage in sportsmode. It's firm and I like it best. Until I got at a bad stretch of road. The sporty setup made things quite uncomfortable, so I selected the comfort-mode. At once the bike smoothed out the bumps and made life aboard the beemer happy again.
Fuel consumption was on this 900km trip was on average 1:18.5 (5.4l / 100km). Very decent. The Touratech saddle was very comfortable. Even at the end of the 11 hours ride I hardly felt my butt. I did feel my shoulders and back, but that might be caused by the fact I haven't been riding that long for quite some time.
Only negative thing I can think of about the R1200RT are the mirrors. They are pretty lousy, it's hard to get a good view of things happening behind you. Oh, and a few more horses wouldn't hurt either ;)
And I've got to get me another GPS mount, the current one vibrates too much and stands too far away from me to see things clear. I must find one for the steering head stem.

March 9 2010, 16,200km

2010-03-09T18:24:00.001+01:00

Picked up the topcase at the dealer where they made my key fit its lock.
No, it's the other way round: they made the lock fit the key :)

March 6 2010, 16,160km

2010-03-06T22:09:00.000+01:00

Still no decent weather to do some serious touring :(
So, here are some R1200RT links to keep you occupied ;)

Guy Boutin's Motorcycle Touring and Travel Pages
2008 BMW R1200RT vs. Moto Guzzi Norge 1200
BMW ABS and Automatic Stability Control
Tourers Reviews BMW R1200RT
Fan.TV BMW R1200RT
Fan.TV BMW R 1200 RT Lifestyle Edition
Multitest Toerbuffels
Review of R1200RT/Comparison to Old ST1300
Road test: BMW R1200RT
Road Test: R1200RT vs. Pan European vs. FJR1300
Trouwe gezel: BMW R 1200 RT

March 1 2010, 16,160km

2010-03-01T18:02:00.004+01:00

Bought me some torx tools, since the Beemer seems to be kept together with those kind of bolts.
This evening I bought a used small top case as well. The big one is good for big trips, the small one for small trips :) Now I must go to my dealer to make the lock fit the key of the bike.

February 27 2010, 16,160km

2010-02-27T11:32:00.001+01:00

Picked the bike up today and installed a RAM mount with wiring from Powerlet.
Now I've got to wait for some decent weather to put the bike through its paces.

February 20 2010, 16,120km

2010-02-20T17:14:00.003+01:00

Oops, I did it again: bought another motorcycle. This time a BMW R1200RT from 2008, 16,000km on the odo. After the Honda ST1300 Pan European I wanted a bike with more 'character' (whatever that is), a bit more sporty, but just as comfortable and able to do long trips. I hoped the Honda VFR1200F would be such a bike, but with a fuel tank of only 18 liters it cannot be taken serious a a tourer. After much deliberation and searching the internet I came to the conclusion that the RT would fill my needs. After the testride today I was convinced it was a good choice. The bike is comfortable, the engine more lively than the one of the Pan, brakes are good, handling is very nice, and it is quick enough,
The bike is equipped with all the goodies BMW could come up with, except the very expensive radio. It has ABS, electronic suspension adjustment (ESA), automatic stability control (ASC a.k.a. traction control), cruise control, heated grips and buddy, alarm, 12V power outlet, on-board computer and remote tire pressure monitoring. The previous owner has fitted an heated Touratech buddy, handlebar raisers, cilinder protection, brake and clutch pedal extenders, tank protectors and a front mudguard extender. From the dealer I 'get' a large topcase and a tankbag. To make the bike (more than) complete I'll have to buy a GPS stand and side case bags myself.
Next week I can pick it up.