Coming down Phillip Island’s main straight at over 240kph lap after lap is something earlier Boxers could never have hoped to get anywhere near.

I drop down a couple of cogs for turn one then on the throttle hard again before going down another gear for Southern Loop. The initial turn in through the Telelever front end is as light as any sportsbike on the market. A little pressure on the pegs and a push on the inside bar sets the machine up for a nice run through what is a long and quite tricky left hander.

From the apex I squeeze the throttle on carefully. The Metzeler Sportec M-1 rubber lays down good drive and the tacho needle brushes the 8500rpm redline.

Up to fourth gear, then fifth before turning into another left hander, the very fast turn three. A measured but firm squeeze on the brake lever sees a pair of four-piston calipers clamp on generous 320mm disc rotors. I have turned off the ABS for my track sessions and as I get more and more confidence in the brakes and stability of the R 1200 S I start to leave my braking later and later. Halfway between the 150 and 100 metre boards was as brave as I dared. I wanted to wait until the 100 metre board but a fear of possible pain that grows with every year I age prevents me from doing so. I release the brakes and there is little reaction from the machine in protest, the unconventional front suspension system refuses to get upset.

I tip in and brush my knee on the deck for turn four. Not because I have to, just because I gain great satisfaction from getting such a lean angle from a BMW Boxer, and the body language helps to keep the pegs from scraping. Rest assured that there is no chance of touching down those cylinders as numerous geometry changes help to realise a generous 52-degrees of possible lean angle. Put simply, if you are touching the cylinders down, you’re in the process of crashing.

Second gear provides smooth drive out of turn four and early in the day I would leave the bike in second gear for the run to Siberia Corner with the 1170cc powerplant hitting its 8800rpm rev-limiter before tipping into the left hander. Later in the day I took off my skirt and dared to carry a bit more entry speed to Siberia and began to shift to third gear before tipping the machine onto its side. This led to a gradual increase in corner speed throughout the day and the kneeslider greeting the deck earlier and earlier in the corner. Like most modern sports machines the pace it can muster on the racetrack is limited by the rider much more so than any other factor.

Exiting Siberia the throttle is wound to the stop before shifting to fourth just before the bridge. The bars here gave a little wiggle to let me know that I’m starting to have a bit of a go. The machine does have a steering damper but I could find no available adjustment and it’s quite soft in its operation. Earlier in the day I would hold fourth through the fast right-hander that is the hayshed but as I gained more trust in the Metzeler hoops and my ability to keep the machine on line, I started clicking fifth before the Hayshed. This is quite a scary part of the circuit and the fact that I built up enough confidence to carry good speed through the Hayshed is testament to the rapport I had built with the machine. If you told me at the start of the day that I would be using fifth gear and carrying close to 200kph through the Hayshed on a BMW Boxer I would have laughed, but by the end of the day, that was exactly what I was doing.