So I bought a R1200RT LE. Lots of letters, not much clarity. R means boxer engine. 1200 means a little under 1200cc capacity. RT means its a tourer. LE means it is the top spec bike. Being a BMW there are more extras available. Whoever ordered mine ticked all the boxed apart from ‘audio’
- ABS Pro – Like ABS but works when cornering, but you shouldn’t be braking when cornering anyway. This stops a loss of traction but won’t help if you are out of space. Best not ever be there in the first place.
- DTC – Dynamic traction control – controls the rear wheel under power to stop slides with three levels of intervention selectable.
- Dynamic ESA – Electronically adjustable suspension – Preload when stopped, damping even when riding along. Soft, normal and “dynamic” which means ‘hard and fast’
- Keyless ride – Just a wireless coded fob. Awesome bit of kit when you have gloves and tight clothes. Just get on bike. Press button. Press another button. Go.
- Daytime running lamps – Err. This is needed in EU law but this extra gives the bike ‘angel eyes’ which looks wicked.
- Hill start control – A pain in the bum. Holds the bike on inclines rather than having to use the brake. Needs LOADS of throttle to get it moving or you, meaning I, stall.
- Deluxe headlight – I think this is the automatic headlight control. Comes on when it gets dark, goes off when it gets light. I have no intention of riding in the dark. It can be terrifying without excellent lights, and bikes have rubbish lights.
- Shift assistant pro – Shift gears without the clutch. Full throttle upshifts and downshifts with the blipping the throttle to match revs. Awesome, when it works
- Riding modes pro – – You can tone the power and throttle response down, or up. Rain, normal and “dynamic”, which means ‘max’
- Comfort package – Central locking, on a motorbike, which is quite handy. Plus an alarm and tyre pressure monitoring.
- Touring package – No idea. No idea then, no idea now.
- Dynamic package – I think this gives you the DTC, HSC and Angel Eyes.
- Chrome exhaust – Chrome all the way to the cylinder head. No more ugly rusty headers, just blue and yellowing metal.
- GPS Prep – standard but necessary
- Heated seats – individually adjustable rider and pillion heated seats. 🙂
- Cruise control – awesome. Just awesome. Flick it on for 40mph limit holding, which is tricky on a powerful motorbike in a 40mph zone.
- Black drivetrain – the shaft/swing arm is black which fits with the black everywhere else. Makes the bike look dark instead of metallic.
- Extra plugin socket – The bike as a ‘lighter’ socket which is actually a DIN accessory socket up front. This gives an extra one at the back. Ostensibly for heated clothing for the pillion.
- Intelligent Emergency SOS call and teleservices – This is awesome. The bike has sensors. If you have a ‘small’ incident it gives you time to recover before a BMW contact centre ring up *the bike* to find out whether you are ok. If you have a ‘big’ incident they call straight away and summon the emergency services out to your location.
Andrew’s Bike Blog 