Top 10 Sports Tourers

A countdown of the best sports tourers you can buy

Posted: 11 May 2010
by Visordown

1 of 11

Comfort and speed, with a dash of great handling are some of the ingredients that make up the perfect sports orientated tourer. Today's Top 10 is a breakdown of the best sports tourers that you can buy.

Sports-tourer buying advice.

With buyers of new sports-tourers migrating to adventure bikes, now’s the time to bag a versatile bargain:

These bikes tend to be well looked after by mature owners who service them. Steer clear of anything with any tasteless bolt-ons, small plates, loud pipes, small indicators or other rude boy modifications.
Some extras are worth having. Quality hard luggage and aftermarket suspension are particularly worthwhile as carrying capacity is handy and these bikes can do loads of miles heavily laden so original suspension can get tired.
High mileage bikes are not uncommon and can be good value for money – if well maintained and that includes things like greasing the rear linkage, head bearings and looking after suspension.
Buying privately can be worthwhile as you can check out the owner as well as the bike, pay less and these machines tend to hide less horrors than most. Do a data check. www.mycarcheck.com do an online one that includes motorbikes for £3.95. For that money it’s not worth travelling to view a bike without checking it first.

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10. BMW R1100S (1999-2005)

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Discuss this story

fartypants

Yeah, the brown connector. Go through all the forums and you'll find maybe five out of the thousands build that have had problems. Hardly unreliable.

Posted: 04/06/2010 at 22:58

Jakespi

mine is fantastic done many european trips with the wife and baggage no problem and handles fantastic.

Posted: 09/06/2010 at 09:08

Jakespi

Fantastic R1100SS done thousands of miles on it with my wife and luggage handles great plenty of torque.

Posted: 09/06/2010 at 09:10

pyndman

Id vote for the twins of that era sometimes incorrectly classed as sports, but are infact sports tourer. The Yamaha TRX850 is lighter and nimbler than the bulky monsters listed, amazing fuel economy and plenty of power for the road. Also the VTR1000F is a hoot as a tourer. But I guess thats why they were discontinued, they just didnt capture the imagination and they weren't classified properly.

Posted: 24/08/2010 at 09:06

R1200GSER

Sorry guys bit it is clear this list is seriously flawed, and as such completely invalid. Back to the drawing board for you all as the bike that is missing from this list has consistently been top of the recent years polls when owners are surveyed, and is clearly top sports tourer in those stats. It wiped the floor with ZZR1400's, Busa's (its quicker to a ton than the Busa, and Blackbirds are not in the same league!
The bike?? K1200/1300S! You know I am right!

Posted: 12/09/2011 at 07:54

TRX

No mention of the TDM or the TRX 850/900 Yamaha's ? Both can be punted along quite nicely . The TDM leans more towards the tour, and the TRX towards the sport. Reliable, economical, handle, light weight (190kg) reasonably comfy,cheap to maintain, and ooze character. Well at least the TRX :)
That's a hard combination to beat don't you think?

Posted: 15/11/2011 at 03:56

Ian Hills 2

Try softening the suspenders on the Blackbird when things get a bit rough.

BMW rules sports touring.

Posted: 01/12/2011 at 07:01

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