BMW F900XR
Take the F850GS adventurer, massage until it’s Yamaha Tracer shaped, and dress it up like the S1000XR. Yes, it’s that good
BMW should assemble a fleet of F900XR demo bikes, take them to as many bike-meets, tea huts and other places where riders gather as possible, and offer free test rides. They’d sell oodles of the things on the strength of first impressions. The XR immediately feels ‘right’. Plop into its sculpted seat and you’re entirely at home and full of confidence within yards. Balance and low-speed agility are brilliant – the best here – and on rolling, tumbling roads its fluid handling and natural riding position allow relaxed-yet-brisk progress. Though nimble and light on its feet, the BMW is never anything but connected, staying stubbornly secure where the Triumph becomes unsettled and the Yamaha hints at flightiness. It’s great in dodgy conditions. Ace stoppers, too.
The seat locks you in but doesn’t seem exactly sumptuous and the bike is small and compact, especially next to the Triumph and Ducati. Yet the F900XR is comfortable for a least a tankful (170 miles from 15.5 litres at the 50mpg average). Andy and I are both over six foot and have no complaints, and Bike designer Paul Lang is 5ft 7in and just as comfy. The lever for flicking the screen between its two heights is a great piece of simple design; the standard XR screen is OK, if a little small, while this bike’s taller option is pleasingly effective at streaming water of your visor. It’s a little noisy at speed, but nothing like the Ducati’s.
‘Love the dash,’ says Andy of the widescreen display used across BMW’S line-up. ‘Definitely my favourite.’ Connectivity is standard – download the app to your blower, pair via Bluetooth and the dash can show turn-by-turn navigation. Or it can send data about your trip to your phone, wang it on social media and bore friends. There are two riding modes as standard (Road and Rain), the latter softening engine response and making the Automatic Stability Control (ASC, or basic traction control) keener to get involved. Invest in the optional Riding Modes Pro and there are also Dynamic settings with a snappy throttle, ‘engine torque drag control’, lean-acknowledging traction and cornering ABS, plus a Sport display option that broadcasts traction usage, brake effort and – importantly for pub bragging – your lean angle. Other options include palm-singing hot grips, lights that nose around turns, cruise, quickshifter and electronic semi-active rear.
All this loveliness impacts on the price. The standard F900XR (ASC, two modes) is £9825 – near enough identical to the best-selling Yamaha Tracer. The TE version (dynamic traction, corner ABS, cruise, more modes, pannier mounts, heated grips) is £10,685. With the Comfort Package (Dynamic ESA, keyless ride, mainstand), Dynamic Package (cornering lights, DRL, quickshifter), ‘Style Sport’ colours and tyre monitoring fitted to this bike the total is £12,275. However, try before you indulge in add-ons: Dynamic ESA makes the ride firm, and fuelling is abrupt in Dynamic mode.
‘Straightforward usability, desirable options, workhorse-like quality’
Evolved from the F850GS engine, the XR’S parallel twin features a 2mm wider bore to push capacity from 853 to 895cc, with a new cylinder head and steep 13:1 compression. Though 68 lb.ft at 6500rpm is the same peak as the GS, grunt is spread more generously across the rev range and peak power is 105bhp at 8500rpm – ten more gee-gees than the F850.
Acceleration is sharp in low gears, accompanied by the fruitiest exhaust note of any BMW parallel twin to date. It’s not as fast or happy high up the revs as the Yamaha or Ducati however, and hasn’t the immediacy in taller ratios of the Triumph. It thrums quietly at 80mph and 5000rpm in sixth though, almost (but not quite) challenging the Multistrada for mile-munching civility. The 900 manages to be flexible as well – it hauls third all the way from 20mph to the slapped wrists side of 80, and the feel of the engine perfectly matches the behaviour of the chassis.
That’s the thing with the F900XR: it all gels together into a complete do-it-all bike, with no suggestion that it’s a reworked GS. It’s a whole machine in its own right and one that makes up for providing less excitement and performance than the Ducati or Yamaha with its straightforward usability, array of desirable options, plus a workhorse-like quality.