K1200GT Long Term Test

Worth high 20s, the latest version of a sport-touring 'brick' leans very much on the long-distance side of the performance game. Big fairing, heated everything, hard luggage, lots of power, packed into a plot which looks smaller than full-house touring kit such as the LT.

I've been treating the toy as my own - which involves thinking up some new adventures to make the most of it, riding it daily around the city, and working out what needs to be considered for the next decent trip. What I have in mind is a squirt across to South Oz to visit Cousin Russell and his merry band of criminals.

Fresh gadget

We all love fresh gadgets and get a rush of enthusiasm to find out everything possible about them, which involves looking, touching, feeling, fiddling and riding. So far I've worked out how to set up the seat in the upper of two positions, raise the rear suspension ride height, and conduct a thorough 'survey' of the toy.

The things I like outnumber the aspects I don't, and let's start with some basics, such as how it looks. A car tester, years ago, told me BMW had nailed making the driver feel good and, now, I reckon this has transferred across to motorcycles. The mostly analogue dash looks terrific and flies in the face of performance motorcycle wisdom (dirt or road) that says you must have a minimalist digi read-out that weighs nano-grams. This one takes the luxury approach, with four dials, plus enough indicator lights to qualify as a serious Christmas tree.

General fit and finish is great. The paint seems deep, while many of the alloy parts (exposed frame members near the swingarm, and rear luggage rack) are slick. Panel fit couldn't be a lot better (consistent, but not tight), and it's nice to see high-quality fairing in-fill panels that are colour-matched to the rest of the machine. All up, you can see where a lot of the money went.

From a touring point of view, the mid-to-lower fairing is terrific - lots of coverage. However the screen is only so-so for anyone measuring 190cm-plus.

Bimm's pannier-mounting system is the best out there - secure and very user-friendly. On this bike you lose a lot of space in the left bag to the muffler, and I'd regard a topbox as compulsory. Partly to keep a pillion happy and also to provide luggage space when you ditch the very wide panniers for solo city use.

Call me a sook, but I'm a fan of heated gizmos on a motorcycle for mid-winter rides. The GT has heated handlebars and seats, and I've also used heated vests on other toys. The gist is that heat assistance helps to keep your body temp up in awful conditions, so you can concentrate your energy on riding rather than staying warm. In fact you arrive at point B feeling decidedly smug.

Up 'til recently, I thought heated grips were good and heated seats completely ridiculous. That was until pillion Ms A tried out the latter in foul conditions on the K1200 LT some time ago and asked to take a set home. I still think a heated seat for the rider is absurd, but a good idea for a pillion, who might also appreciate a well-designed set of heated hand grips. They've got bugger-all to keep them amused, so they might as well be comfortable.

Dynamics

The mix of sports-touring riding position and strictly touring steering are an interesting combination - reminiscent of Kawasaki's GTR1000. You're leaning a little forward, but punting the GT into a turn requires a deliberate approach. Assisted in part by being a heavy bike with a long wheelbase, fitted with a fairly aggressive two-stage steering damper. 

When you play with the latter, you discover it slows the turn-in, and hardens considerably if you try to swing the handlebars rapidly over a wide range. Reading between the lines, I suspect it's there to settle the bars in most situations and kill any potential tank-slapper, without interfering with a quickish side-to-side flick on sport roads.

Braking works well, with a combination of ABS as a safety net and electric power-assist. You could lose the assistance - an unnecessary complication in my view - but the feel at the levers is very good and streets ahead of some of the initial attempts at this combination.

The powerplant lacks sex-appeal, but has serious low and mid-range performance - possibly the best in this class. It has the potential to make the GT effective on sport roads, so long as you get your head around its considerable bulk.

Holding that plot back is the gearshift, which combines an ordinary lever placement (too low, adjustable, and needs work), with an over-long throw which requires complete release before snicking the next cog. You can ride around it, but BMW has produced much better in this area.

Mystery screening

For me, the recipe for creating an electric screen that actually works seems to be a complete mystery. I've ridden behind several examples (by Suzuki, Yamaha, Honda and BMW) over the years and not one has really added to the quality of the ride. Usually the problem from my point of view is the screens are designed for medium-sized riders, rather than tall folk, which can be fixed by buying an aftermarket version.

Adjusting the screen on the run is a nice idea, but essentially useless as a simple manual adjustment will do much the same thing - set it for the rider and forget. The only time I can see an on-the-run screen adjustment working is if you have something so tall (on a full tourer) you look through it in dry weather and want to improve your vision by lowering it when the rain hits.

Something I am in love with is the GT's stock cruise control - it should be on all sports-tourers. Bimm's version is super-accurate and easy to use, and takes away much of the hassle of keeping a quick toy under control along heavily-policed roads.

Don't knock it until you've tried it.

As for the Cuz Russ run - watch this space...

By Guy Allen