Fancy an S1000RR for adventure touring? BMW have the new S1000XR for you, which should be just the thing…
With the phenomenal engine they designed for the S1000RR, BMW now want to cover as many bases as possible. They unveiled the S1000R supernaked at the EICMA last year, and this year there’s the S1000XR ‘adventure sport’ machine, which wants a slice of the Ducati Multistrada’s and Aprilia Caponord 1200’s market share.
With 160bhp and 112Nm, the BMW S1000XR should be a pretty capable long-distance, high-speed touring bike that’s capable of taking the rough with the smooth. If you intend to carry a passenger, along with all her luggage, over many hundreds of kilometres, with a bit of not-too-intense off-road use thrown in for good measure, the S1000XR should be well up for it. Especially since the XR has a full suite of electronic rider aids to help you along – two riding modes (rain and road), stability control, traction control, electronic suspension adjustment and, of course, ABS.
The 2015 S1000XR gets an aluminium-alloy perimeter frame (which uses the engine as a stressed member), fully adjustable fork and shock (ESA is optional), ABS Pro (which provides optimum braking performance even under panic braking in corners, with the bike leaning over.) We’re not big fans of large adventure touring bikes – we’d much rather ride the 2015 S1000RR – but for those who fancy a bit of globe-trotting on two wheels, we suppose the S1000XR should be just fantastic.