R1200RT vs ST1300

[Excellence]

This topic is fairly old now and so there will probably not be anyone keeping an eye on it but hey-ho...
I apologise to anyone man or woman enough to last until the end) for the length of this singularly boring post.
I've ridden one ST1300 or another since around 2004. At the same time millennia of abuse and old man time have been taking their toll on my body and specifically on my knees and shoulders.
So for a few years I have been looking around for a touring machine that might be able to come close to the intense pleasure that riding the ST can evoke in its rider while at the same time allowing me to handle the machine both with engine off and engine on more easily than the endless struggles while engine off, that I was starting to have with the ST.
Friends have for many of those years been talking to me about switching to the RT in its 1200 guise but it didn't quite cut it. Given how 'pretty' the ST was and still is, any newcomer had to appeal at least as much - sadly, the 1200 didn't.
Then when the RT/TFT came on the scene I started to take more interest. I sat on one at my local (never to be troubled by me again - ever!) BMW Motorrad shop in Aberdeen and raised it from its kickstand with such ease - I was astounded especially given that it's about 10kg heavier! Getting the ST with its then magnificent and still unsurpassed V4/Box/Shaft combination up from its recumbent position was becoming way more difficult especially when he was loaded for a trip.
The next logical stage was to test ride one but I honestly didn't feel the need. The machine even whilst stationary, engine off honestly felt right - plain and simple! At last BMW had done it - I was hooked and I set about finding a deal.
That done we drove from Aberdeen to Fleet to retrieve the bike.
Unmarked with 5k on it, exhaust flap replaced, timing chain tensioners updated, serviced, matched topbox , '21RT 'Elegance', absolutely stock with only the radio option absent and all for around £4k less than a stealership would want for it.
The first time I rode an RT was riding this one up the ramps (unknowingly fighting the HSC system) into my box trailer to bring it home.
Suffice to say - perfection on two wheels! Easy to move around engine off, even easier to handle at slow speeds and easier still to ride with accuracy and with effortless progress and manoeuvrability. The comfort it affords both of us while riding is superb (that's the one area in which for the rider, the ST was seriously deficient).
It's noisier than the ST and has greater vibration levels than the ST but still, as an entire package the '21 RT has for me assumed the mantle of 'King of two wheeled Kings'.
Given my age now, I won't be buying another motorcycle - I've got a wee Moto Guzzi 750 that will stay with me until I pop my clogs because it's so easy to use and always brings a smile to my face. In a few years I'll probably have to draw my horns in and move away from two wheels to put my kit car back on the road having given it a new engine and an overhaul in readiness for that eventuality.
So, while I've felt the need to make some - to my eye tasteful - and useful changes to the machine, my thanks to BMW for the '21 RT but not to my local Motorrad shop. Their attitude to their customers - potential or actual is why I bought a GS-911 - brilliant bit of kit by the way!