Let me know if there are any other items I should add here
One of the reasons that people buy BMW bikes is their reputation for reliability and longevity. So far, the 1150 seems to be living up to this reputation with few serious failures reported. The most consistently reported problem is surging (see below), and there have been a few problems with the new ABS system. The 1100s have suffered a fair amount of gearbox trouble.
"Surging" is the major issue for owners of the R1150RS and R1150RT. It is a phenomenon that usually appears at about 2500-3500 rpm under light loads or when cruising with a steady throttle (i.e., around town). It feels like the bike is continually speeding up and slowing down, as if the rider were making tiny throttle adjustments, and it can be very annoying.
It has always been a problem to some extent on oilhead twins, but the larger the engine and the higher the state of tune, the worse it seems to be in practice. Hence the 1150 is worse than the 1100, and the RS/RT are worse than the R/GS and the cruisers.
Some bikes suffer more than others, and it's impossible to predict whether the one you buy will have the problem before you hand over the cash. I would strongly suggest raising the issue with the dealer before purchase, so that you have good grounds for complaint if your bike does it. There's nothing the dealers like more than to say "Sorry, they all do that, Sir". The good news is that there are solutions available if you're unlucky.
Many or all of the 1100s delivered outside the USA and Canada did not have a closed-loop engine management configuration with an O2 sensor fitted, and instead have a potentiometer that could be adjusted to select the correct CO2 emission level at idle. This non-US 1100 setup is much less (if at all) prone to surging, and can be retrofitted to US bikes instead of the O2 sensor, which usually solves the problem.
Steve Makohin has a good writeup about the possible causes here, although most of the cures are only related to the 1100s (Motronic 2.2).
The BMWRT pages, especially their Forum, have more information than you could possibly want on surging. The usual advice is to perform the valve clearance adjustment and throttle synchronisation extremely carefully, which helps on most bikes, but does not cure all of them. Their FAQ has good information for 1100s. and this thread on their discussion board contains good information about the Code Plug change mentioned below, which is a solution for the 1150.
In some countries, BMW have approved a different Motronic 2.4 Catalyst Code Plug (CCP) for the 1150RT, which for many people has reduced the surging to an acceptable level. It doesn't seem to completely remove it. You will often see this referred to on the net as the Olive Green CCP. The stock CCP is pink. The effect is to change the mapping of the fuel injection, presumably to run a richer mixture.
One important thing to note: The coding plugs used, and the effect they have (even the effect of not fitting one) is different between the 1100 and the 1150. So be very careful when following advice on the net about this problem, that the solution you're reading about applies to your bike.
For a further twist, it appears from reading various French and Belgian riders contributions to the RT forums, that BMW dealers in those countries supply some or all 1150 RS/RTs with the CCP removed altogether. There's no definitive evidence I can find about what this setting actually does, but it's probably safe to assume that it's a different, but richer, setting to that given by the pink plug.
In the UK at least, the green CCP is now also approved by BMW to be fitted in the 1150RS. I've got this on my bike, and it does what other RS and RT owners have reported. The surging is still present, but a lot less noticeable, and rarely enough to be annoying.
Vibration is a natural feature of a big twin. They will always vibrate more powerfully than an inline four, so you just have to get used to it. Make sure you have a decent test ride so you can decide for yourself whether you find it acceptable. Generally, it's not a buzzy vibration, so numb hands are not usually a problem.
Excess vibration can easily be caused by unbalanced throttles, this is a simple adjustment for the dealer or yourself if mechanically inclined.
There's a rough consensus that the 1150 engines are coarser and more vibey at high revs than the 1100s.
The 1150 often comes with servo-assisted ABS brakes. Tolerances on these seem to be rather critical, and they are prone to seizing in the winter when they've been attacked by salt. Regular cleaning should alleviate this.
There have been a few reported cases of servo failure (on this site and others). This is supposed to be a fail-safe system as the full braking force is available, but you need to pull the lever an awful lot harder. If you have the span adjuster set to minimum, the lever may hit the bar first, so be careful. There's a belief that the system failures tend to happen early in the bike's life, if they're going to happen at all.
Although there have been doubts expressed about the complexity of the ABS system, there have been a number of reports by people who say that the controlled stopping power of the new brakes has saved them from crashing. Grab the lever as hard as you can and hold tight is most people's reflex in a bad situation, and that's just what you need to get the maximum controlled stopping power with the ABS brakes.
The 5 speed box on the 1100s does have some known failure modes, including dropping out of 2nd into neutral, selector problems, input and output shaft bearing seals, etc. BMW have often helped out with the cost of gearbox work, even if the bike is well out of warranty, so they're clearly embarrassed about it.
It's too early for the 1150's 6 speed box to show any serious design problems. Hopefully they've learned from all the problems with the original...
The R1150RS comes in four colours: Pacific Blue metallic, Silver metallic, Dark Blue/Frost Blue metallic and Grey/Gold Metallic (both two-tone versions cost extra). The Dark/Light blue bike looks great from some angles, and bad from others. I think they should have omitted the light blue stripe on the tank, and left the front of the fairing dark blue.
