I'm seasoned guy at almost 70. I agree the seat is hard. The bike is classified as a "retro"., reminding me of my /5. One needs to have had one to understand why the gearing. The engine is a tiger while having super brakes. Glad I have 3 bikes. Better than 3 wives. Lol.
I agree - BMW could have spent a bit more effort to make the thin seat comfortable. In fairness, I don't complain when I jump on my bicycle after a long winter, and its seat is less of a cushion and more of a suppository, so there's a certain amount of discomfort I'm willing to tolerate, I guess. Better seat foam would have been appreciated. I had a fuel gauge on one of my previous bikes, which seemed like a luxury; going back to having no fuel gauge is not intolerable, but it is a bit puzzling for a bike as expensive as this. Some have complained about the lack of a gear indicator - I have mixed feelings about this because you can generally tell when you're revving higher/lower than you would like and then shift accordingly. The only thing a gear indicator would do for me would be to prevent me trying to go to a higher (non-existent) gear than 6th and avoid the momentary embarrassment of shifting up into the same gear I'm already in (I don't think many people around me would notice). I do wish I had a tach though, if only for training purposes - my bike is a 2023 Scrambler and I only have 2 rides on it so far (just picked it up on 8 March; it's been a weird winter - riding in March in Canada is normally not a thing) so I really don't have a good sense of where the engine is happiest yet. I'll need to bounce it off the rev limiter a few times to calibrate myself. There is a replacement for the factory dial that includes a tach made by Koso (see Wunderlich.com), but I'm not sure this is worthwhile for me - it may be for others. As for footpegs - there is some adjustability described in the manual (which I'm sure you've seen as well) - I'm 6'1" and I don't feel cramped, although this may be saying more about what I used to ride (Suzuki SV1000S). So to a certain extent at least this will vary person to person and will probably be influenced in part by what you're used to. Coming off of a GS, you would definitely notice the difference if that was your only other bike I guess. I love the bike so far! I think everyone understands that there is no objectively perfect bike, and what approaches perfection will be different for each rider. For me, this bike is near perfection now, although I'm open to the possibility that my opinion may change with a few thousand more kilometres on it.
Thanks for mentioning how there's not much in the lower gears. This is my first Boxer engine so I had no baseline to reference. I wasn't sure if it was me, my bike, my shifting, etc....I only had the bike for a few days and it seemed tame in the lower gears. I agree with you that paying for a BMW motorcycle, I would have expected a tachometer to be standard equipment. I expressed the same disappointment to my BMW dealership
the more you right and find it's path and what works for you - it's a fun bike...but yes it loves 4/5/6 and doesn't like it in the lower gears...hahah - I said the same to dealer....but you know dealers...I don't think they care much - ha!!!...enjoy and thanks for comment!!!!
I enjoyed my scrambler for a while. I’m too tall for it, sadly. I kept seeing photos of myself from the side on and it looks like a 125cc. The seat was agony, suspension is pretty historic, too low to the ground and yeah, just generally uncomfortable. I did buy it blind, I will admit. If I had test rode it, I’d have never bought. Took it for a service and was given a GS1250 as a courtesy bike. I was instantly sold…living in scotland, I do a lot of miles with the boys, sometimes 600mile ride outs. Ended up stripping my ££££ of extras and sold it as stock and bought a GSA 1200 Rallye. And yeah, the lack of fuel gauge etc is a joke. Don’t listen to anyone saying otherwise. A fuel gauge is one of the most useful things ever.
Thank you...it's a great around town bike...as I stated - if you were to ride more than an hour and half or two...need to get different seat and better suspension...but engine and everything's great..thanks for the comments!!!
Hi, great bike! How is it on the highway doing 70-80 , what are the rpm’s at that speeds? I used to have rninet pure and highway riding felt like the engine was at the top of the rpm range, I wonder if it’s better on the newer models. Thanks.
Not one issue...4-5 on rpm...and can push past 80 pretty well without completely hammering it. Now with the scrambler I have the knobby tires on and still do that...although switching tires to more of a street tire. I never take it off-road or in the weather ha!!!...but a thrill to ride
It's the BMW OEM one...your local dealer will know the part number...it does make a difference and looks better....sorry I don't have the number....good luck!!!
It's handy you mentioned your height. I'm the opposite as I'm very short at 5'7" or 1.7m. Nice bike and colour. I agree that spending that amount of money you should have a few options included.
