By Dave Abrahams
Spandau, Berlin - BMW claims to have invented the sports-tourer segment with the 1976 R100 RS - the first production bike with a frame-mounted full fairing developed in a wind tunnel.
Whether or not that's true, ever since then the model designation RS has, in Beemerspeak, denoted a genuine Gran Turismo motorcycle, designed for covering long distances on unstraight tar at impressive point-to-point speeds.
Now the Blue Propeller Boykies have brought the concept right up to date by putting the liquid-cooled flat-twin engine of the current R1200 GelandeScooter in a specially-developed tubular-steel bridge frame, with state-of-the-art upside-downies instead of BMW's own Telelever front end and Evo Paralever rear suspension, and accommodation for you and your +1 behind a crisp-edged half fairing that derives its design language from the S1000RR superbike.
For this application the 1170cc twin-cam boxer has a modified air-box and reshaped air-intake snorkels, and breathes out through a two-into one auspuff that ends in a dramatically uptilted rear silencer.
It's rated for 92kW at 7750 revs and 125Nm at 6500rpm, but with slightly more bottom-end torque than the GS and its RT full-dress cousin.
GIZMOTRONIX
BMW has reversed the current trend towards ever-more-complex TFT digital instrumentation with the rev-counter the only analogue display (there is a very human reason why bar-graph rev counters don't work - ask any racer).
The RS has a big, beautifully legible analogue speedometer on the left and a bar-graph rev-counter across the top of the inset TFT panel, on the premise (incorrect, as it turns out) that long-haul riders have time to look down at the instrument panel before deciding whether or not to change gears.
The new RS also comes standard with ABS and auto stability control to keep the front wheel in at least some sort of casual contact with the road under hard acceleration, as well as two riding modes - 'Road' and 'Rain' - which do exactly what their names suggest.
An optional Riding Mode Pro feature adds traction control with tilt-sensing and two more riding modes - 'Dynamic' and 'User' - to its electronic repertoire.
Also available as an extra-cost option is electronic suspension adjustment, with two damper modes - 'Road' and 'Dynamic' - neither of which is a setting but rather a set of parameters, as the suspension adapts automatically to the load, speed, the amplitude and frequency of wheel movement and the rate of change of the throttle and tilt-switch positions - in other word, the harder you ride, the more damping you get.
MAKING A STATEMENT
The R1200 RS's half fairing and adjustable screen are set a little more upright than we are used to on sports machinery, something stylists have learned from dual-purpose bikes, in particular the orange ones from Austria.
The twin headlights (which, by the way, have different internals in identical housings, to keep up the BMW tradition of asymmetrical styling) are set low in the modern street/sport idiom, while the tailpiece is tilted up to lend a sporty 'wedge' effect to the bike's profile.
To push that design language a little further, the RS is available in two finishes: a classic metallic blue over light metallic grey, or the 'Style 2' variant in several shades of dark grey metallic matt.
Also available on a long, long list of optional extras are an electronic quick-shifter, a rear carrier, a custom tank bag, and hard panniers and top box in black or grey.
The BMW R1200RS will be released in South Africa in May 2015; prices, as always, when they get here.