I’m curious, for all the boxer R nine T owners out there, is there any high mileage ones and does anyone use one as a main bike. I’m guessing not as I’ve never seen a real used one?
I'm doing my best to get some miles on it! Only had 625 miles when I bought it and it has about 2500 miles now.
I sold mine last week... not high mileage - about 9k miles for an early '16 bike. Their main problem is that in stock form they're definitely not comfortable bikes for a long ride. Hard seats and poor suspension, the latter of which requires some hefty investment to put right. They're beautiful bikes though, with bags of character. I had mine for about 18 months and it was a lovely looking thing.
So much for progress. My 1982 model took my wife and I many 1000s of miles across Europe, to and fro to Germany at speed and in relative comfort. It took children to prise it from my grasp. Engines, frames and suspension have progressed but seats and ergonomics all too often leave much to be desired.
I did consider an RNineT when going for the Bonneville. But given I already had a BMW I decided to go Triumph on this one and no regrets so far
If you want to do high miles or long trips then the right bars or bar risers are essential plus a more comfortable seat and better rear suspension. The stock shock is crap! Other than that I love it - tons of character and more people interested in it than ever were in my previous two bonnevilles.
Well, strange I suppose but it’s like the noughties bonnevilles then where you dump the shocks and mod the seat and make do with crap lightweight luggage? I kind of fancy one but also I like the last air cooled R1200R Classic which is close in some ways and not in others in the sense of it can tour and more...
Actually mine had the rims recalled as some fractured on kerbs and there were issues with some nikasil barrel lining. A colleague bought an ‘85 325i convertible with all the bells and whistles and it was a total Friday afternoon car which didn’t fit the BMW narrative. He quietly sold it on.
I had my R9T for 3 years and put about 11k miles on it. Completely uncomfortable with the standard seat so I bought a Scrambler tall bench seat and had it recovered in black. Much more comfy. It’s for sale if anyone’s interested
I guess the ergo's and seat is all very personal though as I had a slightly earlier R100S than your R100RS and the seat was not comfortable because the pillocks at BMW decided the front of the seat was a great place to put the first aid kit and removed most of the padding to fit it in. Then my slightly later R100RS needed K75S handlebars to make it comfortable for me. However I'd love the newer engine and chassis in the same shaped RS package without the weight of the newer ones, am I aiming too high...! That new one seems to be form over function and I'd be far more likely to go for the R1200/1250R if I wanted a naked BMW, bugger what people think about the looks.
I had one of the originals on a 16 plate. Was a lovely bike and a real quality feel to it very torquey. I found it was small for me and felt too cramped on a longer run. Most days seat comfort was worse than the cramped riding position. I found the speed triple better on both counts.
Shame about the comfort because they really are beautiful bikes. New ones with options on are a bit pricey aswell.
I bought one new in March , loved it , fab bike however found the vibrations at 4k revs, which equated to about 70mph, ideal cruising speed, caused severe pain particularly in right hand so it had to go. Managed just over 2000 miles so I did try it out. Traded it in for a Speed Triple RS. Still miss it though.
