bs0407-3

Boxer Shorts, July, 2004 - 2 of 4

Editor's Pillion
	Victor Cruz

Ride your butt off.

Vicky approves I'm sure you're all sick and tired of always reading about the 2005 R1200GS in these pages. To tell the truth, I'm glad the new K1200S is out of the bag so that I can shift focus on that great-looking puppy. Yet I must report, there's still a lot to say about the R12.

As of June 15, the GS your editor rode off the parking lot from the combo car/bike dealer Wagner BMW of Shrewsbury, Mass on May 14 has 3,170 miles on it. These are mostly touring miles that included a weekend trip to Lake Placid for the Diane Pleines fund raiser, a 3-day trip to Hanover, N.H. by way of Maine and Vermont, and a 4-day trip exploring Lake George, NY area to eat up Americade.

My wife Vicky was the pillion princess on this trip, undertaken to scout out Adirondack roads. We had the GS loaded. I added the factory GS expandable hard bags ($750) and we had them filled to capacity. Once again, BMW carved out space from its bag to accommodate the muffler. What's cool about these is the silver outside plate that screws off for easy replacement. No need to throw away (and re-buy) the entire cow, in other words, if the milk goes sour.

Also, the new custom GS tank bag is roomy, but you have to struggle with a zipper to get it on and off for gas fills. You must pull against the front elastic attachment while trying to zip it closed. It never works the first time and it takes both your hands and a set of clenched teeth to fasten that damn zipper. Soon, the zipper will wear out and the roomy, specially-designed $285 GS tankbag will be toast. In short, a terrible design. A design that did not strike me at first as poorly conceived, blinded as I was by the good overall quality and graphics, the draw string rain fly, the detachable wallet-like hip bag with strap, and how pretty the thing looked. This is the good, the bad and the ugly all rolled up into one item.

I've had some bad luck from the get-go. Max Stratton of MAX BMW wants to kill me, though he's too nice a guy to admit it. I left him hanging a bit. I had ordered a red GS from Max but the delivery could not be confirmed. I was pushing up against a deadline for two major tours and I needed the GS for these.

My current ride was too loud and its Fast by Ferracci pipes puffed out an obnoxious stink. A Ducati with no manners makes for a bad tour experience when you're the tour guide. So when Wagner BMW called me telling me they had taken delivery of not one but four R12s, I called Max to explain my predicament and to apologize. Max, being a great all-around young man, a guy's guy, a big supporter of Yankee Beemers and someone with bigger things to worry about (i.e., opening a second dealership in Brunswick, NY) took my call in stride and essentially gave me clearance. It was a blessing in disguise, since my house is 45 miles closer to Wagner than MAX's, and considering the R12 is a new model with new engine, gears, drive, ignition, etc., it was a good decision.

The R12GS is my first new buy. Only 150 miles into a ride through N.H. at Fitzwilliam when I noticed oil, a lot of it, had spilled out of the final drive assembly. It was a Saturday so I rode it immediately back to Wagner. They took to fixing it immediately, finding a bad 25-cent O-ring between the rear ABS brake and the drive. Three hours later I returned back to Fitzwilliam, when I noticed my headlight wasn't working. I gave up on the day at that point and just rode home. When I got home I unplugged the lamp and re-inserted it; it fixed the problem, but now the onboard computer, which performs a system check at every engine start, kept showing a faulty bulb.

A word on the computer systems check. If you stall at a traffic stop, you have to delay your engine start until the system performs its duty, checking out the oil pressure, lights, gas, battery - a process that takes about 5 seconds seems longer when cars are impatiently waiting for your ass to get in gear once the light turns green. This happened to me only once on my maiden ride home; I'd hate to repeat it. A work-around solution for this could be factored in; if the engine is hot, skip the systems check.

Another problem, though minor in comparison to the bad O-ring, is the fuel gage indicator. I've never had one on a bike before, but aren't they suppose to show your gas decreasing by consumption slowly over time, and not jumping from full tank to half tank in one fell swoop? Instead of reading two-thirds or a quarter-tank full, the digital fuel gage goes from full to half tank in one jump. Fortunately the console alerts you when fuel drops to the reserve; showing you how many miles you have left until bone dryness.

Another owner of the R12 is Dave Swider, 1994 YB president now living in San Rafael, Calif., sees the glass half-full. About the zippered tankbag, Dave writes, "Yeah, the tankbag sucks, but it'll hold a big ass bottle of bourbon, along with a bottle of Bacardi Limon and all our usual camping tent supplies."

I once thought my Cagiva Gran Canyon was the best handling machine on the road, the way it turned with a thought. But this GS turns in your sleep. I once over-steered it, realizing that counter-steering the GS requires a light touch. I was doing donuts one time, trying to find the radius point and I couldn't. Tight U-turns in a lane go quickly. It's 498-lb wet weight, the opposing twins, the 3-foot wide bars and narrow wheel base all help.

R1200GS Riding Lake George with my wife and all our bags packed, the bike still handled great and I didn't feel the added weight around the bends, at stops or starts. We did a few dirt roads; rough patches where had I not blipped the throttle we would've spilled. The balance is divine, the rear wheel never slipped out and the bike never felt unstable on the loose gravel.

Says Dave Swider, "I've been amazed at the bikes handling abilities. I'm not sure if it comes from the ergonomic layout or the underlying goodness of the chassis, but it suits me fine and my chicken strips are exactly 0" wide on the back tire and about 1/2" on the front. It's very, very capable, at least on the Anakees I have." (I had to ask Dave about the "chicken strips"; he said it's the outside edge of the tire that gets the least amount of wear.)

With 100 ponies at gallop, the GS doesn't kick you in the pants (like a Ducati) on fast acceleration. It has manners, and in 6th gear it cruises at 70 mph at 4k RPM, only half-way to red-line. The paralever, designed to prevent front kick up due to the drive shaft, can't keep the bike from fully rearing up some between fast gearing. And the dual spark plugs per cylinder head? Whoever said they were meant to control the surging problem doesn't know half the battle. They were designed for better emissions, since surging (minor) still happens. As you roll off the throttle and are coming to a stop the engine has a mind of its own. The RPMs don't register the surging, so it remains an elusive mystery. Would I recommend buying the R12? Of course I would! As David Hohle, owner of a R1150 GS put it, "I like the surging; it tells me that the bike wants to go." And go and go and go.

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