The five things that you don’t like on this bike, maybe they are a little unfair, because everything was meant to be like it is. BMW has a lot more options on their range of motorcycles better than this one for touring, for off-road ways, for speed and I could go on and on enunciating features of biking that aren’t present on the R nine T Scrambler…But they aren’t present for a bunch of good reasons:- First, this is a bike that wants to resemble with an iconic heritage of BMW bikes that were famous in the past and it is an homage to those days of the brand. The old style is not a coincidence, the lack of electronic fancy features are not a coincidence here. This bike, as the Triumph T120 to give another exemple (in fact the whole Bonneville family of Triumph bikes), they are all about getting you closer to the feeling of how it was to ride a bike in the fifties or in the sixties, but without the bad part of it😅 they aren’t replica’s of bikes of that age but they simulate well what it was, in a certain sense, the pleasure of riding a bike. There are more reasons adding to the above, but that would take a while describing and would make this comment into another thing. Something that it was not meant to be 🤩 Keep on doing videos, your personal view and opinions are valued by the RUclips community that love this fantastic machines, once that you talk about what you really know, because you own those bikes and from a practical point of view your insights about them, I think they matter a lot. Thanks 🙏🏼 Be well and ride safe ✌️✌️
Sorry for delay...I get wanting to feel old style...but for modern technology or Items added for cost - I thought was a little of a miss....love the bike..and I had a 2022 T120 Bonnie (recently sold)...classic bikes...thanks for your opinion...always good to hear others...
@@lifesjourneyat50 I also sold my 2022 T120, and the main reason for that was the short height distance from the seat to the ground. I m 5 ft 11” and sometimes I felt crumpet on the bike. In fact, the T120 was part of the trade with the BMW dealer for the R Nine T Scrambler acquisition. The T120 was a really beautiful bike and it was very pleasing to ride. The only shortage of it was the 80 HP of the engine that felt always too well behaved when I wanted to ride more aggressively, didn’t felt quite safe, as I do riding the R Nine T. The front breaks were ok but the Pirelli phantom tyres, that were very good looking on the bike, didn’t gave the enough confidence for that kind of riding, which is perfectly possible on the BMW.
@@Fernando90054 completely agree with everything....I actually do more Adventure riding...I traded it in on a New 23' KTM 890 R....hahah - thanks again!!!
@@lifesjourneyat50 okay so, you went definitely for the more real off-road bike. Congrats for the purchase! Something that you could do to improve the overall riding comfort of the R nine T would be to up grade the rear suspension for an Ohlins mono shock. I’ve seen it and I’m going to instal it the near future, for sure, on my Scrambler. It makes a real difference.👌🏻
@@lifesjourneyat50 to me the 719 options are all « over designed »… it takes away the aspect « tool bike » rough… it’s like the difference between vintage Rolex and the last ones😊👍 Crash Bars are for me for everyday use… just in case, in order to avoid calling a taw truck one day … I do 2 to 5% of off road per year as well😊…. And I recommend the TKC 70 continental tires…. 90%road 10%off road… way better than any knobby tires… I don’t live in Patagonia😁
I'm seasoned guy at almost 70. I agree the seat is hard. The bike is classified as a "retro"., reminding me of my /5. One needs to have had one to understand why the gearing. The engine is a tiger while having super brakes. Glad I have 3 bikes. Better than 3 wives. Lol.
I agree - BMW could have spent a bit more effort to make the thin seat comfortable. In fairness, I don't complain when I jump on my bicycle after a long winter, and its seat is less of a cushion and more of a suppository, so there's a certain amount of discomfort I'm willing to tolerate, I guess. Better seat foam would have been appreciated. I had a fuel gauge on one of my previous bikes, which seemed like a luxury; going back to having no fuel gauge is not intolerable, but it is a bit puzzling for a bike as expensive as this. Some have complained about the lack of a gear indicator - I have mixed feelings about this because you can generally tell when you're revving higher/lower than you would like and then shift accordingly. The only thing a gear indicator would do for me would be to prevent me trying to go to a higher (non-existent) gear than 6th and avoid the momentary embarrassment of shifting up into the same gear I'm already in (I don't think many people around me would notice). I do wish I had a tach though, if only for training purposes - my bike is a 2023 Scrambler and I only have 2 rides on it so far (just picked it up on 8 March; it's been a weird winter - riding in March in Canada is normally not a thing) so I really don't have a good sense of where the engine is happiest yet. I'll need to bounce it off the rev limiter a few times to calibrate myself. There is a replacement for the factory dial that includes a tach made by Koso (see Wunderlich.com), but I'm not sure this is worthwhile for me - it may be for others. As for footpegs - there is some adjustability described in the manual (which I'm sure you've seen as well) - I'm 6'1" and I don't feel cramped, although this may be saying more about what I used to ride (Suzuki SV1000S). So to a certain extent at least this will vary person to person and will probably be influenced in part by what you're used to. Coming off of a GS, you would definitely notice the difference if that was your only other bike I guess.
