I’m a sportbike guy, which is why I would normally consider a full-dress tourer such as Honda’s 238kg Pan-European to be at least 50kg too heavy and 500mm too wide even for touring.

But I have to admit that after living with the Eurobus for a week I can see the attraction; I’ve learned to appreciate its good points and understand its quirks, some of which are peculiar to this bike and some generic to all big tourers.

And good point No.1 is torque, that magic quality possessed in abundance by all V-engines; people tend to forget the fully enclosed Pan-European is a transverse V4 because it runs so evenly.

Once it’s nicely warm you can feed in the clutch gently and it will pull away at idle; you can even change up through the ‘box without touching the twist grip and the bike will wind up idling along at about 35km/h in top.

The 1261cc engine pulls without complaint from 2000rpm all the way to the red line at 8500, albeit with some vibration above seven, delivers seamless upshifts above 3500rpm (even from first to second, which is remarkable for a shaft-drive bike) and it doesn’t even notice the extra weight of a passenger.

It was quite gentle but at anything over 170km/h the tail was definitely wagging the dog.

Increasing the front tyre pressure helped, as did moving the electrically adjustable screen to its lowest position and tucking myself well in behind it, but I still wasn’t comfortable enough to try top speed runs until after I went home and removed the quick-detachable panniers and top box.

The Honda was way more stable without them and went happily up to its maximum of 232km/h at 7950rpm, almost exactly on its 8000rpm power peak.

I must say, however, that I have seldom been this nervous of top end runs on any bike despite the Pan European’s predictable handling and generally accurate steering at legal speeds.

If a bike weighing nearly a quarter of a ton gets out of hand there is little the rider can do.

Good point No.2 is comfort; with the screen fully lowered the airflow over the bike is smooth and even, the deeply padded seat is flat and broad enough to move around on, the high, wide handlebars fall readily to hand and the footpegs are neatly and correctly positioned directly below the base of the rider’s spine to distribute his (or her) weight between feet and bum.

Cruising in the rain

The broad fairing is amazingly protective; I got caught without raingear but apart from damp patches on my shins and the front of my helmet I got home dry, cruising at around 110km/h in quite heavy rain.

The bike is an ergonomic masterpiece as far as the rider is concerned, fractionally less so for the passenger due to limited space between the pillion foot-pegs and the front of the panniers.

Tick the handling box as well; the Pan European is short for a tour bus with a wheelbase of 1490mm and the wide bars give plenty of leverage for quick direction changes.

Once the bike is moving you don’t notice the weight and its only disadvantage in traffic is that there are so many gaps it can’t get through which would be no problem on a normal machine.

I actually commuted on the bike for a week; it took a little longer than it would have done on a smaller bike but I just turned up the radio and enjoyed the Breakfast Show on the way to work!

Full-dress tourer

The test bike was fitted with a full suite of optional touring extras: top box, radio and heatable grips with four power settings; even on a cold morning anything above the lowest setting soon became uncomfortably warm.

They would be an absolute boon in the European context for which the bike was designed, so top marks for Honda there.

And top marks for the radio too; its controls, on a neat little housing bracketed to the left grip, are simple and easy to operate even with gloved hands and the sound from the speakers inside the fairing is fine up to about 100km/h with the screen up.

Honda offers an aftermarket kit for your helmet and that of your pillion that incorporates an intercom and provides quality sound up to and above the national speed limit, irrespective of the position of the screen.

Hard use

Sadly, the test bike was showing some evidence of quality problems after 9500km of hard use by a succession of media hacks; the pannier locks (operated by the ignition key) were moving around a little in their mountings and the separate key for the top box had taken a distinct list to starboard that made it finicky to operate.

The section of fairing between the screen and headlights was so thin that it could be pushed in with one finger; I had to be careful not to crack it when polishing the bike for the photographs.

The two outermost plastic “blind rivets” that held it together were worn out – and when I mentioned it to the workshop guys at local Honda dealer Mekor I was told yes, they knew about it, but Honda SA had been unable to supply spare fasteners.

I doubt whether either of these would be a problem in the more sympathetic hands of a private owner but it’s worth remembering to work gently with all the locks on this model – and of course to use a light hand when polishing the fairing.

Small niggles

Those small niggles stood out because the rest of the bike is so beautifully fitted and finished – well up to Honda’s usual high standards and because the Pan European is so amazingly competent despite its bulk.

It’s not a Gold Wing (thank goodness!) but it’s a very presentable alternative to the usual BMW and Harley-Davidson full-dress tourers as well as being prettier than either.