BMW R12 nineT HL and R12 HL Review – Motorcycle Test

BMW R12 nineT HL and R12 HL Review

A two for one today. Two R12s that share a lot, but differ in important ways.

First the R12 nine T. Lets just call it the nineT. Geez they make it hard to follow along with their model naming don’t they…

When the original R nineT was released it was confusing enough in that it didn’t follow the existing naming convention of the R80 and R100 that were thusly named due to their capacity. No, the R nineT (read – R90), was named to celebrate BMW’s 90 years of motorcycle manufacturing. Okay fair enough, a little indulgence now and then is fine. 

And then they give it an update and call it the R12 nineT.. To distinguish it from the first R nineT. Crikey.

Now I don’t normally start with negatives, but I will here before we get onto the positives (because after this it’s mostly positive I promise). Deep breath Wayno… When did it become okay to not have a fuel gauge on a motorbike? It’s not okay. It’s bloody annoying is what it is. It’s literally one of the first thing you think about when you jump on the bike. ‘How much fuel do I have’. Even moreso for those riders who don’t ride regularly. Not even a distance to empty number somewhere. 

So you just ride until the reserve comes on and then figure out you need to backtrack to that servo you went past because the next one is too far away. Whoever thought that was okay needs a stern talking to. Even more so because the bike doesn’t have a lot of range… the reserve light comes on at about 220 km.

So we got off distinctly on the wrong foot.

I love the twin gauges on the dash. A nice nod to bikes of old. But then there’s the rather cheap and awkward-looking LCD screens that are shoved inside each one… And the Tacho reads in hundreds of revs instead of thousands, so you look down and see a needle pointing to 45 and then realise that’s not kms, but revs… it’s just a bit weird.

While at first I thought it had a ‘key holder’ that did nothing (because the key is a fob), it turns out that it does activate a steering lock, so that one gets a free pass.

Ok – whinges over. Let’s look at the positives, because there are plenty.

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Engine – it’s two motors in one really. Vibey and full of character down low but then once it smooths out around 30-40 hundred revs (sorry, couldn’t help it), it becomes a powerhouse if you give it it’s head. And when I say Vibey I mean it – it fairly rattles your teeth and shakes that dash cluster – Rob needed me to up the revs so he could get a pic without it being blurry! 

Massive amounts of torque available. It feels way more grunty than the specs suggest. It might make ‘only’ 108 hp, but it belts out a solid 115 Nm of torque, cranking all of that out by 65 hundred revs (yeah I’m not letting that go). In fact when you really decide to get up it – It’s got almost too much thrust for the vibe of the bike. 

Being quite a relaxed ride position, when you decide to open those taps, you really gotta hang on! This is the second beemer this year that I’m wondering if it’s overpowered. Not something I’d ever thought I’d be saying but there you go.

The grunt is deceptive, actually. Because it doesn’t sound like a powerhouse. It sounds… well, it sounds exactly like my little Grey Fergie at around 30 hundred revs… uncannily so. Which wasn’t something I was able to ‘unhear’ once I had made the connection. Lucky I love my little Fergie.

Fuelling is not bad, although, like the R 1300 GS, I found the transition from part to closing throttle a little too abrupt. These jiggers have a lot of engine braking dialled in. Tiny adjustments to speed when in traffic tend to be jerkier and a little more on-off-on than necessary. Considering that this is a bike that’s not trying to be a racebike.

Likewise, the gear-shift is a little overly abrupt (again – a little too sporty for my liking, just like the big new GS). Especially at lower throttle openings. Smooth it is not. Which is a shame, I was expecting something smoother when looking at the bikes styling.

However, both the fuelling and shift can be dealt with by adapting your throttle usage and using a little clutch at times.

Suspension-wise, you get 120 mm of travel front and back, both of which are fully adjustable. While I quite like that front end for both cruising about and having a dip, the rear seemed a little underdone to me by comparison. Those forks also do duties on the S 1000 I believe and they’re more than up to the task, they’re excellent. But the rear was a little harsher than it could have been. 

Bigger hits aren’t softened as much as they could be, and that causes the chassis to be a little out of balance at times, not drastically, but more than I expect from a Beemer, which is normally really well sorted from a chassis perspective.

The styling is an interesting mix of cafe naked retro with some more modern touches thrown in. It’s not a bad effort, and I think a step forward from the first nineT. There are still some elements however that in isolation could well be designed for a modern sportsbike instead of a bike aimed at being a timeless roadster. Different designers working on the same bike? Perhaps. 

