City Slicker

CITY SLICKER

—PRESS INTROS'02—

BMW F650CS

A swing in' Single for Suburbia—and beyond

Brian Catterson

HOLLYWOOD, California— THERE ARE REASONS THEY CALL THIS TOWN "HOLLYWEIRD." BETWEEN ALL THE TOURISTS, WANNABE ROCK stars and starlets parading up and down the Sunset Strip (some for profit—just ask Eddie Murphy or Hugh Grant), there's a definite weirdness to the place that you just don't find anywhere else.

That weirdness is woefully apparent within the walls of the trendy Mondrian Hotel, starting point for BMW's press introduction of the new F65OCS. One California native who attended the function recalled buying dope here

when it was a rundown apartment building in the 1970s, but today it's a stark white monument to Making It, Hollywood-style. As if the androgynous employees prancing around in beige leisure suits weren't odd enough, there are these curi ous television-shaped holes in the walls that emit a sort of blue-tinted luminescence. Poke your head through one and you find the light source is a video monitor playing “South Park.” Weird...

But no weirder than the F650CS, which is partly why the press intro was held here. The other reason was, as the head of BMW’s motorcycle division Tom Plucinsky put it, “We’re in the entertainment business. Nobody rides motorcycles because they have to.”

The weirdest thing about the CS is no doubt its “stuff bay” storage compartment, which fills the space where the gas tank would normally go. The bay comes stuffed with what would ordinarily be called a tankbag, but available options include a steelreinforced helmet/cargo net, a polypropylene hardcase or a stereo sound system ready to connect to your Walkman. If that’s not enough storage capacity, there’s also an optional expandable tailpack, which slips neatly onto the standard translucent-blue polycarbonate luggage rack, plus an even larger soft bag that rests on the passenger seat. As for hard luggage, well, there isn’t any-the CS is intended as urban transport and saddlebags would just get in the way.

Based on the Aprilia Pegaso and built in Italy beginning in 1993, the original dual-purpose F650 Funduro and its ST street variant were nearly identical, the changes amounting to little more than different wheels, tires and suspension settings. That sameness carried over after BMW took F650 manufacture in-house in 2001, the F650GS and Dakar models again more or less identical. The ncw-for’02 CS, then, is quite a departure.

“We made a real effort to differentiate,” said BMW's press manager Rob Mitchell.

The most obvious difference is the aforementioned stuff bay, the space for which was freed up by eliminating the oil tank for the Rotax-built dry-sump engine and housing the oil inside the twin steel frame spars instead. The 4-gallon fuel tank, as on the GS, is located under the seat.

Other chassis changes consist of a single-sided swingarm, belt drive and cast 17inch wheels shod with street tires. The engine, meanwhile, was retuned for greater torque, and final gearing was raised a smidgen.

The route for our test ride took us from Hollywood to Santa Barbara via the Santa Monica Mountains. As its nomenclature implies, the CS feels right at home on city streets, its slim profile and 30.7-inch-high seat (an optional seat-and-rear-tire package reduces that to just 29.5 inches) letting the rider alternately weave and paddle between slow-moving cars and trucks. The fuelinjected, liquid-cooled, 652cc, dohe engine is a willing accomplice, firing up without the aid of a manual choke and providing usable power from just above idle. Our long-term F650GS Dakar was plagued by EFI maladies, but while the CS hiccups a bit just shy of 4000 rpm, you have to be looking for it to notice. And above 4000 rpm, the thing rips-at least by street-legal four-stroke Single standards. Despite producing just 50 horsepower, the CS cruises at a lazy 5000 rpm at an indicated 85 mph (top speed is said to be 108 mph), the vestigial windscreen and standard heated handgrips holding the chilly wintermorning windblast at bay.

Exiting the Ventura Freeway at Topanga Canyon, we spent the morning shredding some of SoCal’s tightest, twistiest, dirtiest-and, as they would say in the San Fernando Valley just north of here, gnarliest-backroads. The CS revels in this sort of abuse, the softness of its non-adjustable, relatively long-travel suspension a fair tradeoff for the generous cornering clearance. The ABS-equipped EVO brakes work superbly, and while steering is higher-effort than you’d expect, handling is generally nimble. At a claimed 388 pounds dry, the CS is lightweight for a streetbike; it’s just that these days there are bikes that weigh almost that little while producing two or even three times as much horsepower, some of which cost significantly less.

Which raises the question, is there a market for a swinging city Single priced at a stratospheric $8690 (and $9190 with ABS)? Judging by BMW’s recent sales statistics, which show the F650GS as the company’s best-selling model worldwide, that answer is probably yes. After all, it is a BMW, and a relatively affordable one at that. That fact alone may be enough to ensure its success-especially in a state as image-conscious as California, which would be BMW’s sixthlargcst market if it were its own country.

Weirder things have happened.