BMW K1200S Advice

[squid101]

My friend is thinking of trading in his MV Augusta for a BMW K1200S. He is familiar with this site through me and asked me to post about it.

Does anyone have any advice for him (other than saying keep both because he can't).
Does anyone own this bike and can give some feedback?

Thanks

 

[bmcdonau]

I don't own one, but I've ridden one and they are sweet bikes. Fast, better ergonomics than a sport bike and they handle well. What MV Agusta does he have? I'd think the BMW would be more comfortble and have about the same reliability. I think the exotic factor of the MV would a little higher.

 

[cali_rider]

GET A GOOD EXTENDED WARRANTY! after several BMW's they do have their problems. Get a good extended warranty. The first clutch replacemetn will have paid for it.

 

[squid101]

He owns a Brutale 910 probably the S model

 

[Blrfl]

If he does his own wrenching, he may find the BMW difficult to work on. A guy I work with had a K1200GT and replaced it with a ZX14, which was in a crash recently. (He's fine.) He said the one thing that he really liked about the Kaw was that the service manual was actually useful, where his GT's assumed you'd taken BMW's six-month factory course and had a zillion dollars of BMW-specific tools to work on it.

--Mark

 

[bmcdonau]

He owns a Brutale 910 probably the S model

The ergonomics will definitely be different. The 1200S is definitely way more sporty than the ST. That MV is a sweet bike, do you know why he wants to trade?

 

[Chris Parker]

Unfortunately you are probably in the wrong place for advice as this forum is less likely to have both K1200S owners or BMW fans. Check this site out for complete info on owners experiences with the K bikes (best BMW site for Beemerphiles). You will get the GOOD and bad of ownership of said bike.

http://bmwsporttouring.com/index.html

 

[QuantumMechanic]

I owned a 2005 BMW K1200s, one of the blue and white ones for 2 years and I put 9700 miles on it. It is a fine, fast, great riding bike. I rode mine from Houston to MOAB did the canyon loop of nearly the whole state of Utah and back home along the north rim and the Vermillion cliffs. The K12 never even acted like it wanted to be problem. If you romp on that bike it will definitely sink your eyeballs back into your skull somewhere.

I sold it because of the riding ergonomics as they have been called here. While the riding posture is better than most sport bikes, it is still a sport bike. Day-long touring will play on the neck, shoulders, and wrists. It has high foot pegs as do most sport bikes.

I also decide to part with it because I am a farkle freak and you have to be either very clever or rich to add anything to the bike that draws current. The bike has what is known as a can-bus electrical system i.e. one where each device that draws current is registered with an on-board computer. Any change in the current allocated to that device on the bus i.e. it draws more or less than it should and you get an error condition on the bus and that device is locked out and shut down. I found this out trying to change out that asthmatic VW horn that came on the bike with a Stebel. I even used the horn relay and went directly to the battery. It would not work because the relay drew LESS current. If you want to add a farkle you have to notify the computer and set up its current allocation. Of course the BMW dealers have a near monopoly on ownership of these computers and you have to take it to THEM. Amounts to about $80 everytime they hook their computer to your bike's computer to say 'HI'. All of BMW's cars and bikes have the CAN-BUS. I have heard that Mercedes has gone that way as well.

OH-yeah - you can't just hook up a Battery Tender either; it messes with the can-bus. BWM makes a SPECIAL (expenisve) battery tender type device just for you and your pocket book!

Another first for me was that the oil drain plug only allows 15% of the motor oil out. The other 85% has to be sucked out of the rear reservoir with a pump. It will drain out but it takes an hour or longer to drain the oil tank. It t-r-i-c-k-l-e-s out. The oil level is determined/set by two white marks on one of the clear oil retrun hoses. The configuration of the oiling system was no show stopper but it was the first time I had seen it on a bike.

Its STILL a great bike if you want to go fast. It will smoke the rear tire and pull the front one off the ground! It is not a long distance touring bike.

Good luck!

-AL-

 

[cali_rider]

If he does his own wrenching, he may find the BMW difficult to work on. A guy I work with had a K1200GT and replaced it with a ZX14, which was in a crash recently. (He's fine.) He said the one thing that he really liked about the Kaw was that the service manual was actually useful, where his GT's assumed you'd taken BMW's six-month factory course and had a zillion dollars of BMW-specific tools to work on it.

--Mark

after working on my BMW's I can agree with that statement 100%. I went to go but a tool for adjusting the piviot bearings. 300 bucks at BMW dealer so I made my own for 20 bucks.

 

[St. Arbucks]

Check out Advrider.com for all things BMW (and other assorted bikes)

 

[Kempo-STer]

One sweet bike...I would have it in addition to the ST or any sport tourer on in place of..

Don't listen to the harbinger's of "BMW doom" here...

You'll get the same compliants about ST's and their fire causing heat at another non-ST forum..

