I have had the K1600GT now about 10 months and I have just over 6000 miles on her now. First the good: Overall I absolutely love the bike and I have gotten use to the Duolever front suspension. I'm no longer afraid to throw her into corners at speed and I have gained my confidence with her. My GT has every option that BMW offers in the USA for this model including the ground lighting kit and reverse. The Pro Shifter is very cool and work very well especially with down shifts, burping the throttle absolutely flawlessly, it's especially fun if your in a racing frame of mind and you want to hear that 6 cylinder sing---really sweet! Obviously the engine on this bike is a smooth as silk and pulls effortlessly to triple digits. I'm getting decent mileage around 44 mpg as I initially reported when I opened this thread. The electronic suspension works well. I weight around 215 pounds and prefer to keep it set to 1 passenger with baggage unless I'm on a really poorly paved road I keep it off of soft. I have gotten use to the drive-by-wire but BMW really needs to work on this. However the RAIN throttle setting works very well as I rode throw incredibly heavy rains while heading to TN from FL, the bike behaved extremely well. My factory Bridestone tires I'm thinking will need to be replaced around 8000 miles. They are wearing as I expected for a bike of this size.
Now what I don't like, I have 3. The factory radio is total crap especially if your try to use it with Bluetooth. The audio quality is so bad I'm surprised BMW hasn't received a class action lawsuit. The radio module is under the seat and manufactured by ALPINE. I'm absolutely amazed that this serious deficiency made it through ALPINE engineering and even more amazed that BMW signed off on it and permitted this into production on their flagship model. Some owners have fitted a separate Bluetooth module to the bike to remedy the issue and if your OK with using the speakers the stereo is acceptable at speeds under 60 mph. This is my biggest nit pick because I like to listen to SirusXM and plan on being in the middle of nowhere when I ride out west. There are alternatives with a cell phone but you lose all of the integration with the bikes controls and dash display. It is very disappointing to me. The BMW branded GARMIN GPS is fantastic for what I need it to do. The curvy roads setting worked exceptionally well while I was in Lebanon TN. No complaints here. What's especially nice is that it is removable and you can bring it in to your PC and road maps etc or down road recent roads you have driven. It has tons of features that would require several paragraphs to explain. It is well worth the money in my opinion. To own a bike like this and not have the intergrated GPS would be disappointing.
Now onto number 2 dislike. The SERVICE DUE light is not user reset-able unless you spend a small fortune on a device called a GS-911 Diagnostic tool. Most owners go for the WI-FI model which will set you back around $399.00. Most dealer will charge you around $35 to reset it it I've been told. Like many of you I like to do most of my own maintenance and having to go to the dealer to have this reset in my view is absolutely criminal. It also offers other diagnostic features with the bikes numerous other CANBUS driven systems. In my mind this should be user reset-able under the bikes menu driven systems. However since everything on this bike is CANBUS driven perhaps visiting the dealer yearly for software updates isn't a bad idea either.
And now my third minor dislike. This bikes menus are driven by a wheeled device on the left handle bar. It's easy to use but BMW doesn't allow you to customize it at all. There is a button you can use to bring you to your favorite menu but otherwise you often having to scroll thru multiple menus to get to the one you want which requires you to look down and take your eyes off the road. Let me give you an example. In the summer you're probably not going to want to see the heated seat or heat grip menus. I'd like to be able to turn these these off during the summer months. Granted it's only two menus but I feel like I'm constantly spinning this thing
And as to not end on a negative note I love the bikes cruise control, self cancelling turn signals and hill start assist. The gear display on the dash is really nice too. I've used the electric reverse a few times and it is handy if you're on a minor hill however living in FL even minor hills are hard to find. Again this is a beautiful machine but like every Germany it's ridiculously expensive. I have no regrets as the smiles per mile are worth it especially since I have several more years of warranty left.
