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Flbandit

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Hey All, this being my first BMW, I thought I'd give my impressions of going from a Suzuki Bandit 1200 to the R1150RT. First off the rt is much bigger and heavy compared to the Bandit. However that disappears once under way. I find the rt to be very well balanced and comfortable. It holds a line through a corner like a dream. It also fits my fat butt much better! The next area is power. I thought the Beemer would be lacking due to the weight. This is not completely true. Yes, my bandit would go faster (it had some work also!) but the rt is no slouch. It will go when I want it to. The brakes are another area that is taking a bit of getting used to. This bike stops NOW! So far I'm pretty happy with the bike. It just has a feel to it that's hard to define. I'm looking forward to putting some miles on it!

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Well, the best way to get that problem fixed is to go riding.

When I switched from Moto Guzzi to BMW RT bikes in 2000, I just really started to pile up the miles.

I am not sure why and in the meantime I gave up trying to figure out why.

Just enjoy it!

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Congrats on your transition to the BMW world. I bought my first BMW in 2000, a '97 R1100RT and never looked back. Ironically that '97 was a great bike but did not fit me at all. I swapped it for a 2002 R1150GS and was in motorcycle heaven. My current rides are 2 BMW's and I love the bikes, the BMW riding folks and have a great dealer. Hope you enjoy your BMW as much as I have enjoyed mine. I am just over 100,000 BMW miles and now being retired hope to catch up to Bernie :-)

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The RT has "enough" power for just about any type of riding. I agree with your assessment of being heavy until you get moving. Pushing the bike around the garage is a chore, but letting the clutch out, the bike feels 100 lbs. lighter.

 

Mine still puts a smile on my face, every ride. I've ridden a lot of new BMW's, none of which make me want to switch. :)

 

Best of all, the R1150RT is just gorgeous to look at. Especially in Titan Silver.

 

RPG

 

 

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Welcome to the board and to ownership of an RT.

 

The first BMW I rode was a 71 R75 back in the mid 70s and 80s and discovered the joy of riding that flat twin machine. It had many shortcomings, too long to list here, but on paper that bike looked like an under powered touring bike. My friends all had UJM 4 cylinder bikes with disc brakes and they would smoke me on the open road. But on roads with plenty of twisty turns I would eat them alive and with those crappy skinny bias ply tires that bike could do some nifty two wheel drifts. By '84 I went on to other bigger better faster machines, but finally came back to BMW with the purchase of a 99 R1100RT and was immediately reminded how enjoyable the flat twin BMW is to ride. The fun of riding these bikes can't be found on the specification sheet, it is sort of the sum of part adding up to more kind of experience.

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Welcome !

My 03 1150rt is my first Beemer . Love the bike. Fairly easy to work on so far. Great handling, not the fastest but I don't really want to hit a tree at 90 mph in Deals Gap. I can go thru the twisties with the best of them tho. I just put 100k on my bike and looking forward to the next century.

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Like you I went from a '02 Bandit 1200 to a '04 R1150RT last year. I agree with you completely on the power. I loved the bandit but although I still have both, I find myself pulling out the BMW more than than the Suzuki. Here in MD, I find that the added wind protection extends my riding season. Like you I used to live in Pinellas county so I am a wuss about riding below 50 degrees but not so much anymore. Enjoy it. This board helped me quite a bit last year with a few issues I had with the bike but it is easy to work on and I actually get better gas mileage and more importantly range on it.

 

Joe

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hey All, this being my first BMW, I thought I'd give my impressions of going from a Suzuki Bandit 1200 to the R1150RT. First off the rt is much bigger and heavy compared to the Bandit. However that disappears once under way. I find the rt to be very well balanced and comfortable. It holds a line through a corner like a dream. It also fits my fat butt much better! The next area is power. I thought the Beemer would be lacking due to the weight. This is not completely true. Yes, my bandit would go faster (it had some work also!) but the rt is no slouch. It will go when I want it to. The brakes are another area that is taking a bit of getting used to. This bike stops NOW! So far I'm pretty happy with the bike. It just has a feel to it that's hard to define. I'm looking forward to putting some miles on it!

 

I find my heavy RT to be quite the canyon chaser. As you'll find in time, BMW's tend to accumulate car like mileage. They're engineered to be ridden. Hard and far.

 

Enjoy.

 

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