Test BMW RnineT - More beautiful than any Italian woman

Test BMW RnineT - More beautiful than any Italian woman

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ergonomics

The BMW RnineT leaves you speechless: The thing is beautiful and extremely sharp at the same time. What a goat! Visually, everything is really right. Paintwork, workmanship, details, milled parts – fuck me, this is what a retro bike should look like in 2018. Get on the saddle, first aha moment: you sit quite low, the tank is very flat and long. Grip the straight, wide handlebars. The seating position is a unique selling point: active driving but still relaxed. Not unsportsmanlike, not even aggressive. Even the footrest position is comfortable and subtly sporty. The milled, anodized Gilles Tooling footrest system is adjustable in several ways. The fear nipples are already sharpened. I'm preparing for a soft carriage. The seat cushion fits my butt well and the connection to the bike is right. Weight with a full tank and ready to drive according to measurements: 205.5 kilograms. It's not much, it feels that way. The low center of gravity of the air-cooled boxer engine helps immensely. 

Handling

In all directness: The RnineT drives well. The low center of gravity is briefly unusual, but quickly becomes second nature. The trick is in the fine-tuning, because the BMW feels confident and harmonious at any speed. Their turning behavior is so neutral that there is no more to write about. In slow corners you feel the deep boxer slightly more, in fast corners it feels full without being unwieldy. There is no wind protection. What if there is nothing at the front except a headlight and two round instruments with displays. I'm getting faster and faster in the saddle of the RnineT. It feels long and flat. Accordingly, you surf through the curves with stability and can smoke until the footrests rub without any worries. Great, that's really fun. Handling? Easy!

Engine/transmission

Confession: I always read the technical documents for the test bikes after the first ride. It's a mix of laziness and professionalism - I want to have a clear first impression. I was all the more surprised by the performance data of the RnineT: 110 HP. Only. It feels like it's more, my stomach says 120-125 HP. The reason for the perceived deviation: 116 Newton meters of torque. At 6000 rpm. The 1170 cc boxer engine feels elastic on the one hand - for a large two-cylinder - and very powerful on the other. You don't actually need traction control - except perhaps on wet roads. The middle speed offers a lot of boom. Noticeable vibrations are more of a good thing for a boxer than a complaint list. Unfortunately, when doing a wheelie you can really feel the direction of rotation of the longitudinally installed crankshaft, the BMW pulls to the right. You have to make compromises with the gearbox: no quickshifter like that BMW R 1200 GS Adventure. Typical BMW transmission: If you push down first gear, you can still push the gear lever down with the clutch pulled in, despite the gear being engaged. 

Undercarriage

BMW says goodbye to the Telelever front suspension on the RnineT and installs a conventional, fully adjustable 46 mm up-side fork. And it works wonderfully. Tends to be on the soft side, but with a little movement in the chassis it absorbs even larger impacts. When braking hard, the fork nods, but not too quickly, but with noticeable hydraulic damping. Line corrections are possible at any time. The well-known Paralever with central spring strut is used at the rear. Practical: the spring preload can be infinitely adjusted using a handwheel. The compression stage is not adjustable, but the rebound stage is. There is also a steering damper mounted on the fork, which noticeably counteracts pendulum movement on the highway. During the first few fast kilometers I found the chassis to be a bit too soft, but you quickly get used to the slight movements around the vertical axis. If in doubt, simply drive the RnineT a little rounder.

Brakes

As usual from BMW, the finest Brembo brake hardware is used, paired with a sophisticated Bosch ABS. The front is decelerated via an axial brake pump. The feedback is good, the bite could be a bit more direct in my opinion. The only thing you can buy is the Gilles Tooling brake and clutch levers, because their ergonomics are poor. Visually pretty, practically failed. The rear wheel brake is wonderful, it can be easily adjusted via the footrest system and works perfectly. The ABS intervenes predictably, the control intervals are not at supersport level but close enough to be able to be used on the racetrack. 

Noticed

How damn sexy the machine is. I would never have expected BMW to have such attention to detail. How quickly you can maneuver through curves with it and how easy it is with the RnineT. And: the cardan drive can still be felt strongly.

Failed

The brake and clutch levers for rachitic fingers are subject to a surcharge. That was nothing. I'm tempted to think the price is too high, but the design of the RnineT is so beautiful that the extremely high price is perhaps justified. 

Test verdict: BMW RnineT, by p.bednar

More information about BMW RnineT

With kind support from  TOTAL Austria

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