BMW F 900 R
I was really quite excited to have a go on the F 900 R. I had a feeling that this might have been the first time BMW had decided to make a bike that was all about fun. I’m not entirely sure what made me think that, and when I clapped eyes on this one I quickly realised that I may have been barking up the wrong tree. The first things I noticed about the bike were the big sat-nav plonked in front of the dash and, of course, the centre stand. This wasn’t going to be the naughty little naked that I had thought it was going to be; in fact it looked as though it was going to have somewhat of an adventure-y, touring-y bike, but I was determined to go into my test ride with an open mind.
It’s a tidy-looking thing and it’s mega comfy from the moment you park your backside on the saddle. There are a ton of switches and the same big TFT dashboard that you’d find on the S 1000 RR, BMW’s flagship sportsbike, so I could tell that the Germans hadn’t spared any expense with this little thing. It had all the mod cons – cruise control, heated grips, you name it.
The big twin-cylinder engine gives off a very distinctive dull rumble when you fire it up that barks quite aggressively when you twist the throttle, which put a smile on my face. But as soon as I released the clutch to set off, the weight of the Beemer struck me. As I opened the throttle, all of its 211kg made themselves known. You can tell the motor has got a decent bit of grunt, and there was a bit of urgency if you snapped the throttle open, but it didn’t really seem to want to follow it up with a decent amount of power.
BMW claim 123bhp, which it didn’t really feel like it had; I’d be tempted to blame it on the thing’s weight, which also made wheelies next to impossible (despite having what you would expect to be more than enough torque).
On a happier note, the Beemer does come with a shifter and blipper, which is always a good thing. I’ve got no complaints with the shifter, which worked perfectly for my test ride, but the blipper didn’t always do what I wanted it to. It was as if the gearbox wanted the engine to be spinning at a very specific speed before it would let the electronics give you a blip, and would accept a clutchless downshift. I dare say it’s one of those things that you’d get used to but I wasn’t overly keen on it – still, better to have a mediocre blipper/downshifter than not have one at all (are you listening, Kawasaki?).
Despite BMW seemingly not liking the idea of adorning their bikes with top brand equipment like Brembo or Öhlins and the like, the Beemer’s brakes and suspension did a decent job on our road test – unless you’re a big user of the rear brake, because for some reason the rear ABS is really, really keen to kick in, to the point that stamping on the rear brake pedal barely slows you down. Thankfully the front brakes are actually quite reasonable, and manage to haul the pot-bellied Beemer up reasonably well.
And you will need to scrub a decent amount of speed off if you’re approaching anything resembling a corner, as the F 900 R hasn’t been built for scratching. Don’t get me wrong, it will turn in if you want it to, and if you’re not taking liberties with your corner speed it will be pretty stable too, but if you decide you want to start pushing it, make sure you do it somewhere with plenty of run-off.
I thought the BMW F 900 R was going to be an exciting bike to ride but if I’m being brutally honest, it’d not really been the bike that I had hoped it would be. But when I think about it, it probably is the bike that it ought to be. It’s a BMW after all, and as we all know, the boys and girls from Bavaria aren’t renowned for making bikes that set your world on fire – they might be really, really good, but they don’t tend to be that exciting. I think that’s the category this bike falls into; good but not very exciting.