Trigger

thank you haroon... feels so good to read and see all those pics... now, thats probably how close i will get to a BMW bike in my life. Thank you.
two doubts. what is that button to the right side of the BC button (the one that has some kind of red lever)? and, why does the headlight low/hi button have three positions?

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Old Fox

Great stuff there Haroon. A tremendous effort to collect, collate and put up info this detailed.

Love German engineering for its sheer solidity and user-friendliness. The removable mirrors, the sheer simplicity of seat height adjustment, the suspension adjustment accessibility all reek of thought and sympathy for the rider. These are true blue honest to God touring machines and don't pretend to be anything else. Just great!

What amazed me most was the 19Ah battery that comes as standard. Compare that to the puny 8.6 Ah they give with the R1. I have to keep one projector lamp permanently disconnected to allow the horns to be effective when the cooling fans were working on the bike. The battery just isn't able to take the load of all three (the fans, the lights and the horn). Crazy!

Thanks for this amazing 'walk-through' through the world of BMW bikes.

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Haroon

Many thanks to all of you for appreciating the effort.

Actually, why I took the time out to do this tutorial for all of you was for a few simple reasons. Firstly, due to the prestige associated with BMW cars, most people generally pass off BMW bikes as another prestige symbol etc, whereas only when you get to know them, you appreciate these bikes. Secondly, you dont have to be a millionaire to own these bikes. Just need a little better understanding of these bikes and you are on your way to enjoying them. Thirdly, I grew up using the public transport even upto the last day of college, wherein I could not afford even a moped. Long story short- i always dreamt of sbks, but not a BMW. Later, one BMW bike catalogue in my ex-boss' office got me fascinated (I actually stole it from him!) and from there on I started reading more about them, searching the net etc and then was lucky to find a good deal on my bike in Dubai which I imported to Saudi (as there was no BMW bike dealer here) and there started the love story and better understanding of these bikes. Have some more plans, but shall keep that for another thread, another day!

@ Ken. Thanks again. Actually, I mixed up a little on the turn signal. On all BMWs (old & new), there is a separate switch (as marked in the pic below) on the right side to cancel the left or right turn signal. Yes on the newer bikes there is an automatic cancel for the turn signal, however, if you wish to manually cancel the signal, the same cancel switch can be used.


@ spiderweb- Unlike their cars, on the pricing front BMW bikes would be not be double or triple the jap price. International pricing for a 2009 Hyabusa is about US$ 13,199, while the BMW K1300S is about US$ 15,250 (ofcourse, we cant compare them 1:1 as the BMW has a lot more features like ESA, ABS, Linked brakes, heated grips & seat, etc). I understand that the soon to be introduced BMW S1000RR supersport should be about US$ 2,500 costlier than an R1 or CBR1000.

@ silver_falcon-46- I had seen that link a while ago and wanted to put it here, but could not locate. Thanks for putting it here.

@leon_nerd- Actually, they dont cost a fortune in relative terms. As I have mentioned here above on the pricing, especially given the functional features they put into each of their bikes.

@ Trigger- Next to the BC button is the started button. The red lever is the 'engine kill switch'. You can turn the red lever to either side to put off the engine. The headlight control switch is 1- Low-beam, 2-High-beam, 3-Headlight flasher (the jap sbks have a separate flaser switch)

@ Old Fox. The R1100 & R1150 bikes have the 19Ah battery, but the newer R1200 series have a smaller 15Ah battery, but that also is more than adequate to do the job.

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silver_falcon_46

Damn! 8.6Ah on an R1! What is it that makes these batteries so expensive then? The Pulsar series runs 9Ah batteries which are so cheap. Is it the size,weight?

19ah for a bike is a lot!

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Haroon

Here in Saudi the Yuasa maintenance-free battery for my BMW is the equivalent of US$ 106, while an R1 battery is about US$ 80.

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silver_falcon_46

$106 is ok for a 19ah battery i guess. But why 80 for an 8.6Ah. I guess there is something to do with the weight and size after all.

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Haroon

No, The blue GS here is the regular 2009 model. The Special Edition is white in color with few cosmetic differences like a smoked winshield, two-tone seat, aluminium cylinder covers etc (nothing so special in my view).
It is to celebrate the rolling out of the 500,000 GS bikes (starting with the R80GS) from the BMW factory.

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julianpaul

INCREDIBLE THREAD !

sticky this i say!

desideep

Hi Haroon,

was curious to know how much would a brand new GS1200 come for in Dubai or where you are. and how easy is it to get a job there. and also a question if it is so hot in Dubai how easy you feel while riding? i am sure you wont be able to ride to office with all that heat...

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Haroon

I am in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), whereas Dubai is a city located in another country- United Arab Emirates. Here in Jeddah, the blue R1200GS in the pics is a 2009 fully loaded bike and it retails for Saudi Riyals 73,000 (Rupees 9.3 lakhs). Its a little more cheaper in Dubai or USA.

Presently in Jeddah mid-day temperature is about 48 deg C (its damn humid also). In summer we finish our ride by 11:00am when the temp is about 43 deg C. Very few of us ride to work on bikes. Its only on our week-end (thursday & friday) that we do rides, although some of us do ride to work in winter. With the Airflow jacket, while we ride its fine, but once you stop, you can feel the heat.

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