Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

8MWR90S • Ofl a rvc • • eu 0 lr'l .... :.J .r:J' E :.J > o Z I By Lane Campbell Teddy Roos evelt would h ave loved it, for the BMW R9 0S I S truly a motorcycle which speaks softly an d carries a big stick. Butler & Smith. the American distributors, set out two years ago to blow away the stodgy, "old man's motorcycle" image from the BMW marque. and with this machine the. factory gave them the weapon to do it. Its character now is that of a Mercedes 300SL, a brutally fast and enduring modem classic. If it winds up in the hands of older men, it is simply because older men are most likely to have $3700 to plunk .d ow n for a new Th rusting th e BMW through th e swervery br ings ou t its asserti ve stability and almighty forward urge. 24 • motorcycle. The capabilities of the machine are enormous . The performance envelope b lankets most of the possibilities fo r a h igh -sp eed t o urer. It ma kes speed li m its o bsolete. It sneers arrogantly at ro ugh pavemen t. In passin g-sp eed pe rformance, it gives q ua rter to no other production m o torcycle. . If you've no t been o n a BMW in some time , the first ride m ay co me as a shock, since th e phe no me na of e ng ine torque react io n a nd lo ng fo rk tr avel produce so me interesting sensat ions when first adj us ti ng to the machine at lo w speeds. Once mastered, however, the mac hine is so stable and so tractable, we've even witnessed one being ridden two -up along a knife-edge ri dge towards a trials section at Saddleback Park. Long travel forks? How about eight inches? That 's long for a motocross bike. but there's method in the factory's madness. They haven't forgotten thei r touring clientele over the years , nor have they forgotten that B~IWs are supposed to set a standard for the world in touring comfort. So to create a safe, strong. high-speed touring motorcycle with a boulevard ride. they have gone to long travel. relatively soft spring rates and relatively heavy damping to provide a front suspension that will both soak up road roughness and maintain road contact. \Ve had occasion to make a wrong turning and wind up on a mountain road wi th a little sign, that sa id "end maintained road ." That was an un d erstatem ent. It had both asphalt and concrete, heaved. buck led and broken by the seasons, swept across with treacherous skeins of sand. It was like a paved-over motocross co urse. The BMW in this environment was unperturbed . We got off the ground several times, consciously pressing to maintain a h igh average speed. Not on ly did the big machine take it all in stride, tracking st raigh t • holding t rac tion and maintaining its safe, predictable stance, it was comfortable! Any other road bike, ridden on that road at that speed, would have done one of two things: a) beaten the rider's behind black and blue . b) spit the whole bundle off a sheer cliff. Maybe both, in quick succession. On this same day, with this 20 mile torture test included , we put 650 miles on the test bike in less than 10 hours, averaging between 38 and 42 miles per gallon. The mileage was almost exclusively on twisting mountain ro ad s, but also included some flat-out desert running and several short bouts with in-town traffic. If it weren't for the ubiqui to us police, this is a machine you can ride a thousand miles in a day, grab some rest ful sack time and be fresh to do ano ther thousand mi les on the morrow . It is tha t fast an d that restful to rid e fast. Since the R9 0 S is styled as a cafe racer , it invi tes you to ride it like o ne. It s stro ng points are stabil ity an d basic ro adh old in g, Its limitin g factors are ground clearance a nd sus pens ion travel. I t is a m a chine tha t de mands co nsi derabl e hanging off to be gotten arou nd co rners quic kly in stock fo rm, since the sidestand drags on the left, wh ile the righ t roc ker cover and the right mega phone see m to ground simultaneously on that side. (When Reg Pridmore wears holes in his rocker covers. Butler & S mith buys new ones the rest of us are not so lucky.)

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