Very few riders have more than one motorcycle; most use the same machine for everything we do on two wheels.

Let’s check the boxes: It’s gotta have a big, torquey engine, to take Herself and all her stuff away for a weekend and an upright, relaxed sitting position so it’ll stay comfortable all day.

A minimum of bodywork (preferably none) for easy, unstressed commuting.

Decent handling, top-drawer suspension and brakes, serious mid-range power for those early Sunday mornings on your favourite twisties.

Last but not least, street cred, and there’s a big twin from BMW that ticks ’em all

This not a stripped-down tourer; the R1200 R has its own distinctive styling. The R1200 R shares its 1170cc boxer engine with the big GS puddlejumper and the RT luxury bus; in this application it’s tuned for a 80kW at 7500 and 115Nm at 6000 yet it weighs less than 200kg.

There’s no bodywork except a flyscreen – optional on other markets, standard in South Africa – but this not a stripped-down tourer; the R has its own styling.

The A-arm of the Telelever front suspension is beautifully styled in cast alloy with a long curve lending elegance to a component hidden on other big BMW’s but on show on this one.

The traditional sheet-steel fuel tank has been blown into an intriguingly multi-faceted shape that locks the rider’s legs to the bike but would be a real pain to repair if dented.

The seat is narrow at the front so you can get your feet firmly on the ground but wide, flat and well-padded at the rear for comfort on long rides, as is the pillion

The A-arm of the Telelever front suspension is beautifully styled in cast alloy.

The headlight is the bike’s only styling failure; it’s big enough and neatly circular with two bulbs vertically mounted in hemispherical reflectors but mounted too low on clumsily cantilevered brackets.

There’s scope there for an aftermarket accessory manufacturer with an eye for line…

The ‘bars are wide but not too high, bearing BMW’s trademark switchgear and an instrument pod borrowed whole from the S – oval analogue dials for speed and revs and a liquid crystal display showing oil temperature, fuel level, odometer, trip meter, ambient temperature, range, fuel consumption and the time.

The rather overpowering, servo-assisted Brembo brakes on the Blue Propeller’s range-topping machines are reassuring by their absence; elegant offset master cylinders, braided stainless-steel hoses and four-piston Brembo callipers deliver more-than-adequate bite with superbly controllable power – this bike’s braking is one of its better features.

Impressive roadholding

BMW’s Telelever front suspension, by partially separating its steering and shock-absorbing functions, provides a compliant ride without excessive dive under braking. On the R that translates to impressive roadholding without harshness, with the front wheel always firmly planted even on the worst sections of our bumpy test track.

Paralever suspension geometry gets its name from the parallelogram drive-shaft layout that effectively reduces rear-wheel hop under braking but, like all shaft drives, imposes extra unsprang mass on the rear suspension – in this case a very straightforward monoshock set-up with no rising-rate linkages.

It’s adjustable for preload and rebound damping but is always a little choppy in action, becoming harsh when set up for fast riding; it stepped out a couple of times but, thanks to the more compliant front end, the bike remained controllable.

Unexpectedly agile

It was also unexpectedly agile on our favorite twisties, given its size and weight, flipping from side to side with minimal input on the wide bars and diving into corners, hard on the brakes, with no tendency to sit up or run wide.

You can’t feel the steering damper around town but it keeps the bike stable when you’re pushing hard  the only time the R1200 R could be induced to shake its head at all was under full-throttle upshifts.

And that tells you something about the engine; it may be 10kW down on power agaisnt BMW’s R1200 S sportbike but its torque band is wider and even more user-friendly.

It’ll trickle along in traffic at 2400rpm without complaining but accelerate instantly on demand from there in anything but top. The Bing fuel injection is a little choppy at low revs but not nearly as bad as on some four-cylinder machinery.

Real action

At about 5000rpm the revs start coming through the ‘bars and footpegs, telling you the real action is about to begin, and there’s serious stomp from 5500 to 7500. Come out of a corner with more than five on the clock and this thing pulls like a sportbike – that’s when you get those headshakes.

OK, it doesn’t have the top end on the straights but the easily accessible power lets you squirt from corner to corner like a terrier after a rat; on the right road you can have a lot of fun with Beem’s big streetbike.

The company makes much of its new six-speed, helical-cut gearbox; as on the R1200S, upshifts are slick and quick with or without clutch. Downshifts are vintage BMW, however – positive and vocal and there’s still the classic “clonk” from the final drive as it takes up in first.

It wouldn’t be a BMW without it.

Very naughty indeed

The R1200R takes advantage of its relatively short gearing to scorch up to 200km/h very quickly indeed, with another 32km/h available to those with supple spines and long, long straights.

More importantly, I pinned the throttle through a series of long sweepers at around 210 and the bike remained reassuringly stable – you don’t need a fully enclosed crotch rocket to get very naughty indeed, although you can’t keep it up for more than a few minutes unless you have seriously overdeveloped neck muscles.

As I said, its a bike that will do everything well in moderation including moderation.