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Is the BMW K1600 line kaput?


bendbill

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https://www.k1600forum.com/threads/k1600-is-retiring-according-to-motorrad-magazine-german.197259/

 

The 3-day old thread on the K1600 discussion board runs 8 pages.   Varied speculation as to why:  anemic sales, no significant changes in 10 years, Euro 5 regs, boxer to be the "flagship" [whatever that means],  etc. 

 

Interestingly, there were none denying the rumor

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There have been rumors in the past on the death of the boxer too.   They never came to pass either.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.   

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It may be that they’ll replace or update the engine considerably, but I don’t see them abandoning the segment. The K16 has an avid following, and BMW has, in a general sense, built its success in recent years by having a broad spectrum of models. 

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K16 is a very small segment of overall Motorrad sales. If they can't economically get it to Euro5 compliance they'll terminate it rather than rely exclusively on non-European sales for profitability. This doesn't surprise me at all.

 

Consider what Yamaha did evolving the FJR: 3 generations, new transmission, mechanical -> electronic engine controls, and they ran that platform for 20 years. Compare that with what BMW did with the K16 - restyled, added 2 models with floorboards but the guts were unchanged. Doesn't seem like their hearts were in it.

 

Think about what BMW had done with the rest of their products since the K16 was introduced, The boxer platform was redesigned with a new engine, then the engine was significantly upgraded (shiftcam). The parallel twins have been completely redesigned twice with a new engine each time. A new parallel twin has been introduced (F950). The S1000 has been redesigned. The S1000 engine was re-tuned and put in a different frame (XR series).

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fourteenfour

In my book, as I told my dealer more than once, if I wanted a BMW with a six cylinder I would have a BMW car. I always saw the K1600 as just too damn big.

 

I enjoyed the K1200/K1300 generation of motors and the bikes using them. However the K1600 just seemed to have jumped the shark. I even put the R18 into this category. It went past the point of large into obnoxious. I am not talking specifically about weight; though the R18 is scary in this regard; but this fixation of bigger and bigger motors instead of concentrating on making them better. BMW never should have built motorcycles that are ponderous compared to their existing models.

 

BMW like other manufacturers are up against a wall that is rapidly approaching, no more petrol powered vehicles sold as new and this within fifteen years or less.

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2 hours ago, fourteenfour said:

I enjoyed the K1200/K1300 generation of motors and the bikes using them. However the K1600 just seemed to have jumped the shark.

Have you ridden a k16 much? I put a bunch of miles on a K1200LT and have ridden some on a friend’s K16. I don’t know the specs, but the 16  doesn’t feel any bigger than the 12 - it DOES have a lot more usable torque though :)

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It would be a shame as the K16 is in a completely different league from the K bikes that came before, whereas the R bikes have some semblance of what came before. 

The K16 is amazing for what it is........

Now I gotta go find a clean used K16GT before they're all gone:5188:

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The retirement of mega touring bikes, including the K16 would not surprise me at all.  I still say the K16GT is the best long haul machine you can buy today.  As day to day usage vs. long haul capability became more important to me, the K16 started spending more and more time sitting on his center stand while I was out on the RS.  That and the service work it required grew tiresome. 

 

It is an amazing machine for a big pig of a bike.  I affectionately named mine Moby the white whale.  

 

1528170099_BMWK16GTTexasHillcountry.thumb.JPG.1ec8ad054a13a6185f0fcd8a134a3eb4.JPG

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fourteenfour
15 hours ago, szurszewski said:

Have you ridden a k16 much? I put a bunch of miles on a K1200LT and have ridden some on a friend’s K16. I don’t know the specs, but the 16  doesn’t feel any bigger than the 12 - it DOES have a lot more usable torque though :)

only less than an hour and that awhile go. simply put, I haven't found a bike that felt under powered ever, well maybe that G310R, but once you get near a liter I never find a bike lacking.

 

Compared to my former GT it felt bloated. Being short of inseam any bike that makes me pause in parking lots is not a bike I will ever own. Since I spent most my time with RTs the GT just felt overweight. Now on my previous K1300GT it was narrow enough in seat I could easily flat foot it and it was seriously fast enough for any riding I wanted to do. Still never understood why Ks seemed harder to put on centerstand than Rs.

 

Still it comes down to, I have zero, no make that less than zero, desire to ever own an inline six like this. To me it just a silly arrangement and maintenance apparently was never going to be cheap and we now know their reliability is questionable at best. Yeah they fixed their transmission issue but that was an amazingly bad screw up and the work to fix it really showed me how overly complex that bike is.

 

If I stay with BMW it will be Rs all the way

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22 hours ago, WBinDE said:

K16 is a very small segment of overall Motorrad sales. If they can't economically get it to Euro5 compliance they'll terminate it rather than rely exclusively on non-European sales for profitability. This doesn't surprise me at all.

 

 

I think the same.