I love the bike so far! I think everyone understands that there is no objectively perfect bike, and what approaches perfection will be different for each rider. For me, this bike is near perfection now, although I'm open to the possibility that my opinion may change with a few thousand more kilometres on it.
There was a "higher seat" available with no aditional price.
I did not know that...thanks!
Thanks for mentioning how there's not much in the lower gears. This is my first Boxer engine so I had no baseline to reference. I wasn't sure if it was me, my bike, my shifting, etc....I only had the bike for a few days and it seemed tame in the lower gears. I agree with you that paying for a BMW motorcycle, I would have expected a tachometer to be standard equipment. I expressed the same disappointment to my BMW dealership
the more you right and find it's path and what works for you - it's a fun bike...but yes it loves 4/5/6 and doesn't like it in the lower gears...hahah - I said the same to dealer....but you know dealers...I don't think they care much - ha!!!...enjoy and thanks for comment!!!!
I enjoyed my scrambler for a while. I’m too tall for it, sadly. I kept seeing photos of myself from the side on and it looks like a 125cc. The seat was agony, suspension is pretty historic, too low to the ground and yeah, just generally uncomfortable. I did buy it blind, I will admit. If I had test rode it, I’d have never bought. Took it for a service and was given a GS1250 as a courtesy bike. I was instantly sold…living in scotland, I do a lot of miles with the boys, sometimes 600mile ride outs.
Ended up stripping my ££££ of extras and sold it as stock and bought a GSA 1200 Rallye. And yeah, the lack of fuel gauge etc is a joke. Don’t listen to anyone saying otherwise. A fuel gauge is one of the most useful things ever.
Thanks and agree....I only ride it less than an hour or so...the seat is so stiff...thanks for the comments!!!
Man thats the color and wheels i want! Its such a nice looking bike.
Thank you...it's a great around town bike...as I stated - if you were to ride more than an hour and half or two...need to get different seat and better suspension...but engine and everything's great..thanks for the comments!!!
@@lifesjourneyat50 yea I was already looking onto upgrading those once I get one. Just a fun project for myself I guess haha!
If you sell a bike in the year 2020 or so there MUST be a fuel gauge.
If you sell a bike with ride-by-wire cruise control is MANDATORY.
Bought the R9t aged 50 still have it 6 years later
Hi, great bike! How is it on the highway doing 70-80 , what are the rpm’s at that speeds? I used to have rninet pure and highway riding felt like the engine was at the top of the rpm range, I wonder if it’s better on the newer models. Thanks.
Not one issue...4-5 on rpm...and can push past 80 pretty well without completely hammering it. Now with the scrambler I have the knobby tires on and still do that...although switching tires to more of a street tire. I never take it off-road or in the weather ha!!!...but a thrill to ride
Hello my friend, could you please tell me which fuel gauge and tacometer you add?
It's the BMW OEM one...your local dealer will know the part number...it does make a difference and looks better....sorry I don't have the number....good luck!!!
@@lifesjourneyat50 thanks! we'll look up to it, what year is yours?
@@oscarverges8972 mine is a 2022..
@@lifesjourneyat50 thanks a lot! Ride safe
It's handy you mentioned your height. I'm the opposite as I'm very short at 5'7" or 1.7m. Nice bike and colour. I agree that spending that amount of money you should have a few options included.
great honest review, pretty cool, thanks!
thank you...I try to keep it from your avg person perspective...so thanks!!
but how about suspension? especially non adjustable front?
Suspension is fine...no issues...and I'm a big guy....it's extremely smooth...enjoy!
Hey man, that's a good review! How tall are you?
6'2....its not to bad on comfort....seats still a little hard...thanjs
@@lifesjourneyat50 Thank you!
