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I have a 2011 R1200RT Hexhead.
I may be biased, because I've had 4 hexheads and 5 camheads and only 1 waterboxer. However, my current ride is still a camhead and I think it will probably be so for a long time. Talking the RT specifically (it's my preferred ride), here's a summary of the major differences to me (the one I had was a 2016 for reference):
Water cooled good:
- More power
- Quick shifter
- Cheaper clutch job
- Feels lower to the ground and has the usual great RT handling
- Stereo is not great, but better than previous versions
- Electronic gadgets are nice when everything works (central locking, ASC is smooth)
Water cooled bad:
- Heavier and wider
- Shorter clutch engagement (felt like more work when doing drills/low speed)
- Many functions now buried in menus rather than having separate buttons (you can choose one thing to be a favorite at least)
- With the E-throttle comes the infamous limp mode, that left me limping on the side of the road on several occasions until I could get to a dealer (they never figured out what caused it, just reset the software and it would work again for a while)
- More involved maintenance and a water system to worry about
Camhead good:
- Lighter, more narrow, feels smaller than the new RT
- Dry clutch lasts a long time and feels better for low speed clutch work (at least to me, and I spend a lot of time teaching in a parking lot with it)
- Super easy maintenance
- Incredible value buying used now. We just bought another 2011 RT for my wife for $6200 today. Hard to beat that.
- I think they look better than the newer gen
Camhead bad:
- Dry clutch is a bear to change and costs close to $3k to have a dealer do it. I just paid the 3k when mine went at 96k miles
- Noticeably less power than the water cooled bikes
- Stereo is garbage
Well, you know what I chose. There are upsides and downsides to everything
Boy, there's a lot of stuff here that I have issues with, but I'll pick just one.On my Camhead, I can activate heated grips and seats with at hand switches. I see only negatives in being forced to do this via a screen menu. Not while moving for sure.
My Camhead features the best tank bag in the history of tank bags. BMW foolishly eliminated this with wetheads.
Wetheads feature radiator hot air blowing on driver. Camhead oil cooler doesn't.
Wetheads have water pumps that leak.
Good luck working on a Wethead alternator
General stuff ...
RT riders need to understand that BMW considers its primary customer the Police. Police service is severe and clutches suffer. The change to wet clutches was to please the Police market, as indeed wet clutch service is easier and less expensive. I've never had clutch problems with any dry clutch BMW I've owned since 1978.
Wetheads are in fact smaller bikes than Camheads ... there are now more and more female Police officers.
The stereo system on my Camhead is perfect. Of course I connect to mine with BMW Communicator, not some aftermarket system.
The best thing to be said about Wetheads imho is improvement in safety systems, meaning mostly traction control. I think the latest even have control during lean. LED lighting on very latest must be good. The worst thing? TFT dash. Don't need quick shift, have lived without hill hold, despise central locking and keyless.
"Wetheads feature radiator hot air blowing on driver."
No it doesn't.