BMW K1600 GT/GTL

Press review is in the first half of February, somewhere in South Africa. Interesting indeed, those prices are higher than I was expecting

Well congratulations, as going by the YowToob videos it flows gracefully like a Bentley and is probably as relaxing as a gentle massage, soothing your glutes all the way to Adalucia I'm sure. Although I do hear used Wings, Rune's, Valkyries, Benneli Sixes and CBX6's are a tad more affordable!

Glad to see the mutley-struddle is a keeper. I'll need to keep taping yourself, John, Stagecoach, Monty et all for tips post buying mine - that is, if I don't get too carried away with myself and order a carbon red Diavel first! Actually wouldn't a small sticker of Dick Darstardly's Mutley with Mutley-Strada scripted underneath it, be a good addition to a black rat (get out of jail free card) sticker on the screen! ;-D Although a Monkey-Strada one would be top notch too!

Kate used to have a thing for old Scarlet, so she's already sent my invite, sealed with a royal quedge! ;-D

Sky Sport... it has cable TV then... must be a difficult to drive around pulling a cable though.

That thing is car with two wheels... central locking, electric windows, ash tray??

If it has Sky Sport than I've already found a flaw. It must have a beer dispenser as well when screen is tuned in Football or Rubgy.
The possibility of turning the satellite dish into a Sail would also make the BMW the first petrol/wind hybrid bike in the world.

I ordered one last week for delivery at launch (or thereabouts) to replace 1300GT. The GT SE version with ESA and "Preps for nav" options is shown as £18125 on my invoice with a note saying all figures to be confirmed.

1k for a radio !!! Bloody hell are they supplying it stuffed full of cocaine?

The GT does have a little more horses and torques than the MTS, but it is also significantly heavier, so I would have thought given probably similar gearing for a similar top speed, the MTS would have been close performance wise, especially in point 2 where the MTS feels particularly strong. Are you sure those figures aren't for the much lighter K-S? Where are the figures from?

I think you are right the six won't be faster than the GT4, it's made for serene smoothness. The YouTube vids show it gliding like a Bentley Coupe, whilst sounding like two Triumph 1050's being ridden together, exuding a noticeably loud gear whine whistle. Quite a satisfying sound by all accounts.

" probably equal or better than the S up to twice the speed limit"
... Fair comments, in the main. My own experience was that I rode a GT back to back with an S on exactly the same route and the S felt noticeably quicker and was much more aerodynamic producing less buffeting, as well as having it's agility benefits. It must be lighter even without the GT panniers fitted because of it's smaller fairing. And speed tests ought to be conducted in the spec sold (with panniers, else we might as well add them to the KS or remove the mirrors from the GT, etc)) which hits more air and weighs more. Isn't the KS 175 bhp and the GT a smidgeon less too? The clutch is certainly crap! :-D

Just 'how' much faster is the unfaired Streetfighter then? I saw just over 150 on the clocks of the MTS and it might have gone a bit faster but I'd have missed my turn off! It didn't feel slow getting there either. And to qualify that my daily ride, and what I rode to the dealer on, was a well used S1000RR. I.e. I'm not saying it's got a better engine or is faster than the K1300S (which I owned prior to the SRR) or the race rep because very obviously it hasn't all all counts. But my seat of the pants data logger still told me that there was much in it with the slower (than S) GT, particularly in the ever useful 50-90 mph real world mid-range. Maybe I'm wrong though, because I probably changed gear at around 70 percent of the available range and didn't redline them down a drag strip, which might have produced a different result.

I don't see the K16 as a K13 replacement. I see it as a K12LT-SE replacement. It's not about being the fastest lardy tourer, it's about being the most sophisticated. I.e. E.g. You don't see Honda panicking to get their Goldwing on a slim fast power gain plan, because that's not it's intended target audience, and yet it must achieve it's set sales figures, else they would change it. BMW want a slice of that pie. And talking of pie, over here in the land of the cardiac arrest luncheons performance over 70 mph is largely superfluous and so comfort and refinement is much more important, I'm actually bored asking Americas how big their engines are to be told in response 'oh it's a V6/V8' and when further elaborating on the cubic capacity they look a little baffled. K13 embarrassing agility might be very important to Brits, but I think BMW hopes to sell shed loads more in countries that just don't care about that and are more interested in the '6' kudos and clever angling lighting. This all said, maybe the handling, like the Wing, will defy it's spec. They have, after all, done some trick thinks like made the front of the frame/headstock area a magnesium hybrid mix, added a very handy looking frame and are getting far better at producing what people are 'asking' for rather than what they 'think' people want. It's a strange a brave new world - BMW producing a bike capable of WSB podiums and Ducati's best global selling being a trail styled road bike - whatever next, a flat-tracker from Royal Enfield! ;-D