My new 2018 RT

[bendbill]

On Saturday, I picked up my "used" 2018--with 3 miles on the odometer--in Eugene, OR, and rode over the Cascades to Bend, a rare weather opening for late January.  Other loves of my life were there to celebrate with me. Previous owner, who never put a 4th mile on the bike in his month of ownership, added the protective covering seen in last 3 pics.  At first I didn't like it, but now I do.

 

My initial reactions, not having ridden an RT since my 1150 in 2007:

 

cons: hard seat; a pain to wash with all the nooks and crannies;   [ petty stuff, but all for now]

 

raves: WOW and Yippee!  what a smooth shifting machine; silky light clutch pull; mellow sound [ between a baritone and tenor] from the Akrapovic exhaust.  Feather light handling-- larger than my Honda ST 1300, yet  107 lbs lighter.   Cam, who followed me home,  noted that the brakelights  and taillights are bright.

 

What a refined machine.  This is going to be super cool

[AnotherLee]

A beauty!

[wbw6cos]

"Used with 3 miles on it?"  That is brand new!  My new RT came with 8 miles on it due to the pre-delivery ride check.   But the used portion is from title only, so you get to break it in.

 

Congrats!!

[Bernie]

Congrats on your new RT. Many happy miles.

There is a lot to learn and figure out on these new RT’s.

As for the seat, be patient and give it a few miles to settle in, after 19+ K miles I can tell you the stock seat on the 2018 RT is as comfortable as my Sargent seat on my 2007 RT was.

 

[strataj]

Congratulations!

 

Enjoy the ride and be safe

 

Jay

[Pickaxe]

2 hours ago, Bernie said:

Congrats on your new RT. Many happy miles.

There is a lot to learn and figure out on these new RT’s.

As for the seat, be patient and give it a few miles to settle in, after 19+ K miles I can tell you the stock seat on the 2018 RT is as comfortable as my Sargent seat on my 2007 RT was.

 

+1 regarding the seat

[TEWKS]

Looks like three happy customers to me. Heck, even the little one has the perfect sit-up & beg riding position mastered!  I like the carbon cover protectors.

 

Pat

[Paul De]

Nice ride!

 

Hehehe -you'll find you want to be naughty on this version of the RT way more than you did on your 1150.  After it is broken in and you wack open the fun dial your going to be happily surprised it isn't you daddy's RT

 

[jimmyd]

+1 on the seat.

[bendbill]

Thanks for the notes to break in the seat.  I will give it time.

 

And I really want the break-in period to be over--I made it worse by keeping it under 4K all the way home, and later finding out I could have gone up to 5K

[Cap]

8 hours ago, BendBill said:

Thanks for the notes to break in the seat.  I will give it time.

 

I bought my 2017 RTW in St. Louis, and rode it home to Colorado.  The previous owner of my RTW had installed the "comfort" seat from BMW.  I had 900 miles or so to think about the ergos and make lists of things I wanted to change.  And by the time I made it home, I had decided the that first thing to be replaced was the seat.  I love Russells, but I didn't want to wait several months.  So I bought a Sargent, and have come to really like it.  I use an Alaska sheepskin on it, and unlike the stock seat, I can ride all day without discomfort.  

 

As an aside, seat comfort is very subjective.  There is some science suggesting that a key metric is the distance between your ischium (the bones in your pelvis that you can feel in your butt cheeks).  In my case, I discovered that I have an atypically wide ischium dimension.  That means I have a fat ass.    The consequence is that OEM saddles are torture devices for me.  So, one thing that might help you decide if changing a saddle is worth the money is to measure your ischium dimension, and compare it to the averages.

[AndyS]

45 minutes ago, Cap said:

 

... The previous owner of my RTW had installed the "comfort" seat from BMW. .

 

 

What comfort seat? I don't think they make one for the Wetheads.

[Rob Nowell]

I am with you.  Having switched from a 2000 to a 2016, the difference is night and day.  I also agree that the seat is ridiculously hard.  I kept my old Airhawk and love it.

[Cap]

12 hours ago, AndyS said:

 

 

What comfort seat? I don't think they make one for the Wetheads.

Hey Andy,

 

I can only vouch for what I was told.  The part number on the seat I removed is 52 53 8 544 792

[AndyS]

That is not a comfort seat. That is a 'high' seat. The seats are available in low, normal and high.

However, the 'high' seat may be more comfortable...i've never tried it.

[Pickaxe]

I can only presume that to lower the seat height they remove foam and therefore the high seat in theory may be more comfortable?

[AndyS]

Possible true. But in theory there is plenty of foam in the 'standard' seat, but is still felt like a brick.

However, there may be some truth in them softening up over time, because I think my older 1200 Wethead seat was softer than the identical seat on the 1250 that I test rode!

[Cap]

4 hours ago, AndyS said:

Possible true. But in theory there is plenty of foam in the 'standard' seat, but is still felt like a brick.

 

This "tall" seat feels like a brick to me, too.  A heated brick, but still a brick.

[old_farmer]

Congratulations. I ran the stock seat on my 2017 for about 6k miles, then switched it out for a Sargent standard height. It's not perfect, but better than stock. Your results may vary.

[Paul De]

12 hours ago, old_farmer said:

Congratulations. I ran the stock seat on my 2017 for about 6k miles, then switched it out for a Sargent standard height. It's not perfect, but better than stock. Your results may vary.

