The BMW Test Ride caravan rolled into town today.
Unfortunately I registered too late, and this is the only thing available to test ride in the morning slot:
LOL. It's an electric scooter. BMW CE-04.
Funky looking thing. Although the display is huge, it doesn't really show you a lot of information:
The main screen shows charging and discharging status, battery level, and speed. Yes that's right, at 98% charge, it'll only go 86 kms till empty. BMW has some regenerative tricks to recharge while riding, so the claimed range is about 130 kms.
Neda got in on the R nine T Scrambler:
The test ride was led by one of the local sales guys who we knew well. So we slotted in right behind him and tried to push him to go faster in the corners...
The little 'lectric scoot has good power off the line. If you twist the throttle WFO, it'll move the bike at a brisk pace. Not S1000RR fast, but enough to make you go:
Seating position is typical knees-together-scooter-strange. But I found that if you put the passenger pegs down, you can reach back with your feet and use them like rearsets. Then in the corners, you can hang off the scooter and brace your outside knee on the seat.
It feels... not like a sportbike at all....
Top speed: 120 km/h. It's belt-driven, like most scooters. Has some storage space under the seat, just enough for a full face helmet and absolutely nothing else.
BMW is asking $20,000 CAD for the base model. And then add a few extra grand for all the necessities... like wheels and handlebars...
Uh yeah... that's a big nope from me. I can buy much more interesting bikes for that kinda dough.
Anyway, the ride was interesting, but not that fun. I miss the control of having a clutch lever and picking which gear I want to be in. When motorcycles eventually go all-electric, the clutch and gears are the biggest things I'll mourn.
We got back from the 56 km test ride and the battery was at 60%... I guess the 130 km range seems fairly legit.
Neda's last ride was the Ducati Scrambler Desert Sled, and this bike is also Scrambler-styled. She said the bars are not as high as the Duc, so it's a more forward-leaning seating position. Also the power is noticeable down from the ShiftCam boxer engine of her R1250RS. The R Nine T uses the older 1200cc non-VTEC engine, which is about 25% less powerful.
Although the Desert Sled is quite a bit down on power (73 hp vs 107 hp) , she prefers the Duc Scrambler over the R nine T Scrambler, mainly because of the seating position and handling.
When we returned, I stuck around hoping to snag a ride on the bike I originally wanted to test ride. As luck would have it, the rider who was booked on that bike didn't show up for the next round of test-rides, so I got a chance to try this:
S1000XR! I've been wanting to ride this for a while.
The seat was a bit strange. Very scooped out. I think they may have put a low-seat on this thing. Couldn't move around on it too much, as your butt just fits snugly in the bucket-like seat.
First thing I noticed is that the engine has no-bottom-end torque! I have not ridden an in-line 4 in years. I think the last time was over a decade ago. So I forgot that these engines like to be spooled up to the higher revs to wring out any kind of grin-inducing powah...
From a stop, you have to rev the engine quite a bit, about 3-4K to get it to move off the line. Very different from the torquey twins and thumpers I've been used to riding in the last little while, where you just let the clutch lever out at idle and the bike moves.
Engine heat is a lot more noticeable than the boxer bikes, even at speed.
I like the wide handlebars. They make for telepathic cornering. Just think about turning and the bike moves in the direction you want it to. As long as you're in the right gear, you can squirt out of corners with satisfying grunt. Too high a gear and the engine just isn't as responsive. Just gotta ride these I4s differently...
It's always fun riding other people's bikes hard!
and those look perfect but where's the bacon crumbles, 
