My smile is a mile wide today… I’m not on a test bike, I’m not on the latest retro or even a well-prepared reader’s core classic, I’m on my own BMW R1150 RT boxer twin tourer and all is right with the world.
It’s one of those days when you ask yourself: ‘Do I need any more than this?’ The bike at best probably owes me £2500 tops but is as ready to hit the road and cover continents as it was 20 years ago. And with just over 30,000 miles on the very analogue clocks, it’s barely even run in.
This is my ‘second’ 1150 RT. I say that in inverted commas, because my time with the model goes back to February 2001 and the launch of the bike, which was launched alongside the 1150 R naked roadster and the dull ‘revised’ four-cylinder K1200 RS. We rode all three from the UK, through France from north to south and back again. It was a great trip and one that proved to me that (at the time) the Boxer twin-powered BMW tourers kicked the backsides of the-then yawn-inducing four cylinder ones…
Taking the proven formula of 1996’s 1100 RT (60,000 sold up until the end of 2000),
