The six-speed gearbox and shaft drive system is unchanged from recent 1200 Boxers and is a vast improvement on the box of gears the previous 1100 Boxers suffered with. There is very little torque reaction or climbing under acceleration from the shaft drive system. And contrary to the well worn myth, shaft drive is no barrier to getting the big girl up on one wheel. The single arm Paralever shaft drive system requires no maintenance whatsoever according to BMW.

A standout feature for me with the Telelever front suspension layout is the lack of dive under brakes or fore and aft yaw on the machine when releasing the brakes. The front end provides great composure and had instilled enough confidence in me by the end of a day around Phillip Island to allow me to use entry speeds that previously I had only achieved on Japanese sportsbikes. Fixed 41mm tubes are matched to a preload and damping adjustable shock absorber via longitudinal arms to offer 110mm of front wheel travel. I found nothing to complain about but for reasons of experimentation I clicked on some more damping and added more preload to the spring. The changes could be felt and provided even a little more confidence than before but I was already circulating as fast as I dared and felt no reason to push things too far out of my comfort zone.

At the rear an Ohlins shock absorber kept the 190mm Metzeler Sportec driving hard. The Ohlins shock is a $1000 extra and adds a lot more adjustment than the standard shock.

A huge range of spring preload helps the rider to tailor the ride exactly to their preference and ride height can also be adjusted at the lower shock mount. Turning a wheel at the bottom of the shock after removing the plastic protector that helps to keep road crud away is all it takes to alter the ride height. No shims or extra parts are required. I wound the damping to maximum and set the spring preload about two-thirds on and found this to offer great performance. There was certainly no hint of a wallow at any time and stiffening things up at the rear helped me to more easily hold a tight line around some of the faster corners Phillip Island has to offer. With things set on the stiff side of the equation large bumps can give the rider a solid shove in the kidneys.

At 66° the steering head angle is 1° steeper than seen on the R 1100 S and front caster is down from 100mm to 87mm. The wheelbase has actually increased marginally, up from 1478mm to 1487mm but the machine changes direction with little effort, even at high speed.

The rims are really quite gorgeous. The front is the common 3.5 x 17 inch sizing and the standard rear rim is a 5.5 x 17 inch item shod with 180/55ZR17 rubber. An optional 6 inch rim with a 190/50ZR17 tyre is $235 extra.

The ABS system is fantastic for road use but always the control freak I switched it off for track duty. The brakes have great power and good feel at the lever. Under the repeated stress of hard stops the lever can start to come closer to the bar. This happened both at Phillip Island braking for turn four and also at Wanneroo braking for the final right hander. It was never too much of a concern and I simply adjusted the lever further out from the bar so when it happened again I still had room between the lever and the bar. Don’t read too much into this however as I could easily live with it even with doing track days. I am quite hard on brakes. I seem to be much better at stopping than I am at going… A pair of 320mm discs at the front are clamped by four-piston calipers to which the fluid is delivered via braided lines. At a guess I would say the master cylinder may be the culprit in the issue of the lever coming back further under heavy racetrack use. The rear brake is 265mm in diameter and requires a firm press on the lever to bring any meaningful retardation.