Is it a K1200GT or a K1200GT?

[RichEdwards]

A bit of a rant here---

Why did BMW name its new K bike with the same designation as its old bike--K1200GT. It causes all kinds of problems with ordering parts and accessories since these are very different bikes. My latest e-mail to Motobins, where I have purchased CD rom service disks before, asks them if their K1200GT service CD rom is for the new bike or the old bike. I ordered oil filters and would have been sent the wrong ones if I didn't make the sales person double-check to see if he was sending me the filters for a 2007 model. Why not a different name for the new GT, like K1250GT or K1200GTA?

[allikanbe]

When I was at Morton's BMW in Fredricksburg, VA today, they had a K1200R Sport tagged as a K1200RS. Big difference in bikes and easy to confuse someone new to BMWs or when ordering parts.

[Calvin (no socks)]

Rich try this, New K-GT....Old K-GT....

[chrisolson]

Gotta agree , a poor choice since its so radically different with nothing similar at all between them.

 

Don't see any real solution. I've seen GT2 put forward, but it didn't seem to catch on. So, I've just taken to reference it as an '06 GT when talking about mine....some get it some don't...but new and old works too

[Endobob]

How about RGT and EGT. Reasonably priced and expensive GT!

[tallman]

They shoulda unretired the slash.

K1200GT/2

Or would that be half a GT?

[Weyman]

I can't figure out why BMW kept the "K" designation for the new bikes at all. The new engines are nothing like the flying brick. Perhaps in BMW-speak, "K" is the equivalent of "inline four" of whatever configuration. After all, they kept the "R" designation when they changed from the airhead to the oilhead. "R" equals boxer twin, I suppose.

 

OK, so after thinking through this, I understand the BMW prefixes. It's based on the number of cylinders, right?

 

Oh, wait a minute. BMW has been making the "F" series of 650 cc singles for several years. They just brought out a new line of 650 singles and they call them "F" bikes, right? Wrong. The new singles have a "G" prefix.

 

So what about those F800s that are on the showroom floor? Vertical twins.

 

I give up!! "Programs! Get yer programs here. Can't tell the players without a program."

[Paul Mihalka]

And then there was the K75, the smoothest three-cylinder you can think of, still dear in my memory. I would still love a 900cc K-triple. By the way, the top two men in BMWMOA's 2006 mileage contest ride K75 bikes - but out-ridden by Grandma Ardys on her R1100RT.

[Weyman]

Paul, by golly you are right about the K75 triple. I should have remembered that; the first time I visited a BMW dealership (you know, shortly after uttering the obligatory phrase, "I didn't know BMW made motorcycles") was just after the K75S had been introduced. I picked up a brochure and spent the next few weeks drooling over the red S. I was too broke to buy one, though, at the princely sum of $6500 or whatever it was.

 

So giving homage to the late lamented K75 series, I must amend my understanding of the meaning of the K prefix.

 

The "K" designation shall henceforth mean "inline 4-ish".

[Woodie]

K = Kompact engine. As opposed to the wide, opposed twin layout.

[tallman]

Paul,

I wonder if you could sell a K 900 triple with a 28" seat height?

Only every one you could get.

We can only dream....

[kosmas]

Somehow irrelevant as a comparison.

My other bike, the one I'm married to, is also compact in engine design, has a little more HP and torque at the back wheel but it is very hard to find. I'm a new owner of K100RS and learning to love it, but it will still be my mistress. The other bike weighs about 65% of the brick, the engine size is half (more or less) and if this is called a brick, that one is a little cube. A square four 2stroke with rotary valves (the only way you can have a square four).

Here's a picture of it, not a good one, but you get the idea from the pipes. If you were to compare powercurves from a dyno, the integral (sum of area) under the curve from 1000-8500 rpm the area would be 10 times that of the Suzuki. From 8500-11000 it is more than 10 times that of the BMW, and from 11+ infinite since the BMW wouldn't make it that far up!

It seems as I'm getting to like to ride the mistress more than the wife, but what's new