I disagree, the 1250RS is basically a redesign of the K1200S (my current bike). Just swapping out the inline-v for the BMW boxer motor.
Top of the line, in it's class. A sports bike, with shaft drive, linked brakes, traction control, and heated grips.
Find me an electric bike with those features for anywhere near a comparable price. Specifically, I will not even consider a bike without a shaft drive (or in the case of an electric, a hub drive would be acceptable.) I am done maintaining chains and belts.
Sorry, but R1250RT is NOT a sports bike. It redlines at 8K rpm, compared to S1000RR that redlines at 14600 rpm, delivers 136 horses at 7750 rpm compared to 205 horses at 13000 rpm, does 105 lbs-ft. at 6,250 rpm compared to 83 lb-ft at 11,000 rpm.
Now if you look at K16 specs, 160 horses at 6750 rpm with 123.7 lbs-ft at 5250 rpm. And it DOES have linked brakes, traction control, ABS and heated grips.
Both R1250RT and K16 are marketed in the sports tourer segment.
So NO, R1250RT is no where near top of line sports tourer and definitely not a sports bike.
Belts are less maintenance intensive than shaft drives. A shaft drive needs an oil change every 10,000 miles. A belt needs a change every 60,000 miles or so, depending on storage condtions.
The disadvantages of belts are efficiency (especially compared to chains), off road durability and trailside serviceability.
I might just be a bad bike parent, but, my current shaft drive bike has ~42,000 miles on it. It had the shaft-oil replaced once at 800 miles (per manual, break in period).
My bike has been rock-fucking-solid. Its been in the shop once for a real break in 16 years for a busted fuel line. (not including tires and engine oil changes). Its really hard for me to believe another bike could be as reliable.
I'm too lazy to grab my Honda's manual to check, but I'm pretty sure the recommended shaft oil change interval is way more than 10k miles. I'm thinking 48k km, which something like 30k mi.
In my experience most Suzukis other than the 2000s GSXRs have superior reliability to BMW at the tradeoff of lower sophistication. Though the new VStroms and Hayabusa are competitive with BMW on rider aids. Certain Kawasakis are uo there too, like the Versys and KLR.
