S1000XR BMW's New Naked 2015 "Adventure Sport" Or Race Bike?

By David Booth

Exactly how far can you stretch a definition? Is a LaFerrari really a hybrid because it has some minor pretense to an electric motor? Is Porsche’s Cayenne Turbo S a sport utility vehicle just because it’s sorta styled like a real Jeep? And, more appropriately to a motorcycle blog, is BMW’s S1000XR really an adventure touring motorcycle just because it sports high handlebars and dirt bike styling?

Determining the veracity of this last requires but a quick look at the strict definition of those two root words, adventure: as in the ability to venture deep into terra-less-than-firma and touring: the ability to accumulate hundreds of miles without inflicting pain or inconvenience on rider or passenger. Strictly speaking, the S1000XR is not particularly good at either of those missions.

Though BMW took pains to make sure we did venture off-road aboard the XR, the dirt we did see was decidedly tame, a mindful concession to the S1000’s 17-inch front wheel shod with performance-oriented Bridgestone Battleaxs. Combined with 160 horsepower and suspension stiff enough for a race bike, this is not a bike for heading to Alaska via the North West Territories. Indeed, I doubt that there’s any place that an XR could go that BMW’s own R1200RT can’t.

It works a little better in the comfort department, the seating position dictated by its adventure touring brief almost perfect. Indeed, were seating position the main predictor of motorcycle comfort, the XR would a perfect day-long tourer. And thanks to seat options and available lowered suspension (if you order the Dynamic Electronic Sports Suspension system), the seat height can range from a high of 856 millimetres to a low of 791-mm (840-mm is standard).

Unfortunately, the seat is as hard as a plank. An optional seat is offered, but it too is thin as a bread crust. Seriously BMW, we have to pay extra for a seat that is good for 100 kilometres in something that has at least some pretence to comfort and it’s still the size of a postage stamp?

The suspension is equally unforgiving. There are two damping position available in the optional Dynamic Electronic Suspension Adjustment system — Road (comfort) and Dynamic (firm). But they might be best deemed “rock” and the “hard place” so firm is the compression damping. The S1000’s big four also vibrates. It’s not objectionable as long as you keep the revs below 5,000 rpm — around 120 kilometres an hour — but above that the handlebar gets decidedly tingly. Do not be fooled by sit-up-and-beg riding position nor the accessory saddlebags on offer; anyone looking for GS or even Aprilia Caponord comfort is going to be disappointed.

But, if it can’t tour and can’t “adventure,” what good is the S1000XR? Well, what the S1000XR really is a naked bike — like BMW’s own S1000RR, itself just an offshoot of the world-beating S1000RR superbike — with better fairing protection and an even more expansive seating position. BMW is even trying to create yet another segmentation of the motorcycle market calling the XR an “Adventure Sport” bike.

That makes it damned near perfect for all those superbike riders whose favourite twisty road is an hour of more from their city centres. A S1000RR, for instance, may be sublime on a twisty road but the two-hour drone getting there might cripple you.

Enter the S1000XR. It may not be ready to tackle the TransCanada or the Rubicon but a two-hour-blast to a canyon road is right in its sweet spot. And when you get there, boy will it rip a road!

There’s 160 horsepower on tap, 83 pound-feet of torque as well and, despite revving that torque peak happening at a very un-Adventure-like 9,250 rpm, the XR will pull from idle like the best of twins. Throttle response is immediate and exact and, very importantly when you have this much power under wrist, the ASC traction control is sophisticated so all that power doesn’t get you in trouble.

Indeed, the XR puts out so much power that the optional Rides Mode Pro with its upgrade to Dynamic Traction Control and ABS Pro — the first time BMW has offered a cornering-optimized ABS as an option — should be considered mandatory upgrades.

And that stiff suspension that marred bumpy road comfort and off-road traction so comes into its own once you start hooning about. Ditto for the 120/70-17 front Battleax (and its 190/55-17 rear compatriot). There’s traction a-plenty and the steering is remarkably neutral considering the relatively high centre of gravity. Only on the slowest of hairpins does the XR “fall into” the corner and even then requires only the lightest of corrections thanks to the wide handlebar.

And, in the end, this will the ($17,600 CAN) S1000XR’s forte, a niche, narrow as it may be, at which it truly excels. It offers 95% of the performance of the S1000RR with twice, nay three times, the comfort. Just don’t call it an adventure tourer.