My Quick and Dirty BMW R 1200 ST Review:

First and foremost this was a great bike to rent, but I would not buy one. It was fairly comfy but even for a short guy my legs got a little cramped from time to time. As you read about the trip you will note I started to have severe problems with pain in my left arm that were probably a combination of carpal tunnel, pushing the bike through the twisties, and the buzziness of the engine. I still enjoyed the bike a lot and there weren’t many other choices that I would have made.

The engine is the standard boxer engine that BMW is famous for. I guess it’s a love / hate relationship but I just wasn’t that impressed. It always felt like I was lugging the engine (maybe I wasn’t) at anything less than 4000rpm, and anything above 5000rpm was very buzzy. So there was a tiny sweat spot that I had to be in for it to feel “right.” It didn’t have as much power or torque as my ‘Priller.

The gear box was clunky and if the engine was cold you had to play with the clutch to get it into first gear. From there I caught a few false-neutrals that irritated me. The bike is geared tall and with the low power from the engine it meant I was mostly in 2nd gear for most of the trip through any twisties. A few times I had to downshift to 1st gear if I wanted to get a good drive off the hairpins and getting into 3rd meant I was moving pretty good. I would have geared the bike down just a bit to make it more useable in the mountains.

Handling was pretty good, but it felt heavy when moving it through the corners. It was, however a very stable bike on the straights – even at high speeds. I am not sure if I liked the Telelever front end or not. The bike definitely didn’t dive much when you got hard on the brakes, but that is also a technique that is utilized to increase corner speed on sharp turns and I think I use that unconsciously. The chassis was a bit too softly sprung for the riding we were doing as any inconsistencies in the pavement upset the line of the bike. This is a bonus if you want to increase the pucker factor while leaned over in a corner while staring off a 1000+ foot drop off.

The brakes were partially linked, servo assisted and had ABS. Let me say that I don’t see myself ever buying a bike that has this. The front brake operated the front brakes and partially the rear brake (this is linked braking). The rear pedal only applied the rear brake. However, both brakes were servo assisted. If the bike wasn’t running or the computer didn’t have time to run its diagnostics the brakes barely worked. When they did work I thought they were a bit mushy but did have a fairly linear feel that I liked. I never engaged the ABS even though I was hard on the brakes a few times.

I loved having the saddle bags and again it was a great bike to rent. I am just too used to my ‘Priller and riding true sport bikes for this bike to appease me enough to buy one.