RE: Hi all, newbie signing in - 3

Had a call yesterday from the local paint shop to tell me the panniers are done.

I am well happy with the results

The paint finish looks great, I hope its a tougher surface than the OEM finish. Just for reference what did it cost to get them sprayed?

It does indeed look great, I intend to put a "venture shield" kit on the bike and the panniers as they are sure to get kicked getting on and off the bike. My local body shop did them for £75 which I thought was really ok.

Zitat von Fugly im Beitrag #34

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It does indeed look great, I intend to put a "venture shield" kit on the bike and the panniers as they are sure to get kicked getting on and off the bike. My local body shop did them for £75 which I thought was really ok.

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OK, so I picked the bus up on Sat morning which given that was Sept 1st not only means I am on a 86 registration but have 3 years warranty as BMW have moved to which was a nice bonus.

The bike colour painted panniers look great and drew a couple of positive comments including the sales manager who wanted to know where I got them done.

She now has 400 miles on her after two great days out including 200 miles yesterday with my wife who pronounced it as a great bike for a pillion so that is an important box ticked. Overall I am really happy with it, she seems to have a playful side as well as the practical elements and the level of technology on board is staggering to me but I love it.

I think I need to investigate the taller sport seat and I am still experiencing issues with the back button on the Nav (may be a duff unit) but the dealer will look at this as well as letting me try a sports seat when it's in for it's 600 mile service on Saturday and before heading off to the Bol D'Or on the 12th.

I am really looking forward to putting some miles on it and wearing out the Pilot Road 4's that it's wearing as I was looking forward to trying the Metzelers. First world problems I know.

A bit late now, I know, but I was in Ramsey on Saturday morning with my RS getting its first MOT. I'd have happily swung by Benwick afterwards and dropped you at Balderstons!

Also, I can maybe help you out with the taller seat; mine came with the tall seat (which I requested) but then I bought a Wunderlich high touring seat 2nd hand. My original tall seat has been in the garage ever since. If you want to borrow it for an extended test, you're more than welcome.

Cheers

Paul B.

PS: Your new beast looks very smart, with matched panniers! Very smart indeed.

Edit: Does "bus" refer to your bike, or you caught the bus?

How tall are you fugly?

I'm a sniff over 6ft and was delighted that my bike came with the high seat. It's the most comfortable perch on a bike I've ever experienced.

Bike/pannniers look great BTW

Zitat von Paul B im Beitrag #37

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I can maybe help you out with the taller seat; mine came with the tall seat (which I requested) but then I bought a Wunderlich high touring seat 2nd hand. My original tall seat has been in the garage ever since. If you want to borrow it for an extended test, you're more than welcome.

Cheers

Paul B.

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Zitat von Bonzo im Beitrag #38

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How tall are you fugly?

I'm a sniff over 6ft and was delighted that my bike came with the high seat. It's the most comfortable perch on a bike I've ever experienced.

Bike/pannniers look great BTW

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Zitat von Fugly im Beitrag #39

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Zitat von Paul B im Beitrag #37

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I can maybe help you out with the taller seat; mine came with the tall seat (which I requested) but then I bought a Wunderlich high touring seat 2nd hand. My original tall seat has been in the garage ever since. If you want to borrow it for an extended test, you're more than welcome.

Cheers

Paul B.

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Hi Paul,

That's really kind of you and would like to try the taller seat, let me know when you are about and I can swing by on my way home after work one day. Although the Wunderlich high touring seat also sounds great.

"Bus" is a term of endearment I use for the less svelte like vehicles that have a practical "carry more" type of application one of our cars is a 7 seat MPV which also known as the bus or Mildred.

I am really happy that I had the pannier lids painted I think it works really well.

We should have a run out together before winter sets in, but if you are ever out my way the kettle / coffee machine is always on.

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Hi Paul,

You sir are a gent and a scholar.

Will look out for your pm as I will be on the bike on Friday so can pop by, what time are you about in the afternoon (I tend to knock off early on Fridays)?

