Quick Ride: 2011 BMW F800R

I recently had the opportunity to log about 100 miles on the new for the US, 2011 BMW F800R.  BMW’s entry in the standard middleweight class features a water-cooled, double overhead cam parallel twin motor with 4 valves per cylinder.

When you first clime aboard the F800, you’ll notice that it is fairly easy to pick up off of the side stand.  At a claimed 439lbs ready to ride, it’s easy to maneuver around a parking lot too.  The riding position is fairly standard with a slight lean to the sporting side of things.  The handlebar is not overly wide but I noticed that the pegs were a bit high and to the rear.  The peg position is awesome for hard back-roads riding, but for around town jaunts and longer tours, an inch lower and to the front would make life more enjoyable.  The seat is shaped well being flat and wide at the rear but narrow enough up front to keep your legs in tight to the tank.  The saddle is comfortable for the first hour but longer than that, it suffers from being too soft and you start to sink in and become uncomfortable.  This is a common problem with OEM seats, which I don’t understand why manufacturers don’t put firmer seats on their bikes.

Road Test: 2011 BMW K1600 GTL: The Incredible Shrinking Motorcycle

I'll start off by stating that I have never liked any of BMW's "K" bikes that I have ever ridden.  Starting with the mid '90s K1100RS to the '06 K1200S.  Fast forward five years and the K1600GTL.  Since the last "K" bike I rode, it's gained 400cc and 2 cylinders.  BMW has also added Electronic Suspension Adjustment (ESA II) and Dynamic Traction Control (DTC) which are both switchable via the handle bar controls on the fly among other things.  All of the technical features of the K1600 have been well documented in a variety of cycle magazines and on the web.  So, I will forego all of the technobabble and proceed to describe how the GTL is to live with.

The first impression I got from seeing this bike at it's US debut at the Long Beach, CA International Motorcycle Show was that it was big and heavy.  At a claimed 767 lbs wet, it IS heavy.  At 8.1 feet long, it's pretty big too!  When sitting in the saddle, you'll notice that there's a lot of bike in front of you, and a lot of bike behind you.  It takes a bit of muscle to pick it up off of the side stand, but after you turn the key, watch the dash go through it's dance and hit the starter button, that weight and girth start to disappear.  The bike really didn't make a great impression on me during the ride home after picking it up.  It had been a while since I'd ridden a full on touring bike and was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of techno-whizardry that the K1600 has.  I fell into the trap of trying to see what all the buttons do all at once which detracts from the riding experience.

Motus MST V4 Prototype

I had the good fortune of getting a good look at a new entry in the sport touring market from a brand new company called Motus during the Scottsdale, AZ stop of their American V4 Sport Tour.  The Birmingham, Alabama based company has set out to build the next generation of American motorcycle for die hard riders.    At the heart of this bike is an all new 100 cubic inch (1640cc) pushrod V4 with a claimed 160hp nicknamed the "Baby Block".  Engineering was carried out by Pratt & Miller, famous for building Le Mans class winning Chevrolet Corvettes.  Focus is not on peak horsepower, but on massive torque, a smooth powerband, low maintenance, and a personally confirmed awesome exhaust note.

The 2010 Long Beach International Motorcycle Show

Southern California is famous for numerous things:  Hollywood, great beaches, blondes, earthquakes and rush hour traffic.  SoCal also happens to be hallowed ground for the sport of motorcycling.  It's home to a few famous and historic road racing and motocross tracks, the US headquarters to the Japanese "Big 4" manufacturers, and a bevy of aftermarket companies.  The Los Angeles area is claimed to be the largest single market in the world, so yes, motorcycles are a big deal here and the show at Long Beach is the most important show of the 12 city Progressive International Motorcycle Shows tour.  There were North American debuts from Triumph, BMW and Ducati, a bike builder custom bike competition, a stunt show starring Jason Britton and special appearances by Nicky Hayden, Ben Spies and various other moto-celebrities.
A lot has already been written about the bikes that made their North American debuts because they made their world premiers at Intermot or Milan, so I'm not going to rehash what has already been said, but instead I'm going to give you my take on what I saw at Long Beach.

Rant On What's New At Intermot

This is a very exciting time of the year for me.  My free moments are spent on mostly European motorcycle websites trying to get a glimpse of what's being introduced for the next year.  A lot of times, you'll find me on a website trying to decipher Italian.  So, the first major show of the year has hit in Cologne, Germany and here's my take on what's been introduced so far in no particular order:

Ferrari Link to MV Agusta F4 Development

In the early development days of what we know now as the MV Agusta F4 motor, Ferrari was heavily involved in it's design. The motor they were working on was basically four cylinders taken from the 1990-1992 era Ferrari formula one car motor. This car was not very successful, Alain Prost called it a garbage truck (and was then quickly fired for the remark), so it didn't take long for the engineers at Cagiva to change the design looking for horsepower.

Riding Impressions: The 2010 Triumph Line Up

I recently had the opportunity to sample just about all of the models in Triumph's 2010 model line-up at a recent demo truck event at Go AZ Motorcycles in Scottsdale, AZ (which happens to be my day gig). Missing from the demo fleet was the Sprint ST.  The explanation I received from Triumph's area rep was that something new was coming and that the current model's inventory levels are low, so it made no sense to promote it.  So, the new model is the 2011 Sprint GT.
Triumph's model line up is very strong for just about every type of street riding a person would want to do.  I also found that most models were very versatile enough for many uses.  Here's my take on the bikes I rode: