4:45pm. It's cutting it a little close, but I'm finally at Brown
Motor Works doing the paper work to pickup the Alpine White
R1200R. 2K down, a lot of signatures, and I'm out the door at
about 5:50pm with a brand new 2009 R1200R that needs some serious
breaking in. Boy oh boy, baby is rough. With only 8 miles
on the bike, the boxer is really boxing. Despite what others
think, I'm breaking this baby in hard. Just like the last
12R. The bike strains to get up to 5K RPM, but that is to be
expected with so little miles on the odometer. Premature
waring? Maybe, maybe not. It's all in what you think is
appropriate for your machine. As for me, my mind set says these
machines aren't as fragile as one might think. I find myself
fumbling a bit with the 12R because I haven't ridden this type of beast
in a year. I keep on trying to use the rear break when I know
this bike has linked breaking when just the front lever is used.
Daggonnit, where is that shift lever? Wow, this bike's geometry
is completely different than the 8GS. That's alright, I'll get
use to it soon enough. Speaking of which, the 8GS is currently
sitting at Brown Motor Works pending a BMW NA decision as to do with
the bike. You read it right folks, I haven't traded 8GS in for
the 12R. In fact I'm waiting until the day when the 8GS is fixed
so I can ride it once again. What happened? To my untrained
eyes it appears the 8GS suffered a catastrophic computer failure.
Of course it could really be something else. All I know is that
when I put the key in and turn the bike on, nothing appears on the
screen and hitting the start button results in ... NOTHING. Right
now, the Brown service manager has been told not to do anything with
the bike. BMW NA wants to examine the bike to see what happened
to it. I told Brown to go ahead and hold onto the bike as long as
they need so BMW NA can perform whatever analysis they need to
determine what happened. I'm hoping my 8GS's failure will be the
light at the end of the tunnel for so many of my brethren 8GS owners
who's suffering stalling problems. Perhaps the second generation
8GS will be better because of my 8GS. Who knows. In the
meanwhile, I'm breaking in the white thing.
I'm told the white R12R is a limited run. I'm lucky to get one.
All of the AW bikes are produced in a 30 day period.
[ Sunday - March
28, 2010 ]
Well I can't say that I'm an ironbutt type of guys because I've only
managed to put on 201 miles after 4 days of owning the bike. This
is mostly because two of those days are work days with the standard
commute. Two of the remaining days are spent with the family and
cleaning the garage so I have room for the 8GS whenever it gets home.
After 125 miles of heavy accelerating and decelerating, the bike feels
much better and is no longer boxing itself when idling. 200+
miles, baby is nice and smooth. The way I expect an R bike to be
after it's been through a good break in. Now I don't have to
convulse any more and can ride the bike like normal. That is
until the 600 mile service. After that point I get to do the
extended break in and take the bike up to red line. Until then, I
can at least enjoy the next several hundred miles of regular city
driving.
BTW, the Captain thinks I'm stupid for buying another BMW. So be
it. It's my money. Sure the 8GS has some rough spots.
What do you expect for a first generation. But can you say that
Honda will tow your motorcycle to the nearest Honda dealer at no charge
the same day you take the bike home from the dealer? Will Honda
perform a warranty fix after a year of ownership? If one says
that Honda's are adverse to mechanical problems and shouldn't need that
type of service, I say you're dreaming. Looking at the new Honda
VFR 13 with automatic transmission, it looks like the bike has even
more gadgets than a Swiss Army knife. Not to mention it's much
more expensive than a R12R. At $20K for the automatic bike, that
means you're paying at least $2K in taxes. That's not mentioning
licensing and other wonderful fees. That's gotta sting a little.
Written on: March 25, 2010
Last modified: March 28, 2010