During the week end I could test my brand new R18 Transcontinental fully optional and I decided to write some note from the point of view of an HD Touring bikes owner.
From 2015 to 2021 I owned 6 different HD: Road King, CVO Street Glide, CVO Limited, Road Glide Ultra, CVO Street Glide again, CVO Road Glide. (I avoid to mention the bikes that I rode since I was a boy but i can say I never owned any BMW. )
This is the bike-world I come from and that I know quite well as all my HD were modified with at least a Stage 2 with S&S CAMs and full exhaust systems with high intake air filters and professional Tuning not forgetting about Ohlins suspensions.
Another info is about what kind of roads I'm used to ride with my bikes. I love Alpine Passes (I'm based in Milan, Northern Italy) between Italy, Switzerland and Austria. So steep and narrow roads full of curves and hairpin bends. Not just highways.
WEIGHT OF THE R18TC: it's definitely in line with the weight of a Limited or a Street/Road Glide with a Tour Pack. I don't find any difficulty in moving it with the engine in off mode when parking it. The Reverse-Gear is a nice tool but... I don't see the need to use it if you know how to park a Bagger. I'm 5.10 (178 cm) and I weigh 73 Kg: I'm not Schwarzenegger...
VIBRATIONS: this is an interesting topic. Are there vibrations on this bike? Yes and... no. It depends on how the bike is ridden and what Mapping Mode is used. When on the highway soon after I collected the R18TC from the BMW dealer I started to open the throttle to see where this engine could arrive. It pulls great but horse power is at higher Rpms. At 4500 rpm or at around 170 kmh the vibrations were really strong. I closed the throttle till 3000/3200 and vibrations went away. So I noticed that I was in ROCK Mode. I changed the Mapping in ROLL mode. Then I revved up again and I noticed that till 3750 rpms or 160 kmh vibrations were under control. So this was useful to understand that on highways (IF you can ride at these speeds...) the ROLL mapping was the best one so to keep a cruising speed up to 160 kmh.
Out of the highways the ROCK mapping is more reactive and even if we accelerate up to higher than 4000 rpm vibrations are acceptable because you don't remain at those levels for too long.
If one remains within the 3200 rpm range there are no vibrations.
SUSPENSIONS/SHOCK ABSORBERS: here the R18TC wins hands down vs an HD Bagger. Even with Ohlins as I always had on my HDs. I fell in love with the BMW suspension system: front and back. Stability on long curves done at high speed (160 kmh) was rock solid with the R18TC and not the same can be said with my HD Baggers that were more "wobbling".
FLOORBOARDS AND SCRATCHES: here... not as good as an HD Bagger. It's not the noise that you hear but the fact that the left or right floorboard tends to bend and so the foot is bended as well. When this happened on my HDs (rarely) I heard the noise but the floorboard was more fixed and I didn't had my foot bending. I must admit that I need to find a solution here.
ENGINE NOISE OR SOUND: a nice surprise here. In ROCK mapping mode the sound is not bad at all with the standard mufflers. I expected something more on the soft side of things from BMW but they did a pretty good job here.
ENGINE AND TORQUE: another great job by BMW engineers. Torque is real and not just on paper. On steep and winding roads with the passenger (my wife) on the rear saddle the R18TC performed really well. The Torque is definitely in line with a 114 CI V-Twin one.
CLUTCH AND GEARBOX: nothing can be said here. Everything works fine and I don't miss the HD one. Only one thing I don't like: First gear is too "long". I'd prefer a shorter and more reactive First gear as on my HDs.
BRAKES: they work fine considering they work with a 430 Kg bike. Definitely in line with the ones of an HD Bagger. The only issue here is to find the rear brake pad under the big right cylinder. Probably I need more days to get used to it but for the moment I continue to touch the right cylinder with my boot's toe. Here the front brake helps a lot because with its Reflex system it also involves the rear brake.
HANDLING WHEN RIDING: amazing! Here the R18TC wins hands down vs an HD Bagger. You ride this bike with ease in any kind of curves or hairpin bends. No effort at all even after 4/5 hours riding on winding roads.
DESIGN: it's a great looking bike and if You look with attention to the various details of this bike you notice a HIGH QUALITY approach here by the project leaders. The 1800 cc Boxer engine is like a modern piece of mechanical Art: awesome! The chrome reservoir tanks on the handlebars are of the highest quality. The chromed Cardan Transmission on the rear right is another piece of mechanical Art. High Quality everywhere. The contrast between a Classic Style Boxer Engine and the ultra-modern 10.5 inches TFT is really something.
MULTIMEDIA: I like the BMW system. I find it easy to use even if I never saw or used one before. The various Icons and Menus on that 10.5 TFT are amazing.
