Errr ... Lupe would you like to borrow my glasses the thread title says "R3T -- Fastest Production
Touring Bike On Earth"
Define TOURING bike.
Things like the ST1300 - Triumph Sprint and Trophy - Guzzi Norge are also touring bikes. So are several beemers. These are full blown tourers - Not Sports Tourers. Just not bagger/cruiser style. It still annoys me BIG TIME that there is no faired Rocket. (I really must do something about that). Also I'd be quite happy to tour on a Sports Tourer if I was riding solo. I have. If there are serious bends - they're far easier to push hard. It's almost certain that when the time comes to change bike - it'll be a Trophy/Norge type.
As for FAST - In touring mode this is time point A to point B. So it will depend 100% on the road. A lot of the adventure style bikes would leave an R3 WAAAAAY behind in the Alps. It's chassis simply is not nimble enough. It's NO surprise (to me) that lots of the guys in the EU who do serious mileage (off motorway) use adventure bikes. We have these things called bends.
And add that the R3 has to stop every 220k's or so probably more often if you REALLY hit the gas. Think you'll find that a bike that's slightly "slower" on paper but with greater tank range will take it. Why, because you can simply maintain a constant speed - one you are comfy at - mine happens to be about 80-90mph. Back in the '80's I did a trip with others (I generally travel alone). Took a good 20% longer to get to places I'd already done (and planned accordingly) because they kept having to stop for fuel. I was on an OLD Guzzi - they were on more modern bikes - Kawa750turbos etc.
The R3 is QUICK (acceleration), FAST (top speed) - but if you have to do say 2000miles I think it'd eventually lose out to bikes with greater range. A bike with say a 500mile range and top speed of say 100mph - would lose just about anything on a Loooong run.
Actually I've seen this - one year on a trip from here to the ferry port in Santander. Filling up there was a guy on a GB plated bike next to us also filling. We set off in a little 2.0Tdi car at max 140kph (mostly 125ish - kph) - He shot past us - but we still made it to the ferry in front of him. He'd stopped twice for fuel - we still had 1/2 tank. The look on his face was priceless - he walked over and having established we spoke English asked if we'd taken a short cut - we'd used exactly the same roads.
With passenger - Well I bought the R3 simply because it's spacious for two - And most of our trips are under 200kms each way. i.e. one tank. That or the boss wants a ciggie stop anyway.
An example - My ex-Buell S3T was comfy - was fast enough to ride at comfort over the speed limit all day - had great handling and a 300km range tank - but only solo - too small for two. Barely 90bhp. But only 207kgs.