Ridden: BMW R1300 RS Performance presses the case for the sports-tourer
The BMW R1300 RS Performance is a new sports-tourer variant designed to offer a more aggressive, track-focused experience. Despite the declining popularity of the sports-tourer segment compared to adventure bikes, BMW is positioning this model as a high-performance flagship.
Why it matters
It highlights the ongoing struggle of traditional motorcycle manufacturers to maintain interest in niche road-sport segments against the dominance of adventure-touring bikes.
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Tidier tailpiece, black chrome exhaust, and Trophy paintwork give the Performance an aggressive look.
Sports-tourers? Nobody wants them. According to sales stats, they’re showroom wallflowers ignored in the stampede of incoming customers towards the nearest adventure tourer.
Even BMW, which has built and sold an RS sports-tourer with a boxer twin engine ever since the debut of the original R100RS back in 1974, will only sell a couple of handfuls of new R1300 RS models in New Zealand this year. That’s despite the RS being the fastest boxer, indisputably the best-looking, and the one that’ll set the fastest lap time at a track day.
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