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BMW R1200RT

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A reports by BMW Motorcycle Magazine has described what BMW Motorrad USA is offering owners who were affected by the “Do Not Ride” order regarding the BMW R1200RT.

For those that don’t remember BMW Motorrad issued a worldwide statement regarding the 2014 BMW R1200RT, saying that models of the touring bike that were equipped with the Dynamic ESA suspension should not be ridden, as a BMW supplier alerted the German brand that the rear suspension had a defect, which could cause catastrophic failure.

BMW Motorrad hasn’t intimated when a solution could be coming for the affected R1200RT owners, though rumors are a date in August or September. To compensate American riders for this downtime, BMW Motorrad USA has put together three options for RT owners.

BMW Motorrad has released a worldwide notification about a potentially dangerous suspension situation, which affects the 2014 BMW R1200RT.

Concerned about the safety regarding the Dynamic ESA electronic suspension package, BMW Motorrad says that there is a potential defect with the system’s rear spring strut.

Since the German motorcycle manufacturer cannot rule that the piston rod could potentially break, BMW Motorrad is advising 2014 R1200RT owners not to ride their motorcycles until further notice.

BMW Motorrad insists that this is a precautionary measure, which the comopany is making in the interests of customer safety, and based on a supplier report.

A big announcement at EICMA that we have seen coming down the pipe since the latest generation of the BMW R1200GS broke cover, the 2014 BMW R1200RT is the next logical step of progression in BMW Motorrad’s push to bring a “precision-cooled” water-cooled boxer-twin to its R-series of motorbike.

The new BMW R1200RT uses a basic formula for its philosophy: take BMW’s already proven touring package, and update it with the company’s latest technologies, while giving a mild facelift in the process. In many ways the 2014 BMW R1200RT feels like previous generations, and in many ways it is not.

News that BMW will be coming out with a water-cooled replacement of its current R1200RT is really nothing new. Since the debut of the new BMW R1200GS, and its precision water-cooled motor, it has seemed like only a matter of time before the BMW’s next-generation boxer engine made its way into the German company’s other models.

We have already seen the 2014 BMW R1200RT strutting its stuff in camouflage before, but those photos were small and blurry — really just enough to give us an idea of what we were looking at, and nothing more. This is not the case today however, as a German blogger has been fortunate enough to catch what he calls the BMW R1200GTt out in the wild, and has included a 1080p walk-around to prove it.

With the water-cooled BMW R1200GS official debuted and soon to be released for the 2013 model year, it was only a matter of time before we saw the same “precision liquid-cooled” version of the BMW R1200RT make its spy shot debut.

Coming to us in a very blurry form, a blogger at the french publication MotoMag caught the 2014 BMW R1200RT out for a spring time jaunt in the South of France.

Heavily disguised in camouflage, it is hard to understand how far zie Germans have strayed from the old model’s lines, though we hope that the touring machine gets as much of an overhaul as the Gelände Straße.

To our eyes, the fairings look physically much larger, and it looks like the headlights could be borrowed from the KT1600GT platform. More photos after the jump, call out any other changes you might see.

We already told you that 2011 was BMW Motorrad’s best sales year ever, and that the BMW S1000RR topped the Bavarian brand’s charts here in the United States. Zie Germans must be feeling rather pleases with themselves right now (and rightfully so), as BMW has released more details about its all-time motorcycle sales record. Pushing out 104,286 units in 2011, BMW Motorrad was up 6.4% in 2011 over 2010, with each of the 2011’s twelve months outselling its 2010 counterpart. Toppling its previous sales record from 2007 (the height of the world economy), it says something about BMW’s current business strategy that it can best that figure in an economy that is still exceedingly weak in comparison.

It is interesting to note in which markets, and in which segments, BMW is finding this growth, because the answers are not necessarily our usual suspects. Basically doubling its worldwide 500+cc market share over the past four years, BMW now accounts for 12% of the worlds “big” displacement motorcycles by units sold per annum. This goes counter to the trend that we’ve seen, where small-displacement are being cast as the sales leaders for large brands (namely the Japanese Four).

BMW Motorrad has announced that it is recalling over 122,000 motorcycles worldwide for a potentially leaking front brake. The recall seems to only affect K1200GT, R1200R, R1200RT, R1200ST, R1200GS, and R1200GS Adventure motorcycles that were manufactured between August 2006 and May 2009.

Of these bikes, only ~100 units have been found to have the reported brake leak, but BMW isn’t taking chances with the other roughly 121,900 motorcycles that are out on the raod, and is ordering a worldwide recall on the potentially afftected models.

Just like the 2010 BMW R1200GS series, the 2010 BMW R1200RT features BMW’s new 1,170cc flat-boxer motor with a DOHC head arrangement. This also means that the RT will make more power across the power band, with peak power making 5hp 3lb•ft more over last year’s model. Unlike the GS though, the RT comes along with more than just a new motor. More on that with photos after the jump.