Goodbye to the BMW F800R and welcome to the BMW F900XR TE.

I wrote last week that it was time for me to say goodbye to the excellent BMW F800R roadster that I have had for the last three years or so.

In my last post I mentioned I made three trips to Ireland on it and two or three to Scotland.

You will know if you have read that post that I thought the F800 was a pretty understated but pretty decent bike. A parallel twin isn’t ever going to be a desirable engine configuration for all, but I found I really enjoyed it. I found for the sort of riding I do these days it was pretty much ideal. But when it’s time for  change it’s time for a change and that’s what has just happened and I traded the F800R for an F900 XR TE.

Time for a change.

The picture alongside these words isn’t one of mine – it’s from the motofommo web site.  The site that has reviews, guides, technical articles etc and was one of the sites  I used to inform my opinion of the F900.

There’s a detailed review of the bike here. Although the bike in the picture isn’t mine, the one I bought is identical in colour.

Aside from reading online reviews I had looked at the F900 quite a few times over the last couple of years. It sort of felt for quite a while that it would be an ideal bike to change to and to have in the garage alongside my Moto Guzzi V7 and BMW RnineT.

One downside was that the bike felt a little too tall for me, whereas the roadster variant – the F900R is lower set and allowed me to get a firmer feel of my feet on the ground.

Stroke of luck

But as good fortune would have it and whilst sort of randomly browsing around the web, I found a used model, remarkably with just 215 miles on!

The bike was specified in the TE variant with cruise control, quick shifter etc etc- and best of all (for me) was that this was the low version.

Bottom line was that my wife and went to have a look and over the next day or two agreed a deal that I was happy with. I picked it up last week, and having had no rain for what seemed like an age it of course rained on the day I picked it up.

Decent dealership

I bought the bike from Hunts in Manchester, a dealer that had been around longer than I can remember and who I have always found easy to deal with. They were a Honda main dealer for many years but in recent times have shifted to being a Yamaha main dealer.

I’ve had a couple of bikes off them in the past – a Honda CBR Fireblade RR9 and a CB 1000R, both of which were excellent bikes.

There’s some pictures of the Fireblade in this blog post (scroll down the picture set) and of the white CB1000R in this post (scroll down the picture set). As an aside it was the CB1000R that I did a lap of the Nurburgring on.

Where’s the first trip then on the F900?

I’ve only had the bike a week, and a combination of circumstances and other commitments have meant that although I’ve been able to do a few things to the bike it hasn’t included the time to ride it. But that will soon be remedied as I’ve got a trip lined up that’s going to take in a few of my favourite places.

The trip will provide a real opportunity to see what the bike is like and how it compares to the very decent but understated F800R that went before it and already Im really looking forward to it.

Picture Gallery 1

I’ll write more in the coming days especially about the sat nave and luggage route I have gone down.

In the meantime clicking on any of the images below will open a picture gallery that can be clicked or scrolled through. These were taken on my first ride … and of course being my first ride on this bike it rained most of the time I was out.