02-14-2016, 06:22 AM
I took a 5k mile round trip to Abilene, Tx last year. Grandson's HS graduation. I rode my BMW R1200R which is basically the same as the RT, but without the Tupperware and some of the electronics. It was a great trip. The bike was flawless.
Purchased my CB11 after that trip and my plan was to sell the BMW and use the Honda for touring. After much thought I am going to keep the BMW and will use it for extended trips like the one above. I will use the Honda for trips of a week or less. The reason is not because the Honda is less capable, I used to take multi week trips on my CB750 back in the day. The reason is the shaft drive. Yes, I know that BMW had some problems with the rear drive on their earlier big twin boxers, but those problems pretty much disappeared after they put a big hole in the rear drive for cooling.
If the Honda had shaft drive, the BMW would be gone in a heartbeat.
Purchased my CB11 after that trip and my plan was to sell the BMW and use the Honda for touring. After much thought I am going to keep the BMW and will use it for extended trips like the one above. I will use the Honda for trips of a week or less. The reason is not because the Honda is less capable, I used to take multi week trips on my CB750 back in the day. The reason is the shaft drive. Yes, I know that BMW had some problems with the rear drive on their earlier big twin boxers, but those problems pretty much disappeared after they put a big hole in the rear drive for cooling.
If the Honda had shaft drive, the BMW would be gone in a heartbeat.