2016 BMW R1200 R Motorcycle Review

Behold, BWM Motorrad’s all new leader class naked roaster. The R1200R. This real world open road roadster was launched last year and at first glance it looks like a thoroughly modern roller with a retro classic twelve hundred CC boxer engine. But as we all know, looks can be deceiving. Sure, there’s the horizontally opposed twin engine with it’s air cooling fins hanging out there, but this new engine is also now liquid cooled while pumping out a claimed one hundred and twenty-five ponies. But what really impresses, after you get past the well-equipped kit, like the big Brembo brakes equipped with ABS and the monster upside down fork is all the electronic bells and whistles. Like keyless entry and gear shift assist mode – a delightful little tool that allows you to perform clutchless upshifts. You can also upgrade to optional DTC traction control if you want it and dynamic ESA that allows for a variety of suspension set up modes. Yup, it’s all pretty trick. A nice little mix of old school with a whole pile of new. Road tester Mark Russell, spent the day riding around the countryside to bring us his take on BMW’s latest R 1200R.

For a sport bike, it makes a pretty unassuming first impression.  The bike is taller and the posture is more upright than one might expect from a roadster and in the lower gears the R1200R is quiet and smooth.  But even though it doesn’t seem hard core at first, once you open the throttle it has awesome power and sounds tough.  On the programmable tech side, Mark kept the suspension mode set to soft and found it extremely comfortable, and the gear shift assist made for smooth shifting despite some clunkiness up-shifting in the lower gears.