Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

The pickup performance of the Rl2005 from a closed throttle, after you've braked deep into a turn and stan to accelemte out, is impressive. There's no trace on the BMW of the snatchy response and ierky pickup of some other bikes, and fueling is excellent in spite of the use of just a single injector per cylinder. lnstead, the 52mm Dell'Orto throttle bodies power smoothly up from low down, thanks not only to rheir variably progressive butterfly linkage, but also the time spent by BMW s R&D team rn getting the engine-management system diaied in. "We spent a long time mapping the motor - throftle response was very impor- tant to us," says Baeumel. The Boxer motor is employed as the principal element in the all-new three-piece Rl200S chassis, with the cenrral and frort sections of the tubular steel frame matched to a square-seation tubular aluminum sub- frame. This is a format that not ont helps save weight, but also makes it easier and cheaper to repair in case of crash damage. The trademark BMW Boxer layout rees a Paralever rear end, with a sinSle-sided cast-aluminum swintarm wrth the drive shaft encased within it, while up front, rhe established Telelever front suspension is used in a dedicated sponbike chassis package for the llrst time on a BMW The Rl200S's suspension comes in rhe form of an aftermarket Ohlins front shock to match the one from the Swedish sultans o[ suspension at the rear. This is fully adiustable, unlike the front, where only rebound damping and sp.ing preload can be altered - ends to stop the BMW from pitching back and forth over rougher surfaces on the street. and bouncing around unduly on standard settings in track use. For Killarney, I also turned off the optional ABS, and with more time at my disposal, I'd have liked to start taking advan- tage of BMW's unique adjusrabiliq/ to opti- mize the handling on the Rl200S, whi.h allows you to raise or lower the ride height front and rear over a range of 20mm. This may not sound like a lot, but it's a huge range of adjustment in racing terms. By raising the bike at both ends,Iou can also significantly increase the Eoxer wvin's already excellent 52-degree lean angle before decking the cylinders Daehne-sty,e, Siving you more chance to take full advan- taSe ofthe optional six-inch rear wheeland 19o-section Michelin Pilot tire fifted to the test bike, rather than the standard 5.5- inch/180-55 package. "The wider tires no lonser cause under- steer or make the Steering heavy, because of the design of the latest rubber," says Baeumel. "But the nar- Acceleration of the power-up Boxer motor is quite impressive by twin-cylinder sportbike standards, though even after lots of practice and fiddlinS with the shocks, I stil, couldn't find a way of persuading the Bl'4W to stop rising and falling like a yo-yo on its suspension with each gear shift when launched off the line. But once into the flight plan, wth the Boxer engine purring beneath me with the dronang sound of a low-flying propeller plane, it gained speed impressively with minimum vibration and maxamum stability. lt even tanked along the back straight at Killamey at nearly 150 mph, and hitting quite sizeable bumps at speed didn't faze the bike. I later saw 16l mph on the very readable analog dash, with the lachomerer needle jusr creeping into the red zone at 8250 rpm. There's also a very readable digital dis- play delivered by the CAN-bus single-wire system, which incorporates an immobilizer and prominently shows the gear selected - which is incredibly useful, especially on the track - as well as the fuel level, distance- until-empty, oil temp, and time. The Rl200S was completely stable at such speeds over far-from-smooth sur- facesi it never once flapped the bar' in my hands. even with the front wheel air- borne from time to time over rower rear saves us 0.5 kg I.l poundsl of unsprun8 weiSht, so it is an advantage on the street- But if you lift the bike up to get extra lean angle, it's definitely an advantage under track conditions. And the suspension compliance of the stock WP shocks is also excellent - just that the optional Ohlins you have fitted give you a Sreater range of adjustment for track use." From these comments, you might get the impression that BIYW has targeted thit bike at serious sportriders, and that's very much the case, even if it's still a complete- ly civilized package in everyday use. lt's just bursting with potential. lt's so easy to ride around town or in traffic, with zero trans- missron snatch right down to 3000 rpm rn top gear - but when you need some extra zest to accelerate through a gap in traflic or ro avoid a troop of monkeys cavoning beside the highway, the BMW delivers with all the eflortless ease of a long-stroke twin. bumps - thanks to the steering but that's because there's no front-end dive with Telelever damper that's fitted as stan- dard to the lower Telelever link doing its iob. Yet it does so without making the steer- ing heavy. This is a really well-sorted chassis package that's