Bmw R1150rt
BMW R1150RT
CYCLE WORLD TEST
what's new for '02
The “RT” stands for Road Tool
DAVID EDWARDS
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN, THE WHOLE BMW “THING” CAN BE A tough nut to crack. Zealots of the brand are of no real help, baptized as they are in the cool, clear waters of a Bavarian mountain stream. The buck-98-a-bike bunch aren’t in the loop, either-to them, anything with a five-figure price tag should also carry a mortgage and zipcode.
Nope, to gain insight into Beemers you have to go for a ride, preferably a long one. Which is just what we did with the 2002 RI 150RT, hanging a left at Austin, Texas, after the bike’s press launch and making way for the home office on the West Coast, some 2000 miles distant.
Revised for ’02, the RT gets bigger jugs, bumping displacement from 1085 to 1130cc. More importantly the oil-cooled BoxerTwin is mated to the improved six-speed transmission seen on last year’s 1150GS. There’s some residual clunks and crunches left in the gearbox, but notch it into top, an “E” lights up on the dash (for “Ease on down the road?”) and 80 mph comes at a loafy 4000 rpm, far away from the motor’s bands of thrummy vibration. Suh-weet.
Also new for ’02: Five-spoke wheels from the Smodel sport-Twin, lighter than before, the rear a meaty 5.0 x 17-incher. Keeping with the sportier theme, the upper fairing has been redrawn-gone is the rotund plumpness of before, replaced by a snarkier snout that incorporates a pair of foglamps flanking the headlight.
Big BMW news for 2002 is the addition of Integral ABS, the most advanced anti-lock braking ever put on a two-wheeler, detailed at the intro with an eight-page, single-spaced handout plus a half-hour video. To spare you the minutiae, what we’ve got here are linked, electro-hydraulic power brakes.
New EVO front calipers, a Brembo/Tokico joint effort, anchor the system. Rotors have grown from 12 to 12.6 inches, unsprung weight has been reduced by a useful half-pound, and pad life has been extended by a claimed 50 percent, with the additional benefit that the pads can now be changed in situ, no need to dismantle the caliper.
Controlling the EVO fronts plus the rear caliper is a single “booster” control unit-at a stop with the brakes on, you hear its electric servomotors whirring away. On the “full” version of the system, fitted to the RT and luxo Kl 100LT, operating either the foot pedal or the hand lever activates all three calipers simultaneously-there is no multi-piston proportioning as with Honda’s linked LBS. A “partial” version goes on more sporting models (including the upcoming redesign of the RS). Here, only the hand lever is linked front/rear; the foot pedal controls just the rear brake.
Full or partial, all brakes are ABS-equipped, again working through the electro-hydraulic control unit. The twist is that the system is adaptive, or “self-learning,” in that it monitors the load on each wheel and proportions stopping power accordingly. Stuff the RT’s saddlebags, install your favorite co-rider on the back seat, and Integral ABS knows that with an additional 150 pounds on it, the rear wheel can handle that much more of the braking duties without skidding.
Now, all of this pencils out quite nicely. And on the road, romping into the brakes translates into full-on hauldowns that are pretty damn impressive, especially for a 650-pound package like the RT. With the new setup, there is no pulsing through the lever/pedal as on the previous ABS II system. Trouble comes when you try to finesse the controls in non-panic situations, especially the rear. Used to dragging the back disc on comer entry to settle the chassis, or to knock off a smidge of speed without having to roll out of the throttle? Practiced at playing the pedal during slow-speed maneuvers around the gas pumps or when whipping tight U-ies? Well, the RT’s allintegrated ABS can make you look a little silly, problem being the rear pedal gives you not much of anything in the first portion of its travel, then comes on like a randy prom date at the “crossover” point, throwing out full anchors. The anti-lock paraphernalia is there as a backstop, of course, but it’s still spooky.
To prove the point, Road Test Editor Don Canet, veteran of about a million photo-pass turnarounds, managed to flatslide the RT, no real damage done, during a tight U-tum while feathering the rear pedal.
Even straight up and down, the system’s abruptness can catch you out. Several members of the moto-press were seen waddling around Austin holding their manhoods ginger (to totally fracture Shakespeare’s St. Crispin’s Day soliloquy from Henry V), having repeatedly banged the ol’ baubles off the back of the gas tank during stops.
You adapt, of course, and the hand lever is nowhere near as sensitive as the foot pedal, but the RT’s brake foibles stand out in bold because everything else about the bike is geared toward racking up miles with as little interference as possible. This is where the BMW mystique comes in and where the 1150’s lofty MSRP starts to make sense.
Item: Toolkit. Although by no means extensive, the contents of RT’s tool roll are a cut above the pot-metal implements found under most bikes’ seats, plus included is something no other major manufacturer even bothers with: flat-tire plugs and vials of compressed air to get you on the road again in the event of a simple puncture.
Item: Heated handgrips, standard on the RT. Spend just one non-summer riding stint on a bike with e-grips, and you’ll never want to be without them again. Heated grips allow you to go down one insulation level on gloves, giving better feel of the controls-and even if you forget rain mitts in a downpour, warm wet hands beat cold wet hands every time. Bonus points for the twin plug-in outlets in the left sidepanel that allow electric vest hookup without having to dig under the tank, piglets in hand, to get to the battery.
Item: Height-adjustable seat, three-way in the RT’s case. Sure, this permits you to match seat height to inseam size, but even daddy-longlegs will dig the sure-footedness on rain-slicked city streets that comes from the slammed position, and likewise, short-asses will appreciate the extra legroom on all-day rides that the top slot imparts.
Item: Power windscreen, adjustable onthe-fly via a thumb switch. Trolling through town, lower the screen all the way to get as much cooling air as possible. In rain, cold or insect swarms, go to full upright for maximum shielding. Rambling down the highway at speed, nudge it up or down to tune out faceshield flutter. Every touring bike should have this feature (listening Honda?). Factor in a closefitting fairing, and you’ve got perhaps the most protective aero-package in motorcycling.
What you’ve also got in the RI 150RT is competence. No matter what the road, no matter what the weather, this is a bike that works with you. Some 200 pounds lighter than its luxury-touring brethren, it’s much more manageable day-to-day. Not exactly a sport-tourer, it’s nonetheless a sporty tourer with beautiful backroad steering and a wide, flat torque band for surprisingly serious urge out of comers.
Above all, the RT is entertaining, overdone brakes notwithstanding. Call it a serious road tool that’s gone maybe one gizmo too far. □
BMW R1150RT
$16,290
