The RT is an imposing machine, standing high and wide with the front dominated by the fairing and twin headlights, oil-cooler, air-intake nostrils and height-adjustable screen.

It’s a great look in this day and age to see a pair of large finned lumps of engine defiantly breaking free from the plastic wrap to grab the essential flow of cooling air. A pair of curving, attractively blued exhaust pipes completes the impressive front view.

The sweep from the serious 27lt touring tank through the seat to the neat luggage rack at the tail is smooth and attractive. The hard panniers are well integrated with the bike’s overall shape.

As mentioned, our test bike came in ‘SE’ guise, with a chrome exhaust, Electronic Suspension Adjustment (ESA), heated seats, white lens indicators and an accessory 12v power socket. Those goodies attract a $2000 premium over the standard RT.

Throw in the CD/radio, heated handlebar grips, ABS, electronic cruise control and on board trip computer, and in terms of electronic gadgetry our bike was certainly ‘one with the lot’ – and one with no small hint of luxury.

As you mount it, it’s obvious you’re in charge of a big bike. But it’s not intimidatingly large.

When you blip the throttle the ‘torque rock’ from the engine’s ‘between-the-wheels’ crankshaft is always nice. I hadn’t ridden a big BMW Boxer for a few months, so I saw it as a kind of ‘welcome back’ gesture from the bike.

All the controls fall easily to hand and everything works well. There’s that brief period of adjustment to the separate left and right indicator switches (and the equivalent period of readjustment when you get back on your familiar bike a few days later).

The drag-free, car-type, single-plate clutch sometimes produces such smooth and silent first-gear selection from neutral that you find yourself checking to make sure the green neutral light has gone out. Gear changing is drama free, and the clutch and gearbox are a pleasure to use.

With two on board and a full luggage load, first feels a bit tall for uphill starts, but only in that situation. But hey, that’s what clutches are for.

The bike’s ergonomics were well suited to both of us, as was the comfort of the seat. Its size, shape and quality of padding were fine for us. And it stays comfortable all day. Three-hour stints in the saddle on this trip caused no grief.

The RT’s mirrors aren’t my favourites. They’re set low, so you have to look down to check behind you. For traffic work I like the mirrors to be very close to my line of sight so that at a glance I get the rear view snapshot. Being low they’re also close to car mirror height, limiting ‘duck and weave’ style commuting. They work quite well in normal riding though – after you adjust to getting your rear-view presented under the reflection of your knuckles. A benefit of their position is that they protect your hands from most of the weather and wind.

I can’t imagine anyone being dissatisfied with the power and torque of the big 1200 engine. More than adequate to propel the RT through urban traffic, out on the open road it’s a real goer that launches with gusto when you’re passing, and rockets you forward with all that textured power that’s characteristic of a big twin. So the feel of the thing comes into it as well as the performance numbers.

It’s a quality a four just can’t produce. Fours give good snarl but you can’t feel their pistons pulsing the way you can with a big twin. When it’s pulling hard at full throttle, galloping up through its muscular mid range, there’s a lovely raucousness that reaches the rider’s ears. It’s subdued, of course – this being a luxury tourer from BMW – but it’s raucous nevertheless.

Cruise mode is very relaxed, with 4000rpm in top producing just over 120km/h.

Fuel consumption was excellent. Over our 1800km journey, fully loaded, it always did better than 18km/l. That was a great result. It was a big load and we weren’t sparing it, moving along as swiftly as the conditions allowed. With a 27lt tank you could happily plan for 450km-plus between fills. A qualifier is that the high 12.0:1 compression ratio requires higher-priced 98 octane fuel to deliver full power.

While talking fuel I’ll mention that BMW fuel caps can sometimes be difficult to close fully after a pitstop. You can think they’ve clicked home, but if you smell petrol in the first kay, it’s time to stop and push the cap that little bit further – that last half a millimetre to get the proper click.

The R 1200 RT’s ability to safely maintain good cruising speeds in a range of conditions is justified by two things – the overall competence of the bike’s handling and the excellent and powerful ABS brakes.

The handling is optimised by the ESA (Electronic Suspension Adjustment) controls on the ’bars. On this trip we used the push buttons to set the rear preload to the ‘two helmets’ (rider and passenger) position and the rebound damping to ‘Sport’, and the result was superb.

The bike is very stable under brakes and acceleration due to the ‘no-dive’ Telelever front suspension. Corner entry is totally stress free. If there’s an occasion when you need to carry a bit of braking past your tip-in point, this is a set-up that allows you to do it with dignity. It’s probably fair to say that this system filters out some of the subtle cornering feedback offered by a good telescopic fork arrangement. But, equally fairly, working with that kind of subtlety is more a part of ragged-edge sportsbike cornering technique than something you would expect from a big tourer. I’ll admit, though, that the Telelever’s lack of the expected ‘sink and rise’ does feel odd when you’re pulling up at the lights.

The machine is capable of quite fast point to point riding and when you’re pushing it along, you don’t have to hold back when you’re greeted by a few kays of tight twisties.

You celebrate those opportunities on the RT, just as you do on any competent bike. It turns in quite well for a large bike, holds a line faithfully and is unfazed by typical mid-corner undulations and bumps. These brief action interludes are a pleasure for an RT rider and passenger alike, before the road straightens again and you sit up and re-engage cruise control, resuming the relentless push towards the horizon.

The RT delivers the five-star touring experience for one or two. It also comes with a five-star price tag. But for your money you get high performance, primary safety of a high order and real comfort.

SPECIFICATIONS