2022 Officially "On Order"!

[Pyrrho]

Hard to believe it's been a month since it all came together.  Wondering how it's going with the new ride?

You know the phrase, "it was great while it lasted"?

A landscaping truck pulling a trailer had other ideas to that little slice of paradise I was enjoying. Put nearly 3K miles on in the first three weeks, with the accident happening on its 3 week birthday to me, almost to the hour. Scraped arm, two broken ribs, $9K in parts and $5K in labor later -- I am once again in the market for an RS. 

Insurance has worked to compensate me quickly and I'm meeting with my loan officer this weekend to apply for another. The local dealer never cancelled my original order nor took my name off of it -- and that VIN got off the assembly line last week, was picked up by the shipping carrier a few days ago on its way to the Port of Berlin. I'm not obligated to purchase it though, and there's a brand new one just like it (but oddly, with the silver belly pan of the white model which I wouldn't want) at BMW of Chicago just waiting to be ridden home.

Leaning heavily towards just waiting but concerned about how long it'll take to get here. Fortunately it wouldn't be required to be shipped through California's docks but I'm thinking I still wouldn't see it until sometime in August. Headed to the dealer just after I click send on this message to possibly get more info. Something about it being built specifically for me, fresh out of the crate, with no other human having even sat on it after having left the factory has quite a strong appeal for no rational reason. And bikes aren't about reason, they're about what impassions us beyond it.

Short review of my experience of the RS:

Difficult to separate expectation from reality as I hadn't ridden in a while nor even bothered to test ride anything else to compare it to (my heart knew what it wanted). I'm a cynical jaded old F that is very hard to impress, but aside from carrying capacity of the OEM side bags (that shelf just kills so many possibilities for stuffing larger things in there) the bike exceeded even my elevated ones. I commuted with it every day rain or shine, up early to ride a long way to work and would go out right after dinner to ride until I was too tired or sore to continue safely.

Things impressed me with how much better they were than I expected
- torque!! (pulling away from a stop in 3rd must be what Grumpy's Tracer feels like in 1st)
- motor characteristics & fueling
- brightness & effectiveness of stock headlights (which put me off getting aux lights right away, which I feel contributed to my crash)
- usability of in-dash TFT navigation

Things I had expected to kick ass and do:
- HP & torque to weight ratio - pretty easily winning all my mini street duels so far, people seem to want to race it so it's a LOT of fun
- bike controls* & electronics (love the TFT)
- keyless ride experience
- Connected Ride app's ride logging
- @ 6'4" sport seat & stock pegs provide multiple (so far) comfortable ways to ride - need to test on trips

Things that didn't impress me
- Nav VI's glacial routing performance
- can only pair BMW comm systems to bike's TFT
- * conventional turn signal control (MUCH preferred old way with left & right buttons on left & right handlebars)
- poor balance of center stand (difficult to move off it when on bike)
- carrying capacity of side cases with the shelves in there
- sound at idle (sound with baffle open under hard acceleration was better than expected but still nowhere near great)

Things removed
- RS stickers from sides (personally I'm a fan of de-badging bikes & cars; the marque should be enough)
- stock seat
- stock windscreen (thought my helmet was faulty at first, but no, there's that much buffeting from the stock windscreen)

Things added since purchased
- sport seat
- OEM alarm (will wait to see how using up the sole spare rear subframe power outlet for this will affect future expandability)
- BMW Nav VI ($450 on Craigslist)
- BMW Connected Ride cradle (it arrived the week of the accident and I never got to use it)
- BMW luggage rack & rear case (fortunately not installed on totalled bike, will be transferred to new)
- BMW bag liners
- battery harness & wireless remote for heated gear
- MRA VarioTouring windscreen (had to buy this from Hornig in Germany and air ship it because out of stock everywhere else)

Mods planned for old & new bikes
- 2x Denali D3 & 2x Denali DM aux lights, plus some additional boosting of turn signals & brakes I haven't decided on yet
- Akrapovic Ti de-catted (but still including baffle) headers & exhaust (allowing what Euro 5 restricts)
- Stage 2 Brentune w/velocity stacks (telling Euro 5 to go F itself)
- switch to Dunlop Roadsmart 4 tires (too many glowing reviews not to)

New gear
- Aerostich R3 suit (barely used and not the colors I'd pick, but for $1K off and in my exact size I sort of had to)
- Arai Signet-X helmet w/Pro Shade system (PinLock 120 & Pro Shade = my new favorite helmet ever)
- Daytona Road Star GTX boots (worth the hype & cost? so far they're great, will take years to tell though)
- Gerbing 12V heated jacket liner & Vanguard heated gloves, with dual wireless-ready controller
- Gerbing wireless fairing-mounted controller
- Alpinestars SP-2 V2 gloves (gauntlet, can already tell their quality has gone downhill from a decade ago)
- Alpinestars SMX-1 Air V2 gloves (vented short)
- Klim balaclava (can't find the BMW balaclava anywhere in stock)
- Cardo Packtalk Edge (impressive volume, quality, noise suppression -- very nice so far)
- GS-911wifi (needed it within the first few days to reset the service reminder; dirt simple but IMO overpriced)

... well. Motorcycling is certainly a black hole of money. What am I gonna do, take it with me?
More to follow I'm sure...

