1996 Bmw R1100rsl Sport Touring on 2040-motos

BMW Other description

1996 Bmw R1100RSL, Darth Beemer - Great bike at an incredible price! Ready to ride with narrow City lids on the side bags, but well throw in a set of large lids for more lugage space. Two Bros exhaust sounds sweet! BMW has a reputation for building top quality touring motorcycles rather than high performance superbikes, but in recent years they have managed to bridge the gap between the two concepts. Arguably the most eye-catching of this new breed is the R1100RS. The R1100RS is a unique departure for BMW. Since the 1930s they have been building horizontally-opposed twin-cylinder machines with two valves per cylinder actuated by push-rods. But with the R1100RS the Boxer engine (as it is commonly known) has joined the latter half of the 20th Century. It is still air cooled, but the number of valves per cylinder has been doubled to four, and their camshafts are now actuated by a series of belts driven from the crankshaft. The old Bing carburettors, always a distinctive feature of the two-valve Boxer, have also been replaced - the R1100RS is the first Boxer to feature electronic fuel-injection. But if all that is a major departure, the innovative Telelever front suspension system of the R1100RS is a quantum leap into the next century for the German marque. Just as Yamaha has looked at alternative front suspension and steering systems for motorcycles, BMW has also taken the brave step of introducing their own solution to the problem. And that problem is that ideally the steering and suspension systems for a motorcycles front end should be separate and independent from each other. Traditional telescopic forks flex, the steering geometry of the machine is altered when the front brake is being used, and often much of the forks movement is taken up with braking, leaving little to deal with bumps in the road. Yamahas solution to the problem is the hub-centre-steered GTS 1000, but BMW have taken a lower-key approach. They still use a pair of telescopic forks on the R1100RS, but they deal with the steering only. The suspension is handled by a single shock absorber bolted to the headstock and actuated by a wishbone-shaped bracket that joins the forks to the chassis. In effect the forks are merely sliders that join the front wheel to the headstock, while the wishbone actuates the shock absorber. Thus the suspension and steering are separated, creating an anti-dive effect when the front brake is applied. This system is much simpler than that used by the Yamaha GTS 1000, but is no less effective. Indeed the consensus of opinion is that the BMW Telelever system is actually more effective than that of the Yamaha. Certainly the R1100RS gives more feedback to the rider, and retains the traditional look of telescopic forks - an important consideration for the normally conservative BMW buyer. But there