The world’s most comfortable spaceship?
Words by: Donovan Fourie
BMW has equipped its big tourer with its latest 1300cc boxer-twin motor, because that seems like a jolly good idea. While the engineers were fitting the motor to the big mileage eater, they thought: let’s make it much better looking and much more clever.
And so they did.
And the results are quite astonishing.
Up until now, big tourers have had something of a fuddy-duddy air about their looks. They had an air of unwavering functionality with little in the way of charisma. We know this is true because Glenn’s two teenage sons – who do things like go to parties, have friends, and are even seen in the company of girls! – have always had a snarling distaste for every tourer that has thus far made its way through the RideFast parking lot.
Their appearance resembled a fat, ageing bloke with giant spectacles wearing a grey tracksuit. It all functions extremely well, but is somewhat unflattering.
This beast of a machine follows no such trend. It looks like the Starship Enterprise has elegantly hovered down to earth – more so, northern Benoni. Especially in the Triple Black colour scheme adorning our test bike. It even got a brief nod of approval – and even a test ride out to bapsfontein and back from the two sons, moments before they returned to texting the girls.
It isn’t just looks. Those new headlights are extremely clever. They measure your speed, and if you’re riding at a slow pace – such as through a neighbourhood – they shine their light nearer and wider, illuminating such things as dogs and balls and cars coming out of the urban flanks.
At speed, they narrow the beam and extend it further, giving the rider a better glimpse into the immediate future.
They know when you’re going around a corner too, because they will further light up the inside of the turn, letting you peer further around the corner.
Cornering this beasty is easier than you might think. It has a hefty wet weight of 281 kg, which is unsurprising and, perhaps, useful. Light and nimble is the domain of crouched pocket rockets, and while they might be necessary to light up lap times on the world’s racing stages, they also make the bike jittery and nervous, whereas the more weighty approach promotes stability and sure-footedness.
With the new RT, this is all somewhat optional.
Part of the RT’s retinue of electrickery is automatically adjustable suspension. In Rain and Road mode, the bike favours a setup most suiting a cruise. The RT is slung low and long, giving it a lazy but sturdy feel. Put it into Dynamic or Dynamic Pro modes, and the bike starts lifting off the ground slightly, offering more ground clearance. The levitating rear suspension also serves to steepen the steering angle, making the bike magically more agile. The difference in handling is immediate and pretty remarkable.
The rest of the electric ensemble relates to heated everything, including the passenger handholds. There is connectivity to your phone and the accompanying control of music, phone functions and navigation. These can either be connected to a helmet headset or blasted through the supplied speakers that work well until about 120 km/h, when they lose the fight to wind noise.
There’s cruise control, of course, but more so adaptive cruise control controlled by a radar that adjusts the speed of the motorcycle according to whichever vehicle happens to be travelling ahead of it. It will also grab a handful of brakes should the radar deem it necessary.
The motorcycle is thoroughly comfortable, with a suitably large seat and enough space to keep blood flowing happily through your legs. The adjustable windscreen works a treat, and there are optional wind deflectors that keep the majority of weather at bay. We know this first-hand with Johannesburg’s recent bout of monsoons, one of which blighted our film shoot for The Bike Show.
Normally, this would result in a sopping rider and irreparable damage to various bits of sound equipment, but on this day it meant no more than the very outsides of my arms getting somewhat damp. The amount of weather deflection this bike offers is truly remarkable, possibly some of the best we have encountered.
Then we move onto the sordid tale of the motor – the boxer-twin remains as popular in BMW’s arsenal as the day it first built one 106 years ago. BMW attempted other variants in the past, including the most recent in-line six configuration, leaning upon its experience in car motors. The K 1600 remains one of my personal favourites to date, and obviously I remain confident in my taste in motorcycle power units despite BMW unceremoniously discontinuing the range.
And so, the RT boxer will soon fly BMW’s touring flag solo, although this modern incarnation flies said flag jolly high.
Previous boxer versions joined the previous RT looks in supplying endless amounts of fuddy-duddy-ness. They were of course filled to the brim with torque, making them effortless to ride, but they made an irritating sound and were about as smooth as a rock in a cement mixer. To be fair, as BMW has continued its journey of progress, the boxer motor has seen huge strides in improvements, especially in the last decade when a radiator was introduced.
The modern 1300 boxer is the one that truly delivers BMW out of the 1940s and into the modern age. It is excellent, and this is coming from someone who is clearly a boxer-sceptic.
As it says on the badge, the motor is a 1300 cc unit producing a laudable 145 hp and an earth-shaking 149 Nm of torque. This is squeezed out by two 106.5 mm pistons aided by BMW’s ShiftCam that alters the cam timing depending on the motor’s current requirements. More so, it is equipped with a massive counterbalance shaft which makes good work of largely smoothing out the boxer’s previous clunkiness.
The top speed is somewhere around 230 km/h, even with the two panniers and top box doing their best to thwart the bike’s aerodynamic efforts, and it will pull without resistance from as low as 2,500 rpm, negating the need for regular gear changes during acceleration.
Not that the rider will do much in the way of gear changing given that the bike is equipped with something called Automatic Shift Assistant, an aid that sounds deviously like it has a young, keen college graduate waiting in the wings with a clipboard ready to assist with the laborious task of changing gears. Thankfully, there are no organic elements to this system but rather good old mechanics and electronics.
The RT is completely bereft of a clutch lever but does keep the traditional gear lever on the left-hand side of the motorcycle. On the left bar is a switch labelled “D/M” that when thumbed, switches between a manual and automatic gearbox. The more traditional rider might be understandably dubious about this newfangled technology but it is a glorious addition, particularly in the context of touring.
In D mode, it is an automatic motorcycle in much the same vein as an automatic car that will happily handle all the gear-changing responsibilities leaving the rider with more free time to enjoy the touring experience.
However, let’s theoretically say that you were riding your RT through the countryside and happen upon a few corners. At that moment, some whipper-snapper on a sports bike comes carving through. While the rider of the RT might possess an ID book that signifies a state of adulthood, probability suggests that the rider is also male, and no male will let such indignity stand!
No problem – switch the bike into Dynamic Pro mode that allows an aggressive throttle while also changing the dimensions of the bike to better handle the corners. Then the gearbox into M mode.
Now you have a fast motorcycle with surprisingly nimble handling and what is now effectively a manual gearbox with a two-way quickshifter. After you’ve put the little sod on the sports bike in his place, and the corners have subsided, stick it back into auto and Road mode, and let the bike once more ease up into a relaxed riding position. Then enjoy the rest of your touring day.
As we said, the new BMW R 1300 RT is both good-looking and clever. And it will set you back a starting price of R392,550, but once you’ve stuck on a few essential options, you’re looking at a price a little north of R420,000.
Which is a lot of money but, then, this is a lot of motorcycle.
At your Motorrad dealer.