[Grumpy Goat]

Hard to believe it's been a month since it all came together.  Wondering how it's going with the new ride?

You know the phrase, "it was great while it lasted"?

A landscaping truck pulling a trailer had other ideas to that little slice of paradise I was enjoying. Put nearly 3K miles on in the first three weeks, with the accident happening on its 3 week birthday to me, almost to the hour. Scraped arm, two broken ribs, $9K in parts and $5K in labor later -- I am once again in the market for an RS. 
....

When I first say the post after reading the above first paragraph, I quickly scrolled to the bottom to see if you were kidding ...!!! WOW!

Glad to hear that you are not too badly hurt and that there is a chance of getting the new bike after all.

[Podman]

Well Craig glad to see you did not fair too bad. I found your post interesting because I had a similar past experience 9 months ago. This past August (2021) I picked up a 2021 R1250RT trading in a S1000XR. 2 1/2 weeks later I was riding home from a 3 day bike trip joining my nephew in Maggie Valley, N.C. About 18 miles from home a car came up and was passing me in the lane to the left of me. As his rear bumper was in line with my left cylinder he proceeded to cut across into my lane and keep going. I don't know if he was drunk, stoned or texting. The front of my bike literally exploded off from the impact and sent me supermanning down the highway at about 70 mph. The bike veered off the road into a guardrail. I was able to get up after sliding for some distance and literally had to stop traffic so I could walk off to the side of the road. Never found the guy-a true hit and skip. Bike was obviously totaled and that's how I ended up with a 2021 r1250RS. I have been riding a long time including multiple trips to Europe, out west and way northeast. I have ridden in all kinds of conditions, have taken multiple safety courses over the years and practice practice practice. Blindsided by this one is an understatement. Biggest help post accident was talking to a motorcycle cop about it.

[ESquared]

An couple of chilling stories, thanks for sharing. So great to hear you both got through it, and even better to know that you have both been able to get back in the saddle.

Craig, hope you can sort things out with your dealer on the inbound unit that still has your name on it. That's what I'd do.
In terms of the lead time for delivery, here are the key dates I documented on my RS's journey from the Old Country to KC.
Departed Bremerhaven 2/17/22
Arrived NYC port 3/10 (boat spent a few days in port in France on the way, and sat for 2-3 days awaiting a berth once it got to the port of NY/NJ)
Arrived @ dealer ~3/28 (over a week from port arrival to customs clearance, then another week or so from Easton (PA) to dealer
Delivered 4/2.

So, +/- six weeks makes your estimate of August delivery a reasonable one.

Best of luck working through the options and keep us posted on the progress!

Glad to hear you're okay.

[Pyrrho]

Visited dealer last night and looked up that VIN with my name on it again. It's been assigned a shipping container # but that # isn't showing up on any searches so I'm assuming that means it hasn't been put on a boat? I dunno. What container search sites have you guys used?

[ESquared]

Visited dealer last night and looked up that VIN with my name on it again. It's been assigned a shipping container # but that # isn't showing up on any searches so I'm assuming that means it hasn't been put on a boat? I dunno. What container search sites have you guys used?

Try this; it's the one I used throughout.

https://www.searates.com/container/tracking/

[Pyrrho]

Searates showed the container empty & parked in the Port of Berlin and then yesterday, would display only "no data" regarding it. Looked up the carrier who was the registered owner of the container, then their website's container tracker, to see the container ship isn't scheduled to depart for two more weeks and the container will be in NYC on Aug 4th... and then not to Milwaukee until when, two more weeks after that?

CycleTrader is showing two storm black RSes in Premium trim, both brand now, both in stock and within a train ride there and a bike ride back. It's still going to be a couple more weeks before my ribs are healed enough to ride every day again, but I could certainly get a bike home if I babied both of us and the weather cooperated. Do I want to wait another 6-to-8 weeks at this point?

[maxredline]

Officially on order .2
Bummer

[Pyrrho]

Latest update -- I've committed myself to the bike I originally ordered. I have to, as all the other new storm black metallic RSes in Premium available nationwide have been sold. My ship has sailed, so to speak, both figuratively and literally... the CMA-CGM Tosca it was loaded on has left Berlin, now scheduled to arrive a week later than originally forecast, on Aug 10 at NYC.

With my luck so far with bikes this year there will be a trucking strike and it'll be snowing when it arrives in Milwaukee. C'est la vie -- that just means I'll appreciate when I get it all that much more. I had my practice RS... this will be the real, and hopefully much longer-lived one.

[ESquared]

Sounds like some things are just meant to be, so Congrats on having it all sorted out. With the boat on the water, now you're just subject to getting a berth in NYC, customs, etc.

Best wishes for a speedy process from here on out, and keep us posted!

