My test ride on a BMW C 600 Sport

[SOOTYGULL]

Just had a 35 mile test ride on the new BMW C 600 Sport which according to the brochure is a 647cc twin - my scooter is a Yamaha T MAX (500cc twin).

I went along unclassified roads, B roads, rural single carriage way A roads AND fast dual carriage way A roads and some town work which gave me a fair idea of how it behaves.

When I fired the BMW up it sounded like a tractor and I thought this is going to be a lumpy power delivery but I was wrong ! Once you get bowling along it doesn't feel rough at all - I don't want to say it is smooth rather it has nice instant on tap torquey delivery and it does have a sporty engine note.

Pulling on to a fast A road was a dream and round the back roads it was so keen to race between corners.

Initial impressions were that it feels smaller than the T Max - I am 5'7" and it suits me better than the T Max which if I am honest is just a tad to high for me.

The BMW is much more agile than the T Max, it feels much more like a motorbike, very planted, corners really nicely, so easy to drop it into a corner. In a word Nimble.

It has ABS brakes and when I tried them out in earnest it brought the scooter to halt quite quickly and in a dead straight line. Having said that I felt the brakes needed to be pulled back quite a bit to take affect, they didn't seem quite so instant as the T Max's.

I thought that some of the plastics seemed inferior to those on my T Max and not up to BMW standards nor what you would expect of such an expensive scooter.

Overall I enjoyed my test ride and if money was not an issue, as I said to the dealer I would like to ride it home !

HOWEVER money !!!!

The dealer was talking about it being between £9500 and £10,500 depending on spec. The one I rode had all the goodies, heated grips, heated seat (YES !), daylight running lights.

Oh yes, if you want a top box thats an extra £340 - I didn't ask if you have to buy a rack as well.

I am going to wait until I win the lottery before placing my order.

Lastly the dealer confirmed it has a Kymco engine with a with a mix of fully enclosed belt and chain drive - I am sure at the NEC show last year it had a belt open to the elements.

[rintintin]

I had a test SIT on one yesterday at the BMW dealer near Alton, and that was very nice too!
Thought it looked very solid and stylish (in an understated aggressive way.... sort of reminds me of angry wasp!).
I guess if I could easily afford it, I would have seriously considered buying one, but in reality I can't see that it's twice as good as my X10

[gn2]

The BMW has something of the emperors new clothes about it.

[johnp]

If i get the chance and find a dealer i would like to test ride the beemer as well.

[DougL]

The way you describe it's handling and engine are absolutely correct! That Kymco engine, designed by BMW, subcontracted to Kymco is a gem. I agree with you about the looks of the plastic, however, it is better screwed together than a TMAX as I discovered when I took some bits off to mount my satnav.

I wouldn't have described the engine as tractor like, more like sounding the business. It's so much nicer than the Yamaha drone. Then I'm biased, aren't I?

[tmaxrobbo]

Nice write up in MCN comparing the T Max and GT650

[SOOTYGULL]

I thought I wold get lambasted for putting up another BMW test ride post as there are at least a couple of others out there but ho hum, looks like I got away with it.

Actually it was my mate who test rode it as well who said it sounded tractor like and i couldn't think of anything else to describe it last night !

I like the sound - quite right it does sound the business and feels like it too.

I see the latest TMAX is £8699 so although £9500 is a lot of money some people might say it is only £1000 more but for that I think it really needs to be top notch in all departments.

I rate the engine as 9 out of 10 for fun factor and the rest 8 out of 10.

Chatting to the dealer, he and other dealers had ridden both versions at the launch in Spain and he said the concensus was that the C 650 GT that they all preferred the C 650 GT, for comfort and storage - they felt the engines gave the same performance !

[MrGrumpy]

Yes...tractor like?? One way of putting it! Or maybe its Harley like......! It certainly isn't smooth at low speeds, though its not vibey in use and does make a nice noise.

I'm surprised you found it better for you size wise, if you think the TMax is on the big size. The seat is distinctly higher by 20 or 30mm. I'm 5'8" or 5'9", and I never have any difficulty putting my foot on the ground on the Tmax, but I was very conscious of having to stretch my leg rather further to touch the floor with the BMW.

It does give the impression of being smaller than the TMax for some reason, but I don't think there is much in it really. The Tmax seems to convince you its a stretch limo sometimes. But the BMW is distinctly heavier.

[gn2]

designed by BMW

Bollocks.
It's more or less a copy of the MyRoad engine.

[MrGrumpy]

Its an interesting question...just how related are the 'BMW' engine and the MyRoad engine? The original impression (ie PR Spin) was that the engine was designed by BMW and merely built by Kymco, though I've come across some comments that the 'BMW' engine is in some way based on the MyRoad engine. I'd love to know more details