The five things that you don’t like on this bike, maybe they are a little unfair, because everything was meant to be like it is. BMW has a lot more options on their range of motorcycles better than this one for touring, for off-road ways, for speed and I could go on and on enunciating features of biking that aren’t present on the R nine T Scrambler…But they aren’t present for a bunch of good reasons:- First, this is a bike that wants to resemble with an iconic heritage of BMW bikes that were famous in the past and it is an homage to those days of the brand. The old style is not a coincidence, the lack of electronic fancy features are not a coincidence here. This bike, as the Triumph T120 to give another exemple (in fact the whole Bonneville family of Triumph bikes), they are all about getting you closer to the feeling of how it was to ride a bike in the fifties or in the sixties, but without the bad part of it😅 they aren’t replica’s of bikes of that age but they simulate well what it was, in a certain sense, the pleasure of riding a bike.
There are more reasons adding to the above, but that would take a while describing and would make this comment into another thing. Something that it was not meant to be 🤩
Keep on doing videos, your personal view and opinions are valued by the RUclips community that love this fantastic machines, once that you talk about what you really know, because you own those bikes and from a practical point of view your insights about them, I think they matter a lot. Thanks 🙏🏼 Be well and ride safe
✌️✌️
Sorry for delay...I get wanting to feel old style...but for modern technology or Items added for cost - I thought was a little of a miss....love the bike..and I had a 2022 T120 Bonnie (recently sold)...classic bikes...thanks for your opinion...always good to hear others...
@@lifesjourneyat50 I also sold my 2022 T120, and the main reason for that was the short height distance from the seat to the ground. I m 5 ft 11” and sometimes I felt crumpet on the bike. In fact, the T120 was part of the trade with the BMW dealer for the R Nine T Scrambler acquisition. The T120 was a really beautiful bike and it was very pleasing to ride. The only shortage of it was the 80 HP of the engine that felt always too well behaved when I wanted to ride more aggressively, didn’t felt quite safe, as I do riding the R Nine T. The front breaks were ok but the Pirelli phantom tyres, that were very good looking on the bike, didn’t gave the enough confidence for that kind of riding, which is perfectly possible on the BMW.
@@Fernando90054 completely agree with everything....I actually do more Adventure riding...I traded it in on a New 23' KTM 890 R....hahah - thanks again!!!
@@lifesjourneyat50 okay so, you went definitely for the more real off-road bike. Congrats for the purchase!
Something that you could do to improve the overall riding comfort of the R nine T would be to up grade the rear suspension for an Ohlins mono shock. I’ve seen it and I’m going to instal it the near future, for sure, on my Scrambler. It makes a real difference.👌🏻
Why are your tires mounted with the tread facing different directions?
I just checked...they are not...you had me scared..ha!!! - but thanks for asking!!!
Well… the most important option are the crash bars on each side… the 719 options are a bit too much
Crash bars would be good if I rode it off-road...but I use my GSA for that....719 to much...which ones or ALL?....thanks!
@@lifesjourneyat50 to me the 719 options are all « over designed »… it takes away the aspect « tool bike » rough… it’s like the difference between vintage Rolex and the last ones😊👍
Crash Bars are for me for everyday use… just in case, in order to avoid calling a taw truck one day … I do 2 to 5% of off road per year as well😊…. And I recommend the TKC 70 continental tires…. 90%road 10%off road… way better than any knobby tires… I don’t live in Patagonia😁
@@gillesaranda2843 good comparison....too much and over down...I get it...thnaks!
Not sure why you need a fuel gauge. Reset your trip after filling up
My real point was spending what you spend...I think it should be included...on my T120 Bonneville it has one...thanks!
@@lifesjourneyat50 don’t see the point of having one though
@@clementquirder Not that you need one...with the cost of the bike and what others include was really the point...I get it...thanks!
Agree but I have the R9t and Multistrada with fuel gauge just makes life a bit easier no reason why not to embrace technology
I hate the fact I'm over 50 and I also drive a BMW rninet
HA! - But it's such a fun bike!!! - enjoy!!!
A Racer type bike? No no no
I will say it loves to go go go...racer no...I get it...but for me it is...hahah!!!! - - thanks!
Slipper clutch?
Never thought of that...thanks!
Bella... Mi sà che presto sarà mia😉... Ciao grazie
I appreciate your comento
Just subs. By the WAY i'm also in My fiftys.
Enjoy your Fifty's....I'm trying to...ha!!!!
Typical GS rider …..here’s one for your head….the GS is the Toyota Camry of the motorcycle world ….let that sink in
Hello my friend, could you please tell me which fuel gauge and tachometer you add?
I think I replied - but it's the OEM one from BMW...your dealer should be able to order it....good luck...it deoa make a nice difference!!!