Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127959
FIRST RIDE 1999 BMW R1100S • By Mark Hoyer 28 ne doesn 't no rmally pack o ne's leathers for a BMW press in troducti on. A butt pad? Yes. Food and water for the fo rthcom ing ha lf-athousand-mile ride? Yes. But caiones, knee pucks and a back protector? Yes. For th e first tim e we can rem em be r, BMW w ould be putting u s. o n a track wit h one of its motorcycles : the R1 100S, the most sporting BMW to come ou t the Miitlchetl pipelin e in a long tim e. The s a d p art o f the s to ry is that , despite lugging our lederhosen the 3000 miles to Lime Rock Park's 1.5-m ile road cours e in Connecticut, w e never go t to put them on becau se it was rai ning the ent ire tim e we we re at the track. We ran a few laps so we cou ld ay w e d id , bu t it was in ou r rai n s u it s a nd ou r res train tsuits . ( Do n ' t want to cras h anoth er test bike, d on 'tchaknow.) It wa s an en te rtai ni ng tim e, nonethel ess, th e bik e fi sh ta ilin g o n o v e rr u n as yo u a pproach the uphill rig ht-hande r at the back of the cou rse, focused only on the tw o a nd a ha lf in ch es of runoff before the nice, so lid piece of Armco barrier a t the edge of th e tr ack. It turns ou t ABS reall y d oes ha ve it s place o n a m ot orcycle, and one of those is a soaking -we t car track with no runoff. Most of the road rid ing on th e first d ay, however, wa s d one in th e d ry on BMWs have always been noted fo r technical innovation, so the "tech" of the S - cyli nders, injectors, shaft d rive and the like - wa s left naked and clearlv visible be low the beltline, Above it, jus t four cu rvaceous p ieces of bod yw or k adorn th e S. BMW ' s h e a d of m oto rcycle design, Da vid Robb, wa s on hand at the introduction to giv e us so me insight into the final versi on of the newest , most spo rting BMW in the Boxer ran ge. "We th ou ght th at it was important for the styling to be suggestive of content," Robb sa id . "We wa nted to d evel op a spo rtbike that is BMW, and make it look like it wa nts to move ." To that end , grea t effort was made to give the bike an ag gr essive, should ersforwa rd stance while retaining an overall lightweight loo k. It was deemed very im po rtant to give the machine a na rrow "sensu ous wais t," not on ly for the look of the bike bu t to make it easy to move around on during aggressive riding. And , as th e li ght e st Bo xer - 50 5 pound s w et - the look is suggestive of con tent. Part of the lightness of look is particu larly evident a t th e rear of th e machin e. The ea sily remo vabl e p~ssen ger-sea t cover doesn't fu lly obscu re the b la ck p ad bel o w it , bu t rath er lets it " peek" out the sides to brea k u p w ha t wou ld o therwise be a heavier-looking , continuo us piece of tailsect ion , Also, the ex ha us t sys te m is m ostl y o u t of s igh t, the tw in canisters rou ted und er the sea t - as on the Duca ti 916 - w hile the main muffler (w hich also contai ns a ca talytic conve rter) is mostl y out of sight as well, loca ted u nder the swinga rm pi vot. So, yes, it looks light, but it also looks like it w ants to move. Move it does . The so lid ly moun ted powerplant th at mot iva tes this machine is the bes t Boxer yet. It still has the torque effect cha rac teristic to the longitud ina l eng ine layou t, but th e ext ra revs (red line is now 8400 rpm, u p fro m 7900), and eig ht extra ponies m ak e th is ligh te r Bo xer mo ve li ke no other. Th e torque (u p 1 ft.-lb. at its 71 ft.lb. peak) co mes in a hu ge wave and over a ver y broad range. It' s of th e pick-a gear-and-go ilk. Upright or flicked, the BMW R1100S is an ins piring ride. the bac k roads of ew [er- sev , Massa chu ssetts a nd Co nnecticut, so we had a good o p portu nity to pu t th e hammer down. Still, wit h so mu ch of the pred omin ant ly two- la ne ro a d s be ing tr ee-covered , w e s till encou nter ed so me w et spots, and n ot ju sj in o ur sho rts. We a lso were a ble to secu re a tes t bike for a few weeks of hard use af ter. the in i ti al p ress in tr oducti on - a nd a ll of ;~~~~~~-=I~~~~2~~~;~;~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~J weather. Ho w was it ? It w as good . Da re w e sa y, even exci ting . it in su nny So.it, eve n with th e characLooking at Cal. teri sti c horizontall y opposed cylinders sticking out , it is a litt le hard to believe that it's a BMW that s tands befor e you. Especially in the " Mandarin" (let's -callit-Fly-Yellow) paint job. But a BMW it is, and it rid es like one, bu t w ith motor and chassis to spare - and even a good bit of ins piration. O n e of th e origin s of the initial d esig n stud y for this mo torcycle came out of a trip to the Isle of Man . A m ember of BMW' s d esi gn tea m went to the legendary 11 race, and after seeing all the wild bikes that come out of the woodwork for on e of motorcycled om's grea test ga therings, he returned with the ques tio n, "Can we make so me thing I cou ld ride to the Isle of Man?" An d a d esign stud y was bo rn . The fruit of that study is the BMW R11OOS. r And .while yo u ' ll glad ly d o thi s by choice on this, the first six-speed R259 twin , you wo n ' t h av e to do it out of nece s sit y as with th e o ld fi ve-speed . W it h th e old gea r box, o ne had to be rather ins ist ent that the gea r yo u wa nted shou ld engage, particularly on down-