Posted May 20, 2005 Email this page

First impression: BMW K1200S—the "S" is for "shocking"

There's no doubt that the K1200S is the most eagerly anticipated new model from BMW in more than a decade.

When the news surfaced last year that 82-year-old BMW would be going head-to-head with the Japanese manufacturers in the open-sportbike class, it was nothing short of shocking.

After all, this is a motorcycle manufacturer with a reputation for going its own way. So a 1,200cc four-cylinder engine, mounted across the frame, just like Honda's CBR1100XX, Kawasaki's ZX-12R and Suzuki's Hayabusa, was, to put it mildly, out of character.

Then there were, uh, "issues:" In an initial press intro last summer, there were reports of fuel-injection surging of the kind that, until recently, had plagued some of the company's R-model twins. Plus, a batch of camshafts came up faulty, meaning that production had to be halted, and bikes called back.

So when a group of U.S. motojournalists gathered in California to finally climb aboard the production version of the newest Beemer, there was a lot of anticipation.

How does the new K1200S fulfill the expectations that have been building since last July? Here are some quick, one-day impressions.

The seating position is surprisingly relaxed for a sportbike. The footpegs don't require leg contortions, even for taller riders, and the flat bars don't put a lot of weight on your wrists, even sitting still. Fire up the 1,157cc engine, though, and there's a tendency to rev quickly when you blip the throttle that tells you this isn't like previous BMWs.

Get under way, and you discover that the time spent sorting out the fuel injection has been well-spent. The new K pulls smoothly, even at light throttle openings.

The powerband is touring-bike soft at the bottom, but when you pass through 4,000 to 6,000 rpm, there's a tingle that tells you the engine is waking up. Wind up from there, and there's serious power available. BMW claims the motor makes 167 horsepower at 10,250 rpm on the way to an 11,000-rpm redline, which would put it in the hunt with the competition from Japan. Only a run on an independent dyno will verify those claims, but based on feel, it doesn't seems impossible that the new K does make almost double the power of some recent Beemer twins.

BMW lists the dry weight of the new machine at 499 pounds (we suspect there was some pressure from the marketing side to come up with a number that started with a "4"), and the wheelbase at a whopping 61.8 inches, which would make the K longer than, say, a Harley-Davidson Sportster or a Honda ST1300.

Don't believe those numbers, though. In motion, the K1200S feels like a much smaller machine. The trick to making the bike feel lighter and shorter has to do with the new Duolever front suspension, the latest result of BMW's experiments with alternative front-end design over the past decade.

Like the Telelever front end it replaces, the Duolever uses a single front shock mounted between two arms that control up and down movement of the wheel. The idea behind that design is to separate steering forces from braking and acceleration forces affecting the front wheel. The Telelever has succeeded on that front for years, but at a price.

As a traditional fork compresses under braking into a corner, it steepens the steering-head angle, making the bike turn in quickly. Since the Telelever gets rid of that change in steering-head angle, some Telelever-equipped Beemers have been a bit slow to initiate a turn. But the Duolever system on the K1200S appears to eliminate that lazy response. At parking-lot speeds the bike feels a bit massive, but once you get rolling, the steering response is light and quick.

Plus, the Duolever means that nothing you do with the throttle or brake
will upset the handling in a corner. You can roll off the throttle or brake in mid-corner without throwing the bike off its line. Better yet, screwing on the throttle early in a corner doesn't cause the bike to run wide.

As a result, even an ordinary rider can feel like a Superbike hero driving the new K hard out of a corner onto the next straight. We got to test all those abilities in a 250-mile ride that included some of northern California's most scenic, and twistiest, stretches of pavement. And at the end of the day, there were a lot of smiles from all involved.

It my have taken BMW 82 years to produce its first true sportbike, but the result is very impressive.

The K1200S is in dealerships now, at a base price of $15,750. Anti-lock brakes, BMW's new Electronic Suspension Adjustment system, and two-tone paint are extra-cost options.

Watch for more on the BMW K1200S in the August issue of American Motorcyclist.