New BMW R 1250 RT Debuts Active Cruise Control On Motorcycles

The German brand has won a race against KTM and Ducati to roll out the system first

BMW has always been at the forefront of technology both on two wheels and four. Now, BMW Motorrad has debuted a system that has been on its cars for some time now: Active Cruise Control (ACC). The system is present on the new R 1250 RT sport tourer along with a bunch of other updates made to the bike in its transition to Euro 5 emission norms.

The updated bike sports a new ‘Eco’ riding mode and Integral ABS, a combination of ABS and CBS, as standard. There’s also a new LED headlight with cornering function, and a pretty massive 10.25” colour TFT screen with navigation capabilities.

But the party piece is the active cruise control system, which uses radar sensors on the front of the motorcycle to latch on to the vehicle ahead. Once latched on, the bike will automatically accelerate and decelerate to match the speed of the vehicle ahead, and maintain a user-specified distance at all times.

The debut of this system on the new RT means that BMW has beaten Ducati and KTM in the race to be the first bikemaker to implement Active Cruise Control. The system will be present on the upcoming Ducati Multistrada V4, and is also expected on the next KTM 1290 Super Adventure.

The 1,254cc boxer twin engine powering the Beemer continues to produce 136PS and 143Nm despite complying with stricter emission norms now. This update means that BMW can bring the new R 1250 RT to India sometime in the near future, which we expect it to do.