S C R A M B L E R C O M P A R I S O N T E S T
P52
SHOOTOUT
B
MW had good genes from
which to draw the R nineT
Scrambler. The R nineT road-
ster is one of the company's finest
machines, so chopping it up into
a scrambler variant only seemed
the natural course of action. It's not
the same bike with knobby tires—
the steering geometry is different,
there are larger wheels and the ride
position is changed thanks to the
superbly styled flat leather seat.
The Beemer is the big daddy
of the quartet. The only bike here
with a capacity of over 1000cc, the
2
nd
Place
Beemer has far more horsepower than
any other bike, but thanks to five years
of development with the air/oil-cooled
flat twin (this version debuted in the
2011 BMW R 1200 GS), it gets power
to the ground smoothly in the minimum
of fuss—very Germanic, shall we say.
You can feel the weight (it's the
second heaviest bike in the test)
and each tester complained about
the vague front-end feel. This was
something we noted in our First Ride
back in October, but on smooth dirt
roads and tarmac, this issue wasn't
as pronounced as the rougher roads
BMW R nineT
SCRAMBLER
(Right) 1170cc of
German grunt makes
light work of fire
roads, plus the R nineT
looks awesome when
sideways!
Those fake Supertrapp-style
exhausts sound the business.
Welcome to 21st century
scrambling, complete with the
optional extra navigation.