+1 

 

The person who designed the comfortable saddles for BMW retired decades ago, the person who designs them now is an accomplished  industrial designer as the OEM saddle looks great, but they must not ride these bikes as comfort isn't even third on the design goal list

 

My  < 45 year old butt was tougher and could deal with uncomfortable saddles easier, but now if the pressure points aren't well distributed my left sciatic nerve will scream foul soon enough!

 

The mass custom Sargent saddle retains the nice stock lines fairly well and more than doubles my saddle time before a streatch out is needed.  My Day Long Russel on my '99 was Barcalounger comfortable...and sort of looked the part too!

[TEWKS]

Sargent is a good choice for the RT, IMO. 

 

Pat

[mileypop]

I've put Sargent seats on both my '14 LC & 17LC. Much better than stock.

[Motobricker]

First thing I did with my 2018 RT was go see Mr. Ed's Moto in Albany Oregon to get a new seat.  That thing is a pain for sure, and it doesn't get better.  Only took me two weeks to get it done!  Go see him, even if you have to trailer it over.  

 

Bob

[bendbill]

Thanks,  Bob.  I'll contact Mr. Ed's.  Seems a great price for a custom fitting, and it's just back over the hill.

[JamesW]

Russell Day Long (RDL)

[wbw6cos]

On 2/2/2019 at 10:07 AM, TEWKS said:

Sargent is a good choice for the RT, IMO. 

 

Pat

That blue trim on the seat looks good.

[TEWKS]

Thanks William, it's a pretty close match to the blue on the roundel.

[JoeTS185]

Bill,

Any idea what brand of protective pieces are on the bike? I can't decide if I want to go clear, like 3M or Tankslappers or black,

 

Joe

[bendbill]

10 hours ago, JoeTS185 said:

Bill,

Any idea what brand of protective pieces are on the bike? I can't decide if I want to go clear, like 3M or Tankslappers or black,

 

Joe

Sorry, Joe, but I do not know.  Neither did the sales guys, as the previous owner installed it

bill

[JoeTS185]

Thanks Bill. I will keep looking around.

 

Joe

[RTnger]

On 1/28/2019 at 7:27 PM, BendBill said:

On Saturday, I picked up my "used" 2018--with 3 miles on the odometer--in Eugene, OR, and rode over the Cascades to Bend, a rare weather opening for late January.  Other loves of my life were there to celebrate with me. Previous owner, who never put a 4th mile on the bike in his month of ownership, added the protective covering seen in last 3 pics.  At first I didn't like it, but now I do.

 

My initial reactions, not having ridden an RT since my 1150 in 2007:

 

cons: hard seat; a pain to wash with all the nooks and crannies;   [ petty stuff, but all for now]

 

raves: WOW and Yippee!  what a smooth shifting machine; silky light clutch pull; mellow sound [ between a baritone and tenor] from the Akrapovic exhaust.  Feather light handling-- larger than my Honda ST 1300, yet  107 lbs lighter.   Cam, who followed me home,  noted that the brakelights  and taillights are bright.

 

What a refined machine.  This is going to be super cool

 

 

 

 

I am with you kid!! the 2018 RT is my fourth RT and I say it is the best bike I ever owned (and that includes FJR, C-14, Trophy, GL/s). I also had a GT at one point which wasn't nearly as reliable as any of my RT/s

[Red]

Yessir.  I got an 18 last Feb and have really enjoyed it.  Less weight, more power, and handling is OMG great.  The NAV system still has me confused and sometimes lost but I always pack paper maps.  they saved me on the way to Des Moines rally last year.  The seat.  Well it just really amazes me how a 23K motorcycle comes with a $0.10 seat.  After a few thousand miles I went after market.  Ewe will like this bike.

[RTinNC]

On 3/9/2019 at 12:18 PM, RTnger said:

 

 

 

 

I am with you kid!! the 2018 RT is my fourth RT and I say it is the best bike I ever owned (and that includes FJR, C-14, Trophy, GL/s). I also had a GT at one point which wasn't nearly as reliable as any of my RT/s

 

Did you custom cut that carbon fiber trim or buy it pre-cut.  It looks slick 

[bendbill]

15 hours ago, RTinNC said:

 

Did you custom cut that carbon fiber trim or buy it pre-cut.  It looks slick 

The original owner had it done.  No one knows the brand.  I also liked it once I saw it in person.  It is precisely trimmed.

 

OTOH, I did not like the roundels--see pre-sale pic below--and removed them, as well as the lic plate frame.  I prefer minimalism, I guess.

[AndyS]

Wow, those roundels do make the back end look cheap.

[TEWKS]

Good taste in removing the bad taste.  Sometimes that "just one more thing" gets you in trouble.

[Paul De]

I've seen a number of single roundels on the rear fender below the license plate and that doesn't look bad, particularly if you aren't running an OEM top box which has a rear facing roundel.  But agree that having two rear facing roundels on the panniers, while unique, does not strike me as twice as nice.  Now, if they flashed with the turn signals....Umm-No

[Pappy35]

Those two roundels are bragging. <switch to snooty Judge Smails voice> "Well yes, it is a BMW. If you have to ask how much it cost you can't afford one but maybe someday you'll be able to get a used one...Mmmyesss...." 

 

PS - I bought mine used. Haha...

 

First thing I did after parking my bike in the garage for the first time was pitch the license plate frame. They want advertising they can rent the space. 8-)

[RTinNC]

Agree ... you really CAN have too many roundels!   Good move removing them