The BMW R 1250 R is an axe in a world of knives
What is it? A naked sports bike? A street bike? A roadster? It’s all of them and none of them. The BMW R 1250 R is an axe in a world of knives. From carving the corners and zipping through traffic to proving warp drive is a thing, it seems to be good at just about everything. It’s not the bike that is going to win a race at the track, it’s the one who is going to have the most fun getting there via the most convoluted road possible.
If you have never ridden a big twin before, you owe it to yourself to try one. Probably this one. When I was young, I looked at the classic opposing twin boxer engine, all heads akimbo, grandpas and police came to mind. I could never get my mind around it. I shouldn’t have bothered, I just needed to get my leg over one. Out of the gate this thing is monumental. It is unadulterated pure riding. With the huge twin sound and throttle response like a nuclear weapon this bike gives you smile lines that take days to fade. Wear them as a mark of pride.
It’s a single swing arm; with shaft drive, delivering unrivalled throttle response and instantaneous delivery of torque without chain slack – that’s really quite something if you haven’t experienced it before.
Power delivery is ‘ala carte’, as you want it. Pull the throttle a few millimetres and you calmly glide off like lord of the manor. Give it a little more twist of the wrist and armageddon ensues. The front wheel points rather upwards and the rider emits noises of exclamation like “gosh, oh darn, crikey” and a few more modern expletives. The delivery of force is extraordinary. Effortlessly yet exciting and outrageous yet controllable.
While the acceleration is eyeball distorting and mind boggling the braking is even better… I don’t know what kind of magic BMW has cooked up here but the braking is nothing short of stunning on what is a bike of reasonable size. In the short ride (Ok, ok, it was 260 kilometres), I never even got close to deploying full braking. 320 millimetre floating brake discs are kind of standard these days but somehow combined with the 276 mm rear brake, Brembo callipers, brilliant inverted forks, short pull levers and incredible responsiveness, the net result is astonishing. There is ABS but I was never able to get it to fire, such is the capability of the arresting system. Somehow BMW has whipped up more arcane magic with ShiftCam, which reduces rear wheel skidding when you change down aggressively (I did discover this – another wow moment). I wasn’t quite ready for the incredible engine braking (12.5 compression ratio!), so I ended up tripping this a couple of times. This created more smile lines. Lots of these on this test ride.
Let’s include a few numbers. 100 kilowatts with a peak torque of 143 Newton meters. Epic figures, reasonable for a car, monstrous for a motorbike. Three seconds 0 to 100. 60-100 : 1.1! Come on! Apparently 240 kilograms, but you just don’t really notice once you’re up and moving. Yet this is not a bike for a small person, it’s not a bike for learners. It’s not a bike for a lot of people actually because of its immense capability. This is a bike for someone who knows what they are doing. A number of years ago I had a bike that I enjoyed because I knew that I was more capable than the bike was. That is not the case with the BMW R 1250. It’s better than me. Not even a ‘super sports’ bike, but it’s got more capability than most riders will ever have and more torque than a book club on espresso martinis.
The day I took this bike out was one of the best days I’ve ever seen in Auckland. 27 degrees is hot enough that the roads were melting (not awesome for a rider). With the sun blazing down like it was I was fairly pleased that I was covered head to toe in safety gear…. although it was giving me a reason to keep a reasonable speed, which thankfully was not hard.
BMW has a clever system operated via left-thumb. With up-down left-right all done on a single ring controller that is designed for gloves; combined with a menu control button you can do everything you need to easily and in all conditions. Cruise control and a host of other handy functions mean it’s quite a feat to fit all the switch gear on the handlebars. Give yourself a few minutes to adapt and it’s not going to be a problem as it is intuitive. The large bright screen gives you access to every function on the bike and everything you need from your phone. It supports multiple Bluetooth connections to allow you to have calls and support helmet devices.
BMW technology is always impressive. You have a choice of various displays including synchronised navigation so you can plan your trip on your mobile and then the navigation is available seamlessly on your bike. Car manufacturers take note! When the first GPS units became available around 20 years ago as a motorcycle rider I immediately thought:
- Wow this is amazing
- How the hell will I use one on a motorcycle; and
- There is a gap in the market for fun routes.
Let me be clear. We motorcycle riders do not want to ride from A to B. We ride from A to Z past all of the other letters (not in order) but definitely passing the letters F, U, N. Well great news: someone at BMW got my mental memo and on the navigation app. You can choose a variety of route options from fastest to windy. Now we are talking. You can tell when the people who built the software are passionate riders themselves. I chose maximum windy for getting to a beach location about 20 kilometres away and I was sent at least double that avoiding motorways and highways. I was impressed.
The stupid smile was ever present. Taking a break halfway at Maraetai beach for a snack, I entered a few more waypoints (yes, on my phone – then sent it to the bike) to maximise the longest distance between two points to get home. Goofy smiles ensued.
For completeness I want to mention a few other things. There are many mods and options available. Look on the configurator online at bmw.co.nz. The one I rode is the most ‘self centred’ version with all of the sporty bits and a single seat – however when you’ve got a bike like this, you’re going to want to take someone on the back so they can get a sense of this fabulous experience. This is a bike that you either love or you don’t understand. It’s a bike for you now or in your future. It looks sensational and continues to grow on you yet it is pliable enough for a commute. Many years ago I got on my first large capacity motorcycle and I remember it like it was yesterday – a holy s*** moment. This bike let me relive that.
Thanks to bmw-motorrad for supplying the motorcycle.