There is only one BIG ISSUE here: no Apple Carplay. How can it be? On my BMW cars I have it and not on a bike by the same company? I understand the Motorrad division is not the Car division but... come on. I need Waze on the 10.5 screen so to have speed radars signals etc. i hope BMW Motorrad can sort it out asap with a SW upgrade. About the Intercom system my two Sena SRL 2 for our Shoei J-Cruise 2 helmets and the iPhone were connected to the bike in less than one minute. Everything works fine (telephone, navigation, music from my Tidal subscription and obviously conversations between rider and passenger).
ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL: it works flawless and it's a nice tool but on a Bagger I don't see it as an important must have. I see this optional more on bikes like the K1600 or RTs. Just my point of view as an HD owner.
BATWING AND WINDSHIELD: well... not very good. I mean that the height is wrong. The border is exactly in front of my eyes and this doesn't help. You need a taller one or the B shorter one. The width of the Batwing is too narrow. Hands are exposed to wind and rain. They should have made it wider to cover hands and make it look better. Just my personal opinion: others might prefer it as it is.
SADDLEBAGS AND TOUR PACK: high quality and robust stuff and with automatic locking system on the handlebar. Nothing to say here. My only concern is the volume of those bags. On an HD Bagger they are definitely larger.
AUDIO SYSTEM: BMW wins hands down. Sound quality is really high and much better than the HD Boom Audio system.
ENGINE IN GENERAL: there is a lot of juice to be squeezed in this Big Boxer. If I were in BMW I'd propose a sort of Stage 2 optional package made of Exhaust, larger air filter, CAM and dedicated Tuning Map so to bring this Engines to 110 HP and 180 Nm of Torque. At this point you can really attract an HD Bagger user and fun would be found in every curve or stoplight at the green sign!
By the way: the way the bike pulls on the left when you switch on the engine is awesome! I love it.
EXHAUST SYSTEM BY THIRD PARTIES: here I don't know what to say. I don't understand how there is no availability of mufflers or pipes for an R18 B or TC bike. Only R18 naked. These models where launched on the market in september 2021 and in mid march 2022 there is no way to find a valid option: only "soon to be released" messages. If You are used to change the exhaust system of an HD Bagger after 5 minutes You purchased it... you are frustrated to realize there aren't valid alternatives at the moment.
This is it. Not a general review of this bike but a review from an HD Bagger owner perspective. Sorry if it was too long. But I watched too many Youtube reviews on the web with useless or false informations on these bikes. The only valid one is by a Youtuber named NothingToProve (I think he is an American guy living in Germany).
UPDATE: I received today the R18 First Edition Welcome Package by the BMW Dealer. AWESOME!!!
Here BMW Marketing wins over Harley-Davidson 10-0.
R18 First Edition Welcome Package
From 2015 to 2021 I owned 6 different HD: Road King, CVO Street Glide, CVO Limited, Road Glide Ultra, CVO Street Glide again, CVO Road Glide. (I avoid to mention the bikes that I rode since I was a boy but i can say I never owned any BMW. )
This is the bike-world I come from and that I know quite well as all my HD were modified with at least a Stage 2 with S&S CAMs and full exhaust systems with high intake air filters and professional Tuning not forgetting about Ohlins suspensions.
Another info is about what kind of roads I'm used to ride with my bikes. I love Alpine Passes (I'm based in Milan, Northern Italy) between Italy, Switzerland and Austria. So steep and narrow roads full of curves and hairpin bends. Not just highways.
WEIGHT OF THE R18TC: it's definitely in line with the weight of a Limited or a Street/Road Glide with a Tour Pack. I don't find any difficulty in moving it with the engine in off mode when parking it. The Reverse-Gear is a nice tool but... I don't see the need to use it if you know how to park a Bagger. I'm 5.10 (178 cm) and I weigh 73 Kg: I'm not Schwarzenegger...
VIBRATIONS: this is an interesting topic. Are there vibrations on this bike? Yes and... no. It depends on how the bike is ridden and what Mapping Mode is used. When on the highway soon after I collected the R18TC from the BMW dealer I started to open the throttle to see where this engine could arrive. It pulls great but horse power is at higher Rpms. At 4500 rpm or at around 170 kmh the vibrations were really strong. I closed the throttle till 3000/3200 and vibrations went away. So I noticed that I was in ROCK Mode. I changed the Mapping in ROLL mode. Then I revved up again and I noticed that till 3750 rpms or 160 kmh vibrations were under control. So this was useful to understand that on highways (IF you can ride at these speeds...) the ROLL mapping was the best one so to keep a cruising speed up to 160 kmh.
Out of the highways the ROCK mapping is more reactive and even if we accelerate up to higher than 4000 rpm vibrations are acceptable because you don't remain at those levels for too long.
If one remains within the 3200 rpm range there are no vibrations.
SUSPENSIONS/SHOCK ABSORBERS: here the R18TC wins hands down vs an HD Bagger. Even with Ohlins as I always had on my HDs. I fell in love with the BMW suspension system: front and back. Stability on long curves done at high speed (160 kmh) was rock solid with the R18TC and not the same can be said with my HD Baggers that were more "wobbling".
