What were they thinking with the R1200RS (and R) dash?

[Bill_Walker]

I test rode an R1200RS the other day. Great motor, great handling, riding position a little too extreme (more so than the F800GT service loaner I had) but probably fixable, but who the hell designed that dashboard?

 

It has a nice, big analog speedo. With the origin at about 3:30 o'clock, winding clockwise, so the numbers you need to see when you most need to see the numbers, i.e., the ones that are common speed limits, are at the bottom of the dial, as far from your line of vision as possible. On top of that, the numbers are too small to easily read.

 

And the dim LCD bar-graph tach is almost impossible to see because of the glare on the glass (or plastic) face of the display.

 

Nice bike otherwise. I could get into a lot of trouble on it. But I'd need bar risers (helibars has 'em already) and (surprise!) a different seat. And to convince myself to spend the money. I've gotten too rational about my motorcycle purchases.

[moshe_levy]

I rode it - agree with everything you said, except for applying rational thought to motorcycle purchases.

 

-MKL

[lkraus]

I can see how the speedometer would require some mental adjustment. The display can be reconfigured a bit for a digital speed readout in

"touring view" - that might be easier to read.

 

But then you lose the tach readout.

 

Which, being a horizontal bar, is hard to read at a glance.

 

Yeah, poor design.

 

[Bill_Walker]

Yeah, since it was just a half-hour demo ride, I didn't try to figure out how to change the display to other modes.

 

I see from your photo that my memory of the exact layout of the speedo was slightly faulty (it starts closer to 6 o'clock than 3). But the important numbers are still at the bottom.

[RichardSpag]

Come to Europe and you'd see that all the important numbers are actually at the top! LOL

 

Only joking

 

Cheers

 

Richard

[Ralphie]

This is the trend with the "naked", standard or minimalist bikes. They are all going to the analog tach and a bunch of other information in a smaller box which can be customized to your viewing pleasure. I greatly prefer the traditional speedo and tach where the customizeable screen that has other information is separate from the speedo and tach.

 

For the near future I think this newer style will be around. Whether it is a design or cost issue most manufacturers are taking this path. I'm glad we don't have to deal with it on the RT and even more appreciative that our information screen has different colors to make it easier to distinguish the information on the screen.