fun to ride and steers well. The chassis geome- try is sportier than on the outgoing Rl 1005, with the z4-degree head angle one-degree steeper and trail much reduced at 87mm now. rather than l00mm before, though wheelbase is up from l478mm to l487mm. ln spite of the steering beinS noticeably sharper, there's no penalty in terms of stability. Baeumel and his boys have done well- lndeed, they did their BflW bosses as well as their customers a favor by finally developing the UberBoxer to this level. even if it's no Superbike in performance terms by the standards of the class today (see racing sidebar). The Rl2005 is, how- ever, a trackworthy sportbike that delivers respectable performance in spire of being built around what is essentially a modified trail-bike engine - with the compromises this entails, especially in terms of revs, and access thereby to the extaa power that lies up hi8h. Available in four colors (black, white, yellow, and a striking red-and-silver- stripe liveD/ that's very 1950s but which designer David Robb says he took hardly any time getting past Bl'4W management), the SportBoxer is an honest real-world ride that's equally at home on road or track. rust make sure you take lessons from Daehne, and don't scrape holes in its rock- er covers leaning it too far over to keep up cornering speed on modern tires. CI{ RidinS the BMW UberBoxer at Killarney was quite a trip down Memory Lane, in terms ofthe handling - all of it 8ood. The bumpy nature of the circuit underlined this. Once I'd spent a couple of laps reprogramming my senses, I started to exploit the fact that you can trail-brake deep into a turn on a bumpy rdcetrack with the suspension workinS perfectly beneath you - completely unaffected by weight transfer leading to reduced suspensron compliance and travel- The ABS-equipped 320mm non-radial Brembo front discs and its four-piston calipers deliver outstandrng stopping power with los of feel. They're very very responsive, yet controllable, with single-finger front brakinS a matter of course out on the street, thanks to the convenien! shape of the adjustable lever. Yet the entire bike felt well balanced braking while leaned over hard, with good stability that again resulted in a greater sense of confidence. Taking care not to touch the 265mm rear disa so as not to upset that even balance, l'd dialed in three extra clicks of rebound damping at both RennBoxer For AMA Xtreme? With the possible increase in capacity for the twin-cylinder World Superbike class to l200cc from 2008 onward, if Ducati, KTI'4 and orhers who are developing maxi-twin sportbikes for the customer street market have their way, the question inevitably arises: Will BMW go Superbike racing with a race version of (he new R I 200S SuperBoxerl "There's no way we could ever be competitive in the class with an air- cooled twin, especially with a hi-cam cylinder-head design, which limi(s the revs you can hope to achieve with any reliability on a race version," says Rl2005 project leader Rainer Baeumel. "You'd need water-cooling, a second iniector, and preferably a true overhead- cam cylinder head desitn like on the prototype Rl desmo Superbike which we made l5 years ago - and then you're nill lefr with the disadvantages of the Boxer engine in terms ofground clear- ance on modern race tires. But that's not to say we don't think the Rl2005 could be competitive in road racing in another less power-related category, and in fact we could produce a race ver- sion of it quite quickly. if we get the 80- ahead to rac€ in America with it in 2007, So whaCs lhat goan8 ro be in - Pro- Twins? Thunderbikesl "No, these are for amateur teams, and we want to compete at the highest level in AMA National road racing," says BMW R&D direccor Peter I'1ueller. "Our sportin8 director. Eerti Hauser, has made a formal application to the AMA for us to be allowed to run the Rl2005 in Formula Extreme in 2007, by crearing a l200cc capacity limit for air-cooled multivalve twins like this, running against the existin8 FX categories permitting two-t?lve air-cooled twins of l400cc - like the Buell XB-RR and li4oto Guzzi MGS-01 . 750cc water-cooled multivalve twins like the Ducati 749, and 60occ water-cooled fours like the modified .lapanese 600 Supersports. We're slill waiting for an answer, but we believe that this would be a fair equivalence in terms of performance, and will provide a welcome extra dimension for thE cate- gory And if it's approved, you can expect to see the Blvlw Rl2005 Rennsport line up on the starting grid for the Daytona 200 next year lt's in the hands oI the Al4A." Such a move surely would interest American race promoters and specta- tors, as well as dealers, by expanding the appeal of a street-derived cateton/ that started out as somewhere for Honda to win races with its CBR600RR, but now has an added dimension with the arrival of Buell this season. lt's up to you then, AMA. cYct E NEt/vs APRri r 9, 2006 27 o t I suspension, making compression dampinS irrele nt. I t I

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