In the end, it’s an interesting alternative to something like the R 1250 R I tested a few months back. Is it better than the R? Personally, I don’t think so, but style-wise, it walks to the beat of a very different drum, and that alone has its own appeal. And for 27 and a half grand on the road, I think it’ll find plenty of interest.

And then there’s the sister bike. The R12 HL. Let’s go with just R12 here.

It’s the same engine and basic chassis, with different bits bolted onto it, resulting in much more of a cruiser vibe here. It’s lower and meaner looking. Interesting proportions. It’s not quite full cruiser, not quite standard naked, not quite retro. It’s a bit of everything rolled into its own thing.

The ride position is a little less relaxed with your butt closer to your feet, and while it looks like it’ll be comfy, that seat is unnecessarily hard, and its shape didn’t seem to fit my butt all that well. You’d expect a bike with less suspension travel to have comfier foam in the seat… Anyway.

Speaking of travel, it’s reduced by 30 mm at both ends from the nineT to 90 mm. What was already a fairly firm rear end on the nineT get’s even moreso in the R12. You sure know about even moderate sized surface changes and small holes on this one. Big hits are painful. Did Easy Rider have nice smooth roads? Dunno. Maybe I need a cup of cement.

That shorter suspension also necessitates moving the foot pegs forward by a good amount. So much so that your shins end up resting on the air intake pipes on either side of the engine, which feels cramped and a bit weird at first. Maybe you’d get used to it after a while. It still felt cramped to me after two weeks.   

That’s where the negatives stop, though – unlike the nineT, which comes with the usual expected range of ride modes, the R12 comes with just two. The same two modes as I found on the R18 Roctane. ‘Rock’ and ‘Roll’. Roll is quite the mellow thing for just cruising around, and Rock is slightly more direct. In fact, the Rock map is closer to the map I’d like on the nineT, relatively measured while still having plenty of grunt, just a twist of the mitt away.  

Both maps have obvious electronic smoothing built in, the Roll map moreso. A little too much actually, which can deliver some slightly delayed input results at times. This is most noticeable when rolling off the throttle when the bike will continue on momentarily before decelerating. It is a little off-putting when it does happen, especially if you are going for the brakes at the same time… Less noticeable in Rock mode – which was still perfectly fine for crawling around town amongst the traffic, so I stayed in that mode.

I love the little letterbox-style TFT dash, too. It’s very nice and minimal. Except it doesn’t have a fuel gauge, either. And yes, it was the first thing I looked for… 

A little over twenty-five thousand dollars will get you a black one and another $925 for the maroon you see pictured. I’d have to go another $835 for spoked wheels would bring it up to 27. 

Both bikes have the build quality to justify the price of entry. Lovely finish – and they’re pretty bulletproof, I gather too. There’s a lot to like about Motorrad’s strategy of building variants using the same basic driveline – gives you lots to choose from and should have something for every taste.

While these bikes each have their idiosyncrasies, in an era where things seem to be converging and reducing in choice, these variants seem like a good thing.

I like these because:

• Unmistakingly BMW with the R12 boxer engine
• Once up in the revs a bit that engine is a surprisingly strong, smooth torquey thing
• Lovely build quality
• I sure gave those heated grips a workout

I’d like them more if:

• The rear suspension on both bikes feels underdone
• Throttle and quick-shift seem a little abrupt on the NineT. It could use the equivalent of the ‘Rock’ mode that the R12 has in it
• Roll mode in the R12 has too much throttle smoothing
• Subjectively, the exhaust note is a little underwhelming. Unless you like tractors. 

BMW R 12 nineT and R 12 Specifications

Australian pricing and specifications

R 12 nineT – $23,990 +ORC

Includes all specification of the R 12 nineT and adds the following:

Option Program for R 12 nineT

R 12 nineT HL – $26,990 +ORC

Option Program for R 12 nineT HL

R 12 nineT Option 719 – $30,590 +ORC

R 12 – $20,210 +ORC

Option Program for R 12

R 12 HL – $23,260 +ORC

Option Program for R 12 HL

Includes all specification of the R 12 HL and adds the following:

Includes all specification of the R 12 HL and adds the following:

R 12 Option 719

BMW R12 HL Gallery

BMW R12 nineT HL Gallery