BMW is dropping the K1600 because there is no great demand for the luxo-tourer and all its variant in America or Europe. Their best seller is the GS by far. The RT and its variants will remain due to the GS popularity and their development costs are shared. And for better or for worse, they have a new engine frame platform with the R-18 that will be available in cruiser, bagger and soon in tourer form. Except for Honda with its Wing, the tourer market in America is mostly large V-Twins. It makes sense for BMW to join that trend but I don't see how they could develop and support 3 Tour bikes. One has to go and unfortunately it will be the K1600.

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I had considered the K1600's, but maintenance costs and overall complexity, not to mention weight overweighed the beauty of my R1250RT simple twin cylinders.
I wouldn't be surprised if BMW has considered developing a 4 cylinder Boxer to their line-up.  
Now that would be interesting - 40+ years after the Honda's first flat-4 Goldwing...just say'n. 

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@robofavo fun fact: a boxer four and a flat four aren't the same thing. Well, not quite, they're both flat, but boxers are a specific subset of flat. Boxer fours have one crankshaft journal per cylinder, four total, so each pair of left/right pistons moves in together and out together, producing evenly spaced power strokes 360° apart. A "regular" flat four can be thought of as a 180° V-4; it has one crank journal per pair of cylinders, two total, so each left/right pair of pistons goes left together and right together; the result is that the pair produces unevenly spaced power strokes 180° or 540° apart. In both cases the result is four power strokes 180° apart per two revolutions, though.

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Wow @fourteenfour doesn't like the K1600, never heard that before...:facepalm:

 

Sounds like a victim of Euro 5 from what I've read on the 1600 board.  Euro 4 already did a number on the 1600, throttle response sucks on the MY18 and up.  Bren tuning has a fix too bad it takes an after market tune to address the issue.  

 

Fantastic engine and outside of a waterpump I've have had 50000 trouble free miles.  Nothing better for two up sport touring.  Love my GS but the big girl still gets most of my attention.  Niche motorcycles for sure but I'll hate to see them go. 

 

 

 

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The sound was sweet, I miss it. Didn’t know the newer bikes need an aftermarket fix to make them run correctly. That kinda sucks.

 

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I have heard the sound of those K1600GT exhausts blowing by me doing a high rate of speed; I mean high.   The sound is still evident as I made a feeble attempt to keep up on the RT and the big girl quickly made its way in the distance.  :whistle:

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fourteenfour
13 hours ago, MikeB60 said:

Wow @fourteenfour doesn't like the K1600, never heard that before...:facepalm:

 

 

I do admit to looking forward to it when it was announced. However reality does not always match expectations.

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My riding buddy had a K1600GT (the very first vintage released to the US) when he traded it in for a GSA I told him the ONLY thing I will miss about your owning the K1600 is the sound of that engine firing up in the morning!  Sweeeeet. 

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Met a guy with a 1600 with aftemarket pipes of some kind, it sounded really good. Wish I could remember the name of the pipes, they had a nice rumble, sounded a little angry getting on them.

I rode one, I found it a little top heavy and tall for me, haven't ridden a B yet. While the RT was also tall, it wasn't as top heavy or weigh as much. Time to take another RT for a ride.

 

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On 1/2/2021 at 5:44 PM, WBinDE said:

@robofavo fun fact: a boxer four and a flat four aren't the same thing. Well, not quite, they're both flat, but boxers are a specific subset of flat. Boxer fours have one crankshaft journal per cylinder, four total, so each pair of left/right pistons moves in together and out together, producing evenly spaced power strokes 360° apart. A "regular" flat four can be thought of as a 180° V-4; it has one crank journal per pair of cylinders, two total, so each left/right pair of pistons goes left together and right together; the result is that the pair produces unevenly spaced power strokes 180° or 540° apart. In both cases the result is four power strokes 180° apart per two revolutions, though.

 Interesting speculation that doesn't fit with facts.

 

Once upon a time the esteemed British magazine CAR tested a Ferrari that featured a flat 12 engine.  The article headline was "In the Clearing Stands a Boxer."

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On 1/11/2021 at 9:36 PM, lkchris said:

 Interesting speculation that doesn't fit with facts.

 

Once upon a time the esteemed British magazine CAR tested a Ferrari that featured a flat 12 engine.  The article headline was "In the Clearing Stands a Boxer."

Haha! Kudos for the shoutout to Simon & Garfunkle. 

 

Headline writers have been known to make mistakes, especially when straining for a catchy headline. Wikipedia: "The Ferrari flat-12 engine family is a series of 180° V12 DOHC petrol engines ..." Also: 

 

 

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On 1/3/2021 at 4:29 AM, wbw6cos said:

I have heard the sound of those K1600GT exhausts blowing by me doing a high rate of speed; I mean high.   The sound is still evident as I made a feeble attempt to keep up on the RT and the big girl quickly made its way in the distance.  :whistle:

 

While riding my RT on my way to Mayer Saddles, I saw an opportunity to pass some cars on a long stretch of two lane.  There were about 9 that I wanted to pass.  (actually only one, that was holding up the rest of us).  As I moved out to pass, I got by 5 of them, and pulled in as I saw some oncoming traffic.  As I pulled in, I heard the roar of my brother's GTL screaming by, getting the other four cars with plenty of room to spare. 

 

I got a GTL within a year.   

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