New 2023 BMW R12 nineT Preview: Everything You Need To Know!
welcome back everybody to another motoball video now this week BMW and asked the successor to their awesome looking r9t retro lineup under the new name of the r1290 so in this video we’ll go through absolutely everything that we know about it so far now the r9t sort of scratches the Retro Rider’s itch with its engine the 1170cc air-cooled variant of the famous BMW boxer twin the aim of it is to deliver some of the character and soul of the BMW bikes of yesteryear and I reckon it absolutely works so you can sort of understand why it seems as though they’ve stuck with the same power unit for this new r1290 to be clear the press release reads original 1200 boxer engine with a redesigned air box
and exhaust system that delivers classic riding pleasure now they also go on to confirm that again it will be Aaron all cooled as opposed to the liquid cooling of most modern engines and so while there might be a few little tweaks of course the fundamentals of this engine sound as though they’ll be the exact same now look this isn’t really a market sector where like huge power figures and the latest engine Tech and necessarily that important in terms of marketing the product certainly compared to like super nakeds or sports bikes and so this engine fits the build perfectly it’s got loads of torque and mid-range it’s got that signature boxer twins side to side rock and also a distinctive exhaust note that’s like nothing else in the Retro segment character is the name of the game here and this engine already plays that role exceptionally well now the cylinder head covers are admittedly a little bit different but this looks to be more of a styling tweak more than anything and I think they do help to make it look a little more retro
New 2023 BMW R12 nineT Preview: Everything You Need To Know!
than the previous gen so perhaps more in keeping with the rest of the bike but otherwise I’d expect similar performance figures of around the 110 horsepower Mark and 116 newton meters a peak torque now some of the chassis does look quite similar so you’ve got the same upside down forks as the current range topping r9t fully adjustable from the looks of this photo with the adjusters on the top of the fork there you’ve got pretty much the same four part radially mounted Brembo brakes which are well respect and absolutely up to the job for this style of motorcycle you’ve still got the paralever single-sided shaft drive swing arm spoke wheels to help with the sort of classic look and then modern Michelin Road 5 tires which are a solid all-rounder and the perfect choice for a road specific bike like this I don’t think anyone really had any complaints about the you know suspension and brakes but what does look significantly different is the new frame design now it’s still made from tubular steel but this is a completely new layout and whilst I would expect tweaks and improvements to both the ergonomics and the handling one thing I’ve always thought was a bit messy on the current gen r90 one of its major shortcomings at least aesthetically and that is important in the Retro Market is that it looks super untidy around the sort of foot pegs and the subframe and just behind the cylinder head there’s loads of tubing
going in all different directions and it doesn’t really flow that well in the same way that other Retros like the triumphs or the Kawasaki z900 RS do those bikes look a bit more cohesive to me the r90 is a little bit of a jumble in that area and so this new r1290 looks a lot more streamlined and tidy personally I see why they’ve done it and I think it’s an improvement but you do lose a little bit of that rawness and almost like custom look so let me know which you prefer down in the comments now as for the Bodywork well they’ve gone for an even more retro design here specifically citing the iconic r90s of the 1970s there’s a new tank shape and if you put them side by side you can see exactly what they mean the new r1290 is a more blocky and upright design and of course you’ve got the sort of knee pads as well which do hark back to that original the current r9t is perhaps a little bit more curvy and modern looking and also it has that air intake on the side which is a really distinctive design feature but you’ve got to say it’s not really reminiscent of BMWs of the past and so perhaps that’s why they’ve removed it also manufacturers have to make each new iteration of a motorcycle comply with the latest in emissions regulations hence why they say they’ve reworked the air intake and the exhaust system and super perhaps that’s part of the decision as well a new design that’s required them to move it under the sea
maybe it’s a little bit bigger or something like that now as such you’ve got side panels now which do look more in keeping with the Retro theme and perhaps also helps to make the whole bike look a little bit more balanced I mean the current r9t does look a bit skinny at the tail end now they’ve also shown this new prototype as a single seat setup so firstly that’s interesting because the current bike has welded on passenger pegs and so they’re permanently fixed on this new r1290 I assume will have them bolted on so they can be removed or put back on and then also you’ve got this new seat car which I think is a bit more in keeping with the fuel tank shape that’s another detail of the current generation that never quite looked right to me the seat Cal geometry doesn’t really flow with the tank it looks like an afterthought whereas the r1290 looks like the seat Carl and the tank have been designed together more than this though the thing that I really hope about this new Bodywork is that this new tank shape means that they can accommodate a fuel level sensor so that you get a fuel gauge on the clocks that for me is a massive nuisance on the current r90 I mean you can make do without it you can just use your trip meter but given your pain for the top level r90 something like 14 Grand it really feels like a fuel gauge isn’t that much to ask thing is it doesn’t look like it from this view of the clocks there’s no fuel gauge on
show but fingers crossed it’s in there somewhere if you sort of page through those LCD displays that are set into the dash now one of the common themes in the press release and press materials around this bike is that it’s going to be more modular so Dr Marcus Ram head of BMW motorrad is quoted as saying that this bike will offer an even greater degree of Freedom when it comes to customization so at the moment you can get the r9t in the pure variant the Scrambler the urban GS and also previously there was a cafe racer variant called the r9t racer so you certainly add plenty of options in terms of like what you wanted your r9t to look like but perhaps with this modular approach you’ll be able to create more combinations if all the parts are interchangeable all so let’s say you wanted a Scrambler style bike with an upright riding position but for some reason you just wanted a cafe racer seat hump then perhaps with this new approach you’ll be able to do stuff like that more easily and on the one hand BMW’s motivation is clear accessories are big money and the more they can tempt you to create your own beautiful vision of what your r9t is going to be the more they can convince you to delve into the depths of the configurator on their website print out your creation and March down to your dealer then of course the better for their revenue but on the other hand I mean you could argue it’s also good for the
customer I mean you can after all just leave the accessories catalog alone if you just want the pure riding experience for as little money as possible but if you do want to create something original with more interchangeable parts and therefore one assumes more possible combinations you’ve got more chance of or more opportunity to create something unique now one thing that Dr Marcus Ram also mentioned was new and Innovative technology this is a bit of an interesting one for me because the clocks look pretty much the same and super simple the engine is you know largely the same and quite low-tech you’ve got manually adjustable suspension the brakes look similar everything looks you know old school and retro and not massively different to the previous gen it’s the frame and the Bodywork that are the big changes and so I’m wondering what new and Innovative tech there could possibly be maybe more of their Rider raids and modes but there can’t be that much because there’s not a great deal of space to manage it on the screen I guess we’ll find out in due course but another thing that’s interesting to me from this first announcement is the way that they’ve named the bike so in their words the number 12 in the model designation refers to the engine capacity as with many models in the history of BMW motor rods such as the current r18 so yeah it seems like they’re going down this route to make
the model naming a little easier to understand and also more consistent between the bikes but also still you’ve got the 90 suffix here and so that has me wondering if they’re going to create more variants on this R12 platform perhaps something like an R12 Cruiser like a baby r18 certainly looks very interesting to me we’re expecting the full details of this bike in the launch season so November 2023 but in the meantime as always I’d love to know what you think of it down in the comments below so do let me know and also recently Tim took out the r9t Scrambler to review it for the channel a brilliant little bike so if you haven’t seen that video already I’ll link to it on the screen here give it a click give it a watch let us know what you think many thanks
