Motorcycling: The Sport-Touring Bike

There is actually no precisely defined Sport-Touring bike, it is more of a general concept that has evolved over the years. The definition is open to debate, and I have at times discussed the meaning of a sport touring bike with other riders. These are my own ideas because I don't want to leave it up to marketing people to tell me what a sport touring bike is. As you will see later, they can be wrong.

Before I got my Kawasaki Vulcan, which is a Cruiser type of bike, I had ridden sport-touring bikes for about 25 years. I think it is generally accepted that the Sport-Touring bike was invented by BMW in 1977 with the R100RS. And it's also obvious to me ever since, that despite one major misstep, BMW has maintained the lead in defining this type of bike, just as Harley Davidson has maintained the lead in defining the Cruiser bike. The key feature of a sport touring bike was a frame mounted fairing that provided good weather protection for the rider, luggage space and a big gas tank. In those days, you were expected to buy a basic bike then add accessories like a windshield and saddlebags yourself. BMW helped start the concept of fully equipped motorcycles sold off the dealer's floor.

The Sport Touring bike as originally defined by the R100RS was a new type of motorcycle. Powerful reliable engine and drive train. Weather protection from a fame mounted fairing is essential. A handlebar windshield is not good enough because it does not provide enough protection and it destabilises the bike at high speed. The Sport-Touring bike needs a comfortable upright seating position, with smooth ride and not too much vibration from the engine. Long distances between maintenance intervals, and a long range gas tank of at least 250 km, preferably 350. Some hard lockable saddlebags are usually included. The weight needs to be under 650 pounds, which I consider the upper limit for sport-touring, while pure touring bikes are now up to 900 lbs. Being a middleweight remains one of the characteristics of sport touring bikes today. This bike's main purpose seemed to be high speed long distance travel, combined with an ability to be fast through mountain curves. The reason Germany would likely be first to invent this type of bike is the unlimited speed autobahns. And second, the traffic goes fast through the twisty roads in the Alpine passes, and a German bike needs to be able to keep up in the curves. By contrast, in North America, you are slowed down by speed limits and radar traps on the straight open freeways, and the car drivers are actually even slower than bikes on the twisty roads, so there is not as much need for a fast bike. This alone explains why Cruisers are more popular than Sport-Touring bikes in North America.

In the days of the R100RS, air cooling was normal on bikes. Unfortunately, air cooling is not the best for a high horsepower motorcycle because it will overheat. Although the BMW was air cooled, both cylinders were out in the airstream, which meant that the engine temperature could stabilize at high speeds, like an airplane. So they could travel at 80 mph all day long. Very few other air cooled bikes could do this. Even today, I doubt if a Harley Davidson (still with the same basic design as 1977) could do it.

Back in the mid-eighties, I might have wanted this type of bike, but I couldn't afford it. So I bought a frame mounted fairing for my 1982 Honda GL500, then added leg shields, and Krauser saddlebags (like the BMW at the time). This bike had water cooling, so it probably could travel all day at 80 mph, even though it was approaching top speed. And it had another BMW feature, shaft drive, to eliminate the messy chain which got rusty whenever you drove in rain.

The resulting bike was maybe not "sport touring" in the sense of high horsepower, but it was in every other way. With it, my motorcycling needs progressed. One is that I needed a bike that could go in cold or rain. A touring rider cannot always pick a day with perfect weather. To that end, the fairing helped a lot, and leg shields kept the splashing water off my feet, and my feet stayed warm. Also, when it's raining is not when you want to be lubing and tightening the chain, so shaft drive seemed to be worth while.

A few years later, I bought a Honda CBX, which I think was the first non-BMW Sport Touring bike on the market. Although it was air cooled, it could maintain very high speeds because of its six cylinder design. And even though it had no shaft, it was using one of the early o-ring chains, which seemed almost impervious to rain. The only problem was the very uncomfortable seat, and I suppose I could have fixed that with an aftermarket seat, but never did.

My longest run with the CBX was a high speed 9-day trip from Kitchener to Redondo Beach California, coincidentally the pier at the end of the Cannonball Run. The 9 days included the trip back, we didn't stay very long in Los Angeles. Many of the days were 900 plus kilometers, and some days we spent the whole day on twisty roads in Arizona and California. We started the trip in mid-April, with the snow plows out on the 401. We ran into rain and hot weather too. And that was the trip that confirmed my liking of the sport touring type bike.

I knew after that trip, that I did not want a bike heavier than the 650 pound CBX. And it was just as obvious that I did not have any use for speeds greater than the CBX either. So from then on I knew I didn't need a heavy touring bike, and I would have no use for a lightweight high speed pure sport bike either.

By 1992, BMW had radically improved their flagship sport touring bike. It was now up to about 600 pounds, it was four cylinders and water cooled. The power was up to about 90 horsepower, similar to the CBX. It still had shaft drive, but now also anti-lock brakes, a stereo, a trunk, a passenger backrest, a comfortable seat, and most amazingly, an electrically adjustable windscreen. The price had also gone up, but I happened to have the money then, and traded in my CBX for one. Actually BMW marketing people incorrectly classified my bike (The K1100LT) as a pure touring bike, and also sold another slightly more sporty model. But I chose the 1992 K1100LT as my sport-touring bike because it was still under 650 pounds, more comfortable, and had the electric windshield. By the way, that electric windshield has since become another defining characteristic of the Sport-Touring bike. BMW's "official" sport touring bike, the 1992 K1100RS had no electric windshield. Obviously the marketing people misunderstood the Sport-Touring riders, but all the Japanese sport-touring bikes adopted the electric windshields, and now so has BMW for their definition of sport-touring.

A sport-touring bike is not really a compromise between a heavy slow touring bike and a light uncomfortable sport bike. In spite of the hyphenated name, it is very much a single function machine. The function is to go from here to California and back in April in 9 days, and be able to enjoy the scenic roads on the way.

The BMW allowed me to travel all over Canada and the USA, and even down the Baja Peninsula in Mexico (picture). But when I traded it in, I didn't replace it with another sport-touring bike. For one thing, I didn't feel as much need for the high speed long distance runs any more. Mary Ann had her Burgman scooter, which could never keep up to a Sport-Touring motorcycle. And my limiting factor on long rides was a backache, which could only be solved by a backrest. Sport touring bikes are not an ideal platform for a rider backrest, which partly explains why I went to a cruising type bike.