A day out when we are both back sounds great.

Phil

Zitat von Fugly im Beitrag #36

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The bike colour painted panniers look great .

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Right so am back from my trip to the Bol d'Or and feel I now have a fair idea of where I stand with RS

We covered 1980 miles door to door and learned that:

The bike with the taller sports seat (thanks for the loan Paul) is a proper sports tourer, motorways are dispensed with in comfort and as long as you're not too greedy with the throttle she will cruise economically but albeit with a fair amount of noise coming off the screen irrespective of which height setting it's in. Using "Road" settings for the suspension delivers a magic carpet ride on the motorways but makes it slightly more physical to turn and things get all a little stressed on bumpy corners on A/ B roads. Switching to dynamic tightens it all up nicely and she requires a lots less input to get it round corners.

When tramping on with it fully loaded as in both panniers plus tent and camping kit strapped on the pillion ground clearance becomes and issue but in reality that is pushing beyond normal operating parameters as we are talking dragging it's centre stand at 90-100mph cornering. Winding the suspension up from rider+luggage to rider & pillion lifted it enough but knocking the pace back to more sensible levels was the better option, also for the license.

I knew when entering this relationship that i wasn't buying a sports bike so the above isn't a criticism it's me accepting that I was using the bike outside of it's parameters, sure she still steers a bit slowly but is totally composed and wonderfully balanced that it's a joy to ride.

Fuel range from the 18 litre tank seems to vary quite a lot depending how hard you twist the black thing on the right, we are talking between 170-220 miles but still plenty. On a high speed bash back for the ferry at many, many leptons up the peage to Calais my son following on his Super Duke R said the turbulence of the air coming off the bike made following it really tough and had to be well staggered (which he bloody well should of been anyway) which I have never heard mentioned before on any other bike but guessing the fairing up front, my mass in the middle and the panniers hanging off the side all contribute to this, just never heard of it before on any bike. With the screen in either of the two positions it's pretty noisy but in the highest position I can feel no turbulence on my shoulders or helmet but do feel pressure on my back pushing me forward which feels kind of strange but is preferable to the lower position where I feel a fair amount of turbulence on my helmet and shoulders. Paul also loaned my a tall Givi screen but I took it off before I left for Dover as I didn't particularly like having the screen so close to me (too many years on naked bikes) and the looks also weren't very flattering so that was a "no" from me.

I didn't think I would but I really like the cruise control on the (French) motorways, can't explain why but the serene nature of the bike just passing the miles and the lack of traffic just made the motorways less boring.

The integrated BMW Navigation is great but I couldn't help pushing the wonder wheel when indicating but am sure I will get used to it. Also I will be fabricating a bracket to relocate the nav above the instruments as checking the route visually whilst in the French alps required some careful planning.....

The headlight on dipped beam has a good spread but the light isn't very powerful, main beam is great but dipped seems a bit weak so will be looking for an LED upgrade on that.

The bike is great a proper sporty tourer and perform brilliantly throughout the trip, I have a warranty issue that it's now booked in for (right hand header pipe is blowing at the cylinder head and the cross pipe connection) and also am a bit concerned about the quality of the gearbox, not saying it's faulty but the bottom three gears and very sloppy on change up or down, the upper three ratios go in really nicely up or down but the change from 2nd to 3rd (using the clutch) you can almost feel the teeth finding the gaps in the teeth to engage so they are looking at that as well.

Overall, as long as use the bike within it's design parameters it's a really impressive bike and am well pleased. Not sure I will be selling the Tuono just yet and will keep that for silly mornings and track days but the RS fills it's brief that I bought it for very well.

Also forgot to mention that forgetting the panniers are there and how wide they meant that when the French road workers lined the centre line of a road with small traffic cones, I managed to "skittle" a couple of them with the left hand pannier which I thought was quite funny until I saw what it had done to the nice black lids

I never thought about it as I arced from the right hand kerb to the centre line until I heard "donk-donk" so that one will be going back to the paint shop but won't forget again