First demo ride of the season.

Demo trucks. What a great thing for a rider and a nightmare for a manufacturer. I have done several demo truck days. Thanks to being stationed overseas and the pandemic, I haven't been able to get to a demo event for several years. My wife and I went to a local dealer and while being shown around the current crop of Royal Enfield motorcycles, the salesman let me know about an upcoming demo truck event. It coincided with a non-school day, the weather was awesome and my wife was encouraging. Time to ride!

The dealer mentioned above is the local BMW, Ducati and Royal Enfield dealer. I have ridden some Ducatis, but never any BMWs or Royal Enfields. This demo ride was only the BMW line of bikes. Before this demo event I wasn't familiar with the BMW lineup. I knew about the GS line and was interested in the R18 line, but some of the other bikes were a complete mystery. I wanted to get on some of the bigger bikes like the R18 and maybe the K1600. I was really eager to see what BMW had to offer. 

The demo event was scheduled for a Friday and a Saturday. My school schedule has me in class only on Monday through Wednesday. Friday it is! I got there first thing in the morning in the hopes of getting the best weather and to avoid the crowds. My plan worked flawlessly. The parking lot wasn't full and the other folks in attendance were retired folks like me! Now I wouldn't have to worry about group rides with a bunch of squids. The first bike on the docket was this beast. A BMW R1800B. BMW's new cruiser line. I was most eager to see how this bike behaved, but I was also intimidated by the sheer size and heft of the bike. The ride didn't disappoint. It was everything and nothing like I expected all at once.

The secret to the R1800B is this gargantuan engine. An 1800cc boxer twin is wedged into the frame rails of this monster. This causes a couple of expected, yet unexpected issues during my test ride. The boxer twin engine torques the bike something fierce. I expected that. I didn't expect it to make the already heavy steering harder. The rev limit for this bike was somewhere around 3300 rpm. I was NOT expecting that. It was also very, very quiet. One look at the bike and you'd think it would have an ear splitting roar. Nope. The bike's lack of noise combined with the insanely low rev limit made riding it a chore. I was hitting the rev limiter almost every shift. The heel-toe shift with the floor boards was annoying. Add in the size, weight and weird handling techniques made me look forward to parking it. I'm glad I experienced it, but definitely not for me.

For my next ride I chose one of the remaining bikes available for testing. This is an F850GS Ralley. A parallel twin, 850cc "Adventure" bike. It is very much styled in the current and BMW specific adventure motorcycle style. There are lots of angles and of course it has the infamous beak. After the R1800B , this thing was positively svelte. A very different stance led me to almost doing the tip toe dance thanks to the square edged seat. Once we got moving however this thing became my favorite of the day. The parallel twin was snappy, quick and downright peppy. I had no problem keeping up with the group and merging at speed into the freeway portion of the ride. The lean angle was also very nice, especially compared to the R1800B. While I'm not a big adventure bike guy, I could see myself owning one of these and just using it as a fun little daily rider.

 

For a complete change of pace, I chose the G310R as my third ride. The ground crew let me know that I have to give this thing a nice handful of revs to get going. They weren't wrong and of course I stalled it off the line. Lesson learned. I was much more generous with the throttle and the slipping of the clutch. It is a tiny bike for my 6', 205lb (184 cm, 93kg) frame. It wasn't cramped, but I could see myself getting tired of the riding position on a long trip. Opposite of the the F850GS, I DID have trouble getting up to speed on the freeway. In order to maintain 65 mph I had to get into a full tuck. I dropped 3 mph sitting up straight! The handling was nice since it is such a light bike that flipping it from side to side was a breeze. Around town (or in Japan) I could see this being a decent daily rider. With the traffic around NE Florida, it could be a scary way to travel.

 

My last ride of the day was this beautiful S1000XR. I wanted to ride this bike as it looks to be the closest in comparison to my beloved Yamaha FZ1. It has the 1000cc, inline 4 cylinder, sportbike derived engine from the S1000R currently racing in the WSBK. It has handle bars vice clip-ons and it intended to be ridden a bit more upright and sedately. I have to say I was a bit disappointed with it. Not because it wasn't capable. A twist of my right wrist let me know that there were plenty of ponies waiting to be unleashed. The difference and the disappointment was that this 2022, TFT dashed, fuel injected wonder bike was so very refined and tame. I didn't mess with any of the suspension or ride modes, but as compared to my FZ1, it was a bit boring. My FZ1 is wild. It spits and lurches and lets you know that it is ready to rip. This bike was just too predictable and smooth. The seat locked me into a decent position, but it was in one position. I couldn't change or adjust. The whole bike felt like it was telling me how to ride it. My Yamaha FZ1 tells me to hang the heck on and ride it if I dare. Well I dare and love every minute I get to.

Well there you have it folks. The demo truck came to town and I took full advantage of it. It was a great way to get out for the day and experience some riding. I learned a lot about BMW ride characteristics and had some fun doing it. There are other models I wouldn't mind swinging a leg over. Some of the sport touring models like the oil heads and the bike 6 cylinder K1600 looked fun. Maybe next time or maybe I'll just head on over and see if I can do a test ride of something off the lot. In the meantime, I have more miles to put on the FZ1 and plenty of roads to explore doing so. Take it easy and ride safe friends!

Mat