Only ones that are allowed to complain and the ones I give credence to about a bike are the ones that have OWNED them and sold them if they had problems...eveyone else is being juevenile and taking random complaints and propogating them.. (Imagine..Me calling someone juevenile! LOL)..

We are so guilty of it here because we love our brand...(same anywhere else)

 

[st11ray]

I've never ridden one but my buddy just took his in for a 12k service. It cost him $900!

 

[omsbitaro]

I have one. I have just ridden 1600 miles. It has no problem so far. I like it because it is fast and ergonomics is relatively friendly than others in sport category. I just use it for short ride in the morning of weekend, and it is very refreshing to me.

 

[c-lapier]

I belong to a local BMW club, and I've been told that insurance on a K1200/S is twice as much as a K1200/GT: they still love the bike.

 

[bikeguy]

Hi - this is the Bike Guy

I just put a post in recently about my new bike. I picked up a 2006 K1200S BMW in silver with about 14,000 miles on it for a little over $12,000. I took the bike out immediately on a 250 mile run and did slow speed maneuvers through the city streets in thick traffic down by the ocean, hit the freeway and brought it up to high speed, took it onto the back roads and opened it up and took it through the canyons and twisties. All I can say is -- good golly almighty! That bike is so sweet. It really is a power bike though. If you are into that kind of stuff, then you are going to fall in love. You do have to spend a little more money than other bikes but the resell is there compared to other ones. Allot of people have told me that I will probably not ride my other bikes but I will but I've got to admit that BMW suuuuuuure is nice.

Hope this helps. Don't listen to the negativity. There is lots of it out there. It is just sour grapes. There are problems with all bikes. Do your research, talk to a service manager at the BMW shop, treat the bike with respect and it will honor you back.

Good luck and enjoy - ride safe.

 

[Burger]

And I'm taking delivery of mine on 20 Sep Can't wait. Riding the dealers demo bike, twice, was an eye opening experience. All models of all motorcycles have problems and these are highlighted on internet forums - the forums rarely give an accurate or unbiased view of ownership. Certainly BMW's aren't cheap but at least here in the UK the book service charges are comparable to all other makes. I found the ergonomics of the bike surprisingly very comfortable both on slower urban routes as well as out on the motorways as did my wife on pillion.

Regarding changing the oil and the reason for having to suck most out is because the motor is a dry sump. Nothing wrong with that, just a different approach. That means the oil in the motor is typically held in the oil pathways and therefore has to be forced out.

Anyhow, I'm hoping this is going to be a great bike and am looking forward to the 20th.

Regards,

 

[hondast1300]

Check out the BMWMOA BMW motorcycle owners association web site. You'll find all the dirt there. Note that every once in a while someone posts about an ST problem here. The issues are sparce and different. Lots of owners have the same recurring problems with the BMW genere. Some models more so than others.
robert

 

[nybryan]

He lives by you in islip where exactly is he going to have it serviced?

 

[Burger]

Check out the BMWMOA BMW motorcycle owners association web site. You'll find all the dirt there. Note that every once in a while someone posts about an ST problem here. The issues are sparce and different. Lots of owners have the same recurring problems with the BMW genere. Some models more so than others.
robert

Hi Robert. You should take your rose tinted glasses off

Anyone researching the ST1300 here without asking questions would go straight to the technical or issues forums and see one word more than any other... Heat! Closely followed by instability or wobble concerns, pulling to the left, hot pockets, screen buffeting, uncomfortable seats etc etc. In other words recurring, common, issues and concerns.

I'll admit that the ST doesn't appear to have any inherent catastrophic mechanical failures but you have to put the BMW ones into context of the volume of bikes sold amongst many others. In addition, the vast majority of K bike related issues you read about on the BMW forums are for the early build bikes and from 2006/2007 most, if not all, have been thoroughly ironed out.

I'm not trying to say that one is better than the other and in fact it does appear that of late, BMW have released many models without sufficient testing and build quality whereas Honda are renowned for mechanical reliability.

People generally, apart from a minority of friends, tend to resort to posting on forums when they have a problem and want some help and advice. My point is that anyone using them to research any bike, including the ST1300, is only going to get a one sided view unless they ask. Try it... go and post on one of the BMW boards and say you're thinking of getting a K1200S. Then, just as here, you'll hear from many more than satisfied owners who've had no issues at all and covered huge mileages.

The Honda ST1300 is a great bike for some people, no doubt about it, but so are many BMW's.

Still looking forward immensely to getting mine

Regards,

 

[nybryan]

I rode a GT very nice machine. For me it wasn't so nice that i was going to take the hit selling my used ST and getting a GT. When i looked into the rear end repair cost i was told about 1800 bucks from the dealer. I know its always a roll of the dice when you buy a machine if you will get a good one or a bad one. Knowing I would be stretching the budget to buy a GT I couldn't get around the "what if" the rear end fails. Not having a local dealer for BMW made the decision to decline the purchase. Its a shame in some ways as i found the dealer up in Troy, NY to be extremely pleasant.

How was the gt better, no heat more stable more power