A certain Rockster owner is not able to ride is bike for the length of a pregnancy. Why? Not saying. So his R1150R Rockster sits in the garage tucked away under a cover. Waiting the day he can venture back onto the blacktop. The Rockster pines for the road. It pines to have the throttle cracked open and its exhaust bark out the symphony of speed. It sits dreaming of tight twisty roads. Roads that it hunts down big Jap sports bikes and rounds them up quick smart. It is almost a crime that this bike cannot be ridden on the road. Enter me. Sure Sonny I will take the Rockster out for short ride. Yes it will come back with at least one cylinder still attached. No I will not do anything stupid with it. I promise.
Climbing on board my back straight way wants to know what on earth am I doing. My BMW is a great big comfy lounge chair. The Rockster is a gym workout bench. Hard and meant for one thing. A good fast workout.
I have to reach well forward and wide to grip the bars. I left my legs up on the pegs and I feel as if I am being folded up by an origami master. This is so different than my LT tourer.
First gear, open the throttle and the exhaust barks nicely. My body is folded in ways never before experienced. I find it a bit hard to change gears. I am not used to the position my foot is in. Accelerate away, flick up thorough the gears. The gearbox in my bike is older but feels so much nicer than this one. Could be that I am very familiar with mine. But then again it is a BMW gearbox. It also has one more gear than mine. It has six of them. I found for the ride I did in traffic that 3rd was all that as needed. Lots of grunt on tap to get around the cages.
The brakes are ABS assisted. This is new to me. Squeeze the front and I am nearly over the handle bars. Ok you don't use as much squeeze as on my bike.
So far I am just dribbling along. Time to see what mid range is like. 3 1/2 to 4 thousand RPM and there is a very nice rush from the engine to the gearbox and down the shaft to the rear wheel. So much so that I am well over the speed limit. A smile is spreading across my dial. Mid range on a long twists road would be pure fun on this bike.
The revs build and so too the bark from the exhaust. What a wonderful sound. There is nothing like a twin with a loud exhaust. The engine is warming up now and at the lights I hear that BMW telltale noise of tappets and clutch rattle. This is a true boxer after all. It might be an Oilhead but it is a real boxer.
Lights go green and away rockets the Rockster. Good kick in the butt. At 60 km/h the engine is not complain at all. Very versatile that’s for sure.
It was not a long ride. Just getting the oil pumping but I did come back with a big smile on my face. I want this engine in my bike please. I love the engine. The ergonomics of the bike do not suit my bad back. So maybe a R1150RT would suit me better.
Thanks mate for letting me take the Rockster out. My old BM feels very pedestrian now.
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