BMW has managed to distill the RR?s agility into the XR. You?d be hard-pressed to find a bike in this class as eager to hit the canyons as this one.

California is one of those rare states where you can throw a dart at its map, and the needle?s point is very likely to land on something that two-wheeled enthusiasts will greedily rub their glove-covered hands together over. Luckily, I happen to have a few of those roads in my backyard, namely California State Routes 33 and 58, which will garner a nod of approval from any motorcycle enthusiast.

If you have the time and inclination, a rider can do a nice single-day loop covering roughly 400 miles on these roads. Beginning at the beaches of Ventura, heading through the harsh oil lands of Taft and up to the vast Carizzo Plain, you skirt along the Central California coast before arriving home.
Highway 58 is one of the most diverse stretches of road Central California has to offer and a perfect testing ground for the S 1000 XR.

I set off to take on these well-beaten paths aboard the new 2020 BMW S 1000 XR sport-adventure-tourer, which has a job description up to the day?s task.

This Beemer gets plenty of updates for model year 2020, with refinements aimed at making it lighter, faster, more agile and more user friendly. Although we couldn?t measure a base weight since our test bike was heavily accessorized, BMW claims wet weight is 498 pounds. Even with all of the bolt-ons our XR still tipped our scale at a commendab...