Upcoming classic, surely?

Dear MCM, I wonder if the R1100RT will soon be approaching classic status ? Consider this – it’s really only BMW’s third stab at the fully faired tourer concept which they pretty much invented, and the first one on which the bodywork didn’t look like an aftermarket add-on but was an integral part of the bike. I question whether there is any better bike to tour on.

I have a 1996 model which I’ve owned since 2003. It had 24K on when I bought it but now shows 97K. Apart from a new clutch it’s had no major work, still runs smoothly and reliably and uses virtually no oil. Plug changes take about five minutes each side. It’s taken me (and in earlier years my wife and I) all over Europe, and latterly me to Morocco, Russia and the Baltic states without a murmur. It did once have a hiccup on the way back from Morocco, just outside Alicante when it wouldn’t start after a fuel stop, but when the breakdown truck unloaded it at the dealers it fired up first go and gave no further probs.

It’s all-day comfortable. On the Morocco trip I left home at 4am and was having dinner in Bordeaux at 7.30. Likewise on the Russian trip I came off the ferry at Hook at 8 and was in my hotel on the Polish border by 6. It didn’t have a problem fully loaded when I had to climb 1.5km of grassy, rock-strewn hillside to get to an overnight on the way to Morocco, nor when my “motorway” exit from Riga on the way back from Russia was found to start with 5km of un-consolidated ballast (road repairs).

Yet despite the touring bodywork you always know there’s a bike underneath and it can hustle surprisingly well if it has to. I dropped it fully loaded, two up, once just outside my gate, bound for the Camargue. Visions of horrendous damage proved to be limited to a dislodged mirror. That’s good design. And I reckon it still looks good too.

It somehow gives you a commanding and stable platformfrom which to apply your skills and concentrate on the road.

I now ride my G650GS a lot as I’mnearly 70 and the RT is heavy. The 650 is great fun and will do the miles just as well and in comfort, but whenever I go back to the RT I get off thinking, “Ah yes, now I remember”.