[Pyrrho]

CGM Tosca docked in NYC a few hours ago but now I can't track the container any longer. What was that business about tracking via last digits of the VIN? Where do I need to go to continue tracking at this point?

[Lee]

CGM Tosca docked in NYC a few hours ago but now I can't track the container any longer. What was that business about tracking via last digits of the VIN? Where do I need to go to continue tracking at this point?

Here's the last part of my tracking notes from last fall.
---

Unloaded from ship Sep 29th
The container tracking site had no new info for a few days
Oct 4 a local trucking company picked up the container and I could now see it on the DHL site https://dhli.dhl.com/dhli-client/publicTracking?1
On the DHL site I select Customer Ref Number and entered the last 7 digits of the VIN (Use Caps)
Same day, Oct 4 the container arrived at the distribution center, Easton, Pa.
The container was unloaded and on Oct 5 and our bikes are on the way to a airport.
ETA for arriving in KC is Monday Oct 11th.
Tracking shows the bikes were flown to Kansas City and arrived at airport Oct 7th.
Kansas City dealer received bikes Oct 12, seven weeks after production.

[Pyrrho]

CGM Tosca docked in NYC a few hours ago but now I can't track the container any longer. What was that business about tracking via last digits of the VIN? Where do I need to go to continue tracking at this point?

Here's the last part of my tracking notes from last fall.

Something happened to your formatting, but I was able to copy and paste into a local text editor so I still got everything -- thank you. Yes, that was exactly what I was looking for. I'll need the VIN next it seems so I can start tracking w/DHL. Boat was at anchor since Saturday morning about 5 mi southeast of the port, waiting for a berth, and was finally tugged into a spot today. Sounds like maybe it could be here by end of August? Dunno.

[Lee]

CGM Tosca docked in NYC a few hours ago but now I can't track the container any longer. What was that business about tracking via last digits of the VIN? Where do I need to go to continue tracking at this point?

Here's the last part of my tracking notes from last fall.

Something happened to your formatting, but I was able to copy and paste into a local text editor so I still got everything -- thank you. Yes, that was exactly what I was looking for. I'll need the VIN next it seems so I can start tracking w/DHL. Boat was at anchor since Saturday morning about 5 mi southeast of the port, waiting for a berth, and was finally tugged into a spot today. Sounds like maybe it could be here by end of August? Dunno.

I thought I had deleted my post when I saw my copy and paste did not work.
I'm not able to copy and paste any part of a word document here.

I don't remember how much of my document I copied but I had to wait 5 days or so before the bikes cleared customs and I could see them on the DHL site.

[Grumpy Goat]

I thought I had deleted my post when I saw my copy and paste did not work.
I'm not able to copy and paste any part of a word document here.

To copy from MS Word and then paste here you have to use Ctrl+Shift+V, i.e. paste as plain text. When you do a straight copy-paste you are also pasting Word formatting codes which are not compatible with HTML.

I fixed the post.

[Lee]

I thought I had deleted my post when I saw my copy and paste did not work.
I'm not able to copy and paste any part of a word document here.

To copy from MS Word and then paste here you have to use Ctrl+Shift+V, i.e. paste as plain text. When you do a straight copy-paste you are also pasting Word formatting codes which are not compatible with HTML.

I fixed the post.

Any tips on improving my memory

[Grumpy Goat]

Any tips on improving my memory

Hahah ... writing things down is cheaper than Prevagen which I was shocked to see is like $50 for a month's supply ... Just gotta remember where you wrote it.

[Pyrrho]

Have a VIN and a copy of a vehicle inquiry form from BMW for the bike. Although it was unloaded from the boat last week its status as of yesterday afternoon was "in transit to VPC", and I don't think I can start tracking it further until it leaves the VPC, and that likely won't be until next week. Dealer is saying they haven't been receiving bikes via DHL lately but at this point I don't trust much of what they say regarding delivery of anything.

[ESquared]

Have a VIN and a copy of a vehicle inquiry form from BMW for the bike. Although it was unloaded from the boat last week its status as of yesterday afternoon was "in transit to VPC", and I don't think I can start tracking it further until it leaves the VPC, and that likely won't be until next week. Dealer is saying they haven't been receiving bikes via DHL lately but at this point I don't trust much of what they say regarding delivery of anything.

Sounds like it's still in Customs limbo (aka "the dark side of the moon"), so there's not a lot of visibility.  As I recall, the shop didn't have a lot of knowledge, either, until it just suddenly shows up "in inventory" on the dealer's books, meaning it's on whatever truck will be delivering it, which isn't something the dealer controls.  In other words, the dealer knows just about everything that you know, which is very little.  The good news is, it WILL pop up, and the dealer is just as eager as you are to see delivery completed.

Keep the faith!

[Pyrrho]

So I called BMW NA yesterday and gave them my VIN. They provided me the same container # as the dealer, but said the bike is still in Germany waiting to be put in it. Just got off the phone with my dealer and they're "looking into it" and I'll be talking to the GM tomorrow when he's back in.