19 days before the appointed leave date I arrive at BMW Park Lane wearing my jacket and carrying the rest of the kit. A used R1200RS Sport is rolled out. I stare at it nervously. This is the “light” motorcycle I can try first. My Suzuki weighed 235kg wet and felt like a tank. This thing weighs 249kg fully fuelled. Where has my strength gone?
£12-14k new but this one is used and a mere £9,000. I ask the dealer to ride it off the pavement. It’s only a small kerb but crashing it after ten feet of riding is a real prospect.
I straddle the bike. Better not stall. Better not accelerate too fast. Better not drop it. This feels strange, at once familiar and at the same time new.
I pull away. I wobble. I pull to a halt at the lights. I wobble even more. By god this is heavy. I pull away and off onto Park Lane. London traffic whizzes around me. At the lights next to Marble Arch a black cab drive shouts over the engine noise that I look very nervous and wobbly. He doesn’t know the half of it. I’ve just ridden 300 yards on a motorcycle for the first time in 25 years and haven’t been so worried since my first lesson. Traffic moves off and away I go, the wrong way and it just gets worse from there.
In search of a faster road I find myself on the A40. It’s anything but fast. Three lanes of nose to tail traffic and no gaps to filter. Not that I can filter what feels like a huge beast of a bike . I pull off onto a side street, find a place I can park and get my phone out to find a way back. This is terrible. I don’t feel like a biker. I feel like an imposter. Someone who is not really allowed to be doing this.
I put earphones in to hear directions from the phone and off I go again. I get down to the A4 and find the M4. This gives me more chance to try the bike on the roads I imagine I will be taking; motorways and dual carriageways. Woah! This is fast. Now I feel like this is something I want to do. 70mph comes up in a flash. My neck is starting to ache. I adjust the screen (manually!) at the lights on the Heathrow roundabout where I turn to return. Much better. The airflow is turbulent towards my neck but if I go on motorways I will have to stop frequently to rest my neck muscles. My head is fully exposed to the 70mph wind and being pushed back. I don’t remember it hurting this much.
I use what I think is full throttle on the slip road back onto the motorway to go back. Wow. Turns out it was half throttle. Wow. Fast.
Back at the dealer in Park Lane they have put out the R1250RT I am to test. This is bigger at 279kg wet and wider overall. I pull away and off the kerb this time. Confidence has built. This bike is just as easy to ride at slow speeds as the RS but has a bigger more comfortable feel to it. I start to think what I might do.
This time I do the sensible thing and head to the motorway. Don’t forget that’s where I think I will be spending my days. I get out past Heathrow and realise that the wind isn’t an issue. There is some turbulence around my shoulders. Nothing too bad but it might be a pain on long runs. I pull off onto a couple of side roads. I now have the confidence for full, actual on-the-stop, throttle past 6000 rpm and this thing is F..A..S..T.. I hang on and stop accelerating at err mph. Engine braking is strong on these bikes so we are soon legal again. I do a couple of roundabouts and try the handling on the S bends at the bottom of Park Lane.
A huge smile is plastered on my face as I give the bike back. This is amazing and I want one. I really Really REALLY want one. The salesman can see that.
There are four bikes available within a reasonable distance, two at Park Lane and two at a place in Essex. I have arranged to test ride the Essex bikes, and do some A road riding two days later. I avoid making a decision there and then but it was tempting. The problem is the Park Lane bikes in stock are overpriced. At least £800 over priced. I can buy the pre-registered 5 miles ridden bike, with every extra apart from the audio system, from Essex for a little more than the price Park Lane are asking for a 12-18 month old 4,000 mile model. The really helpful salesman says he will try to see what they can do.
Andrew’s Bike Blog 