If you live in the US or Canada, thanks to the bloke who burned his garage down, you get the half-faired version, without dangerous lower plastics that are close to the exhausts, and with nasty looking reflectors on the fork shrouds.
Balderston's have been kind enough to do just that for our edification:
http://www.balderstonbmw.freeserve.co.uk/r1150rt-rs-specs.htm
Interesting reading. If it's true, there is *absolutely* no difference in the engine between the two bikes, thus BMW's claim that the Olive Green CCP can damage the engine on the RS seems rather suspect, as it is approved for RT's that have surging problems.
Note that the gear ratios on this page are wrong. The final drive for the RS is 2.82, not 2.91, and see below for more gearing info.
See Haynes' site. I received my wheel cap within 3 days of ordering, not bad from the other side of the world. In fact, faster than almost anything else I've ever ordered in my life.
Marc Parnes writes:
Since the beginning my bike has been making a kind of rattling noise for the first mile or so when cold. This noise shows up while slowing for a stop or reving it a little from idle. As soon as the motor warms up it would go away. Even then, if I listened for it I could still hear it. My past R motors haven't had this noise so it has been bothering me. I had heard some comments about the chain tensioners making noise so I thought it might be that. Actually that is what it sounded like. I had the dealer do the 600 service and the tech said that the noise was rather typical and wouldn't cause any problem. I figured he was right since the noise pretty much goes away after awhile and didn't sound particularly harsh in any case.
Today I did the 6K service and found the problem. It turns out that there was too much side clearance between the r/s exhaust rocker arm and the lower rocker arm support. The effect is noise as the rocker arm moves around on its shaft until it warms up, expands and oil gets to it. It never would have caused a problem other than being noisy. The spec calls for .05mm - .30mm. This one was pretty much at the limit. The other ones were set up loose as well. They are pretty easy to adjust so I set them all to about .10mm. The difference was immediate. The engine doesn't make any noise at all now. Having tightened the rocker arms up and adjusting the valves has made it super quiet even when stone cold.
So, if you hear a clacking/rattling sound this might be what it is.
There have been mixed experiences with all of these (see the forum for more details).
RemusTheir website is flashy, but low on information. Motorworks' site is more useful. I've got the aluminium Road system on my bike (see So Far pages).
Laser list specific 1150 and 1100 systems, plus different motronic chips.
No huggers are known for the 1150RS, although Pyramid Plastics may be able to modify their R1150GS model, and may be working on an RS model.
Front mudguard extenders are made by Sprint Manufacturing.
There is some information on this subject in the Forum. The 1150 has an extra, wider, mounting plate that is attached to the original screen mounting plate that was used on the 1100. So all 1100-compatible screens will work on the 1150. 1150 screens may not work on the 1100 without the addition of the extra mounting plate.
Known options include Cee Baileys, Clearview, Secdem, Wudo, Parabellum
Here's a Cee Bailey screen in real life. They have a good reputation with R-RT riders.
There is some information on this subject in the Forum. Possible options are: Ohlins, Fournales, Hagon, Wilbers, E=MC Endurance. Look here.
A number of people have Ohlins and swear by them, although setting the correct sag appears to be a bit tricky (not possible to get it exactly to what the manual says).
Terry Gibson wrote a lot about his choice, here.
Spark plugs are obviously quite critical to the optimum operation of the current boxer engine, as shown by BMW's introduction of twin-plug cylinder heads for 2003.
Information gleaned from the RS and RT forums is not exactly conclusive.
The stock 1150 plugs are NGK BKR7EKC-N. Some 1150RT owners have reported that the Brisk DOR14LGS (expensive) has reduced their level of surging.
The RS discussion thread is here.
An RT discusion thread here here has some information from a magazine interview with a BMW PR person, and also some tests on performance characteristics of different plugs.
For an R1150GS:
The 6 speed box on the 1150RS may well be geared so that the maximum speed is actually lower than the 1100RS. This is because it's so tall, that the bike can't pull it at high revs.
On this spreadsheet for the R1150RS, the theoretical top speed is an impressive 159mph, however, you're probably going to be lucky to get much over 130, since BIKE magazine in the UK have clocked an RT (with similar gearing) at 128mph, and an 1100S at 141mph.
http://www.employees.org/~tw/rrs/1150rs_gears.htm
rkd has done similar sheets for the 1100, old and new and the 1150:
http://www.demonchaserracing.com/rkd/R11rs-gearing.htm http://www.demonchaserracing.com/rkd/R1150rs-gearing.htm
I have ridden my 6-year-old R1100RS through five winters in Scotland mainly commuting between home and Aberdeen, a round trip of 30 miles. The bike has covered 43K miles without letting me down. In this time I have discovered a number of ways of trying to preserve my pride and joy. I thought that others might like to share these. We get a lot of salt in Scotland for too many months!
