NEW BMW M1000 XR HYPER ADVENTURE BIKE

It looks like a sports tourer but think of the M XR simply as a comfy superbike. It delivers full-blooded, foaming at the mouth performance, from the way it scrambles your brain on the throttle to the crispness of the steering and the savage brake bite. With so much power it demands to be ridden like a superbike in the corners, where it responds sensationally to the ‘point and squirt’, rather than long, leant over sweeping lines where it can’t use its 200bhp superpowers.
All this performance is neatly wrapped in a machine that’s easy to ride, thanks to friendly engine mapping, rider aids and it’s so spacious and comfortable you could spend all day in the saddle without noticing, although wind noise is high at speed. Add in all its standard bells and whistles and the M1000XR is a hell of a lot of bike, albeit for a lot of cash.
Despite its height the M XR is never wayward or top heavy. Sure, there’s more suspension travel than an S1000RR superbike, but there’s less than the S1000XR sports tourer. That keeps it feeling tight with no excessive adventure bike-like weight transfer on and off the throttle.
The way the M XR dances from corner to corner is mesmerising and feels so much like a crisp-handling superbike it asks to be ridden like one. It comes alive when you brake and accelerate hard in and out of corners without too much speed in the middle and it’s so easy with such deliciously powerful Nissin ‘M’ brakes (first seen on the 2021 M1000RR), pin-sharp steering and feel through the chassis.
With so much space to move around the BMW it’s far less effort to pilot than a race rep. There’s lots of legroom for taller riders, the seat is comfy on long trips and while the wide bars place you more over the front than the S XR, your wrists are never battered. Electronic suspension is plush and the ride is smoother than the filling-shaking M1000R super naked and RR superbike.
Based on the sports touring S1000XR, it’s fitted with the full-fat 999cc, inline four-cylinder ‘ShiftCam’ engine taken from the current S1000RR superbike. BMW had to slice 10bhp off the S1000RR’s top end (with mapping) for the M XR to pass Euro noise regs, but 199bhp (up 31bhp on the ‘S XR’) is still way more than you need for the road.
It displays all the hallmarks of an angry, race derived motor when you pin the throttle. Acceleration so brutal it’s hard for your brain to keep up and the aural drama is every bit as intoxicating, from its shrill exhaust note, twisted airbox roar, the pop and bang of its sublime up/down quick shifter and crackling overrun off the throttle.
Such speed is surreal on a machine with a lofty, BMW GS-like riding position and at first you feel detached sat so far away from the tarmac, but it quickly feels natural. Despite its searing performance there’s lots of sub 9000rpm grunt, where the ShiftCam system runs on its milder inlet cams.
Power delivery is smooth, safe and predictable thanks to an engine that’s perfectly mapped in all its riding modes. The extra weight the 223kg M XR carries over its superbike and super naked sisters takes some of the viscousness out of the power, too and its smooth anti-wheelie and traction control systems serve to tame the beast even more. 200bhp has never been easier.
With so much power the inline four has an industrial feel and slightly buzzy at motorway speeds, but never an irritation. BMW claims 43mpg, which isn’t great for a ‘tourer’, but that gives a theoretical 191-mile range from its 20-litre tank.