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It’s virtually impossible for me to go anyplace with good roads and not spend some time riding a motorcycle. So when I planned on spending over a week in Virginia, I started investigating my two-wheeled options. Most of my freeloader choices didn’t work out for various reasons, so I investigated paying for the privilege. Turns out, a company called EagleRider which rents motorcycles nationally has an office in Chantilly, VA, about 20 miles from where I’d be staying.

www.eagleriderdc.com

If you look on their website (www.eaglerider.com), many, many different bikes are listed for rent, but when I called the DC area location, the only brands that were available were Harley and BMW. Since Harleys are pretty low on my list of desired saddles, I checked out the Beemers. I would have liked to ride one of the new 800cc parallel twins, but only the GS1200 and the K1200LT were offered. I rode a GS earlier this year in Colorado, so I decide to give luxury touring a try. Besides, I had a chance to ride a newer generation Gold Wing a few years ago and wanted some firsthand knowledge of the German version.

Ready for Departure

I picked up the Bavarian beast, all 800 lbs of it, and rode it for 6 days. My plan was to ride all the way down the Blue Ridge Parkway and back, enjoying the peak Fall colors in the Appalachians this time of year. The Blue Ridge Parkway winds it way for almost 500 miles through the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina. Elevations range from 650 ft to over 6000 ft and with limited access, traffic during the week is pretty light. The only fly-in-the-ointment is a 45 MPH speed limit.

Peak Fall colors in the Appalachians

A cold front moved through the area the night before, so my first two days never made it into the 40s. This turned out to be a great test of the heated grips and seat, and they were turned up to the max most of the time. I also brought along my own heated vest and had it plugged into one of the BMW unique powerlet connectors. I visited Bob’s BMW in the Columbia, MD the weekend before and acquired a powerlet to cigarette lighter adapter; I then fabricated a plug for my Widder harness to complete the connection. With everything cranked, I stayed pretty comfortable, but my toes definitely suffered a bit. I could’ve used a bit more wind protection down low.

A bit on the chilly side

One amusing anecdote I’ve heard related the big K bike is that the “LT” doesn’t stand for Luxury Touring, but instead means Light Truck. This is a very big bike and while it handles pretty good at speed, parking lot maneuvers can be a bit of a challenge. By the end of the trip I had a handle on it, but if I had to make a sudden stop a walking pace, I needed to put my foot down accurately to balance the load. To the uninitiated or inexperienced, it would be easy to drop this bike. Of course, BMW saw fit to mount some sacrificial bumpers into the lower fairing.

What a Beast

This motorcycle had several very cool features that you’d expect on a $24,000 bike. One was the self-deploying centerstand. One of my favorite moments of the trip came when I was at a gas station, I pressed the button on the right hand grip and the bike rose up on the centerstand while I still sitting on it. A guy putting gas in his truck at the next pump just shook his head …. priceless! However, it took me several tries to figure out that the bike couldn’t be in gear and the brakes must remain untouched for the centerstand to deploy.

Another spiffy feature is Reverse. I only needed it once, but after flipping the switch down by my left foot and trying the starter button, nothing happened. I found out when I returned the bike, that the engine had to be running (I was scared to hit the starter button while the motor was running because this is usually not advisable on most other motorcycles).

I spent a lot of time adjusting the electronically actuated windscreen, not because I needed to, but because it was fun to fine tune the windblast to suit my speed and comfort level. A nice little rocker switch on the left bar moved the windscreen through about 10 inches of up and down travel. On it’s lowest setting, there was a good amount of wind noise but there was nothing blocking your line of site, and in warmer weather I could also see the value in this setting. On the highest setting the windnoise was virtually silenced, but the top edge of the screen was right in my line of sight causing me to slouch to see through it. Most of the time I ran it about 2 or 3 inches below maximum, but if it was my bike, I’d buy a taller screen so that at maximum it would be 3 or 4 inches taller and out of my line of sight.

Approaching the VA line

 I spent a lot of time with the windscreen up for two reasons: one was to minimize windchill since it was pretty cold the first couple days, but more importantly, it made it much easier to hear the sound system. I’m not necessarily a fan of music when I ride, but since I was luxury touring, I decided to indulge myself, especially since it had an AUX plug for my MP3 player. The best feature of the system was speed dependant automatic volume control. As you would imagine speeding up increased volume while slowing reduced it. This was really nice when you’d  pull up to a traffic light or stop for gas as you didn’t have to fiddle with volume control. And you never scared the locals by blasting Radiohead as you cruised through those sleepy little towns. The only drawback I found to the system was that I had to bury the player in a compartment on top of the gas tank which made it difficult to select the next album and it seemed to skip frequently in this compartment. I ended up just slipping into my jacket pocket which eliminated both problems.

Some other features of the bike I enjoyed were the gear indicator, distance to empty fuel countdown, excellent rearview mirrors, decent storage space, most comfortable seat I’ve ever parked my butt in for a day, bolt-upright right riding position, smooth and powerful motor, excellent gas mileage (45-50 MPG), electronic cruise-control.

But I do have a few complaints. I wasn’t unimpressed with the multiple step ignition system. Like most bikes you turn the key to the on position, but unlike most bikes you had to press a remote control fob typically stored in the compartment ontop of the gas tank. I’m sure it makes a big difference in theft statistics, but it was a pain in the ass when you wanted to make a stop and get away quick. And it was quite difficult to operate the fob with gloves on. I could also see real problems if you lost the fob. I wish they would use something more passive like Kawasaki Concourse proximity detector.

Another aspect of the bike which frustrated me, were the brakes. They have “servo-assist”, that makes them act like the power brakes on a car. They worked fine for very light application and in hard use, but in that moderate range most of us use on a regular basis, they felt “wooden” and were hard to control. They weren’t linear feeling, and I can’t abide that. Even though I never had a problem with the system failing to activate properly which is not an unusual complaint with this system, there were several times I was on a slope with the bike OFF and was having trouble applying enough brake pressure to keep the bike from creeping. On a bike this heavy, that’s not a good thing. I never got into the ABS activation zone, so I can’t comment on it’s performance. There were a few dicey spots during the ride, but I didn’t have the ‘nads to brake test a rental.

One complaint from many non-BMW riders involves the turn signal activation/cancel procedure. Unlike most motorcycles which have all control on the left side, BMW like to have activation buttons on both sides that correspond to the direction you’d like to indicate. Want to make a right turn, use the button near your right thumb. But the canceling of both directions is accomplished by a second button just above the right side activation button. While BMW deems this system superior, as far as I’m concerned, it just different, without any inherent advantage. However, I will say I was using it without much conscience thought after a couple days. The only time I would consider it a drawback is if you ride several different motorcycles.

Some other things I didn’t like were the hard to decipher displays and gauges, a motor that needed a fair amount of revs to pull away from a stop and hard to get at tire inflation valves.

Light Truck at Doughton Park

Did I like the bike? … yes! Would I buy one? … probably not! I can’t see spending twice the money I’ve ever spent on a bike to get a few comfort/convenience features. While I was thoroughly impressed with several aspects of the bike, I would’ve much rather been riding my $7,000 Bandit 1200 for the performance, handling and weight advantage. But I can see the appeal of this bike, and if I had to choose between the LT and a GoldWing, the Beemer would get the nod. Especially, since the price was about the same.

Rhino