FLOORBOARDS AND SCRATCHES: here... not as good as an HD Bagger. It's not the noise that you hear but the fact that the left or right floorboard tends to bend and so the foot is bended as well. When this happened on my HDs (rarely) I heard the noise but the floorboard was more fixed and I didn't had my foot bending. I must admit that I need to find a solution here.
ENGINE NOISE OR SOUND: a nice surprise here. In ROCK mapping mode the sound is not bad at all with the standard mufflers. I expected something more on the soft side of things from BMW but they did a pretty good job here.
ENGINE AND TORQUE: another great job by BMW engineers. Torque is real and not just on paper. On steep and winding roads with the passenger (my wife) on the rear saddle the R18TC performed really well. The Torque is definitely in line with a 114 CI V-Twin one.
CLUTCH AND GEARBOX: nothing can be said here. Everything works fine and I don't miss the HD one. Only one thing I don't like: First gear is too "long". I'd prefer a shorter and more reactive First gear as on my HDs.
BRAKES: they work fine considering they work with a 430 Kg bike. Definitely in line with the ones of an HD Bagger. The only issue here is to find the rear brake pad under the big right cylinder. Probably I need more days to get used to it but for the moment I continue to touch the right cylinder with my boot's toe. Here the front brake helps a lot because with its Reflex system it also involves the rear brake.
HANDLING WHEN RIDING: amazing! Here the R18TC wins hands down vs an HD Bagger. You ride this bike with ease in any kind of curves or hairpin bends. No effort at all even after 4/5 hours riding on winding roads.
DESIGN: it's a great looking bike and if You look with attention to the various details of this bike you notice a HIGH QUALITY approach here by the project leaders. The 1800 cc Boxer engine is like a modern piece of mechanical Art: awesome! The chrome reservoir tanks on the handlebars are of the highest quality. The chromed Cardan Transmission on the rear right is another piece of mechanical Art. High Quality everywhere. The contrast between a Classic Style Boxer Engine and the ultra-modern 10.5 inches TFT is really something.
MULTIMEDIA: I like the BMW system. I find it easy to use even if I never saw or used one before. The various Icons and Menus on that 10.5 TFT are amazing.
There is only one BIG ISSUE here: no Apple Carplay. How can it be? On my BMW cars I have it and not on a bike by the same company? I understand the Motorrad division is not the Car division but... come on. I need Waze on the 10.5 screen so to have speed radars signals etc. i hope BMW Motorrad can sort it out asap with a SW upgrade. About the Intercom system my two Sena SRL 2 for our Shoei J-Cruise 2 helmets and the iPhone were connected to the bike in less than one minute. Everything works fine (telephone, navigation, music from my Tidal subscription and obviously conversations between rider and passenger).
ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL: it works flawless and it's a nice tool but on a Bagger I don't see it as an important must have. I see this optional more on bikes like the K1600 or RTs. Just my point of view as an HD owner.
BATWING AND WINDSHIELD: well... not very good. I mean that the height is wrong. The border is exactly in front of my eyes and this doesn't help. You need a taller one or the B shorter one. The width of the Batwing is too narrow. Hands are exposed to wind and rain. They should have made it wider to cover hands and make it look better. Just my personal opinion: others might prefer it as it is.
SADDLEBAGS AND TOUR PACK: high quality and robust stuff and with automatic locking system on the handlebar. Nothing to say here. My only concern is the volume of those bags. On an HD Bagger they are definitely larger.
AUDIO SYSTEM: BMW wins hands down. Sound quality is really high and much better than the HD Boom Audio system.
ENGINE IN GENERAL: there is a lot of juice to be squeezed in this Big Boxer. If I were in BMW I'd propose a sort of Stage 2 optional package made of Exhaust, larger air filter, CAM and dedicated Tuning Map so to bring this Engines to 110 HP and 180 Nm of Torque. At this point you can really attract an HD Bagger user and fun would be found in every curve or stoplight at the green sign!
By the way: the way the bike pulls on the left when you switch on the engine is awesome! I love it.
EXHAUST SYSTEM BY THIRD PARTIES: here I don't know what to say. I don't understand how there is no availability of mufflers or pipes for an R18 B or TC bike. Only R18 naked. These models where launched on the market in september 2021 and in mid march 2022 there is no way to find a valid option: only "soon to be released" messages. If You are used to change the exhaust system of an HD Bagger after 5 minutes You purchased it... you are frustrated to realize there aren't valid alternatives at the moment.
This is it. Not a general review of this bike but a review from an HD Bagger owner perspective. Sorry if it was too long. But I watched too many Youtube reviews on the web with useless or false informations on these bikes. The only valid one is by a Youtuber named NothingToProve (I think he is an American guy living in Germany).
UPDATE: I received today the R18 First Edition Welcome Package by the BMW Dealer. AWESOME!!!
Here BMW Marketing wins over Harley-Davidson 10-0.
R18 First Edition Welcome Package
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