2006/2007 Bmw K1200 GT

[MCRIDER007]

We don't have official GT pricing yet, but I'll bet this rule of thumb will hold true.  The 2006 FJR will list at $13.5K, the GT probably about $19K - about one-third more.

At 19K the BMW will be 41 percent higher than the 13.5K FJR. What I was trying to demonstrate in the example above is that one-third less is not the same as one-third more. However you want to do the math, you are not comparing apples to apples by looking just at MSRP. You need to compare the "out the door" costs.

 

[rdfrantz]

They don't seem to have as good a handle on vibration control, so (still guessing), I'd expect that power is going to come at considerable expense to cormfort.

UMMMMMMMM have you ever rode a K-bike. The only thing it is great at is how freaking smooth it is. Now their are other issues with the bike, but vibrations is not one of them.

Agree. I have only ridden a K bike once. An 02 I believe it was, K-RS. I was shocked at how absolutely smooth it was.

I currently own a 2002 K1200RS, and have put 60,000 miles + on it, 7000 in a row in a cross US and back trip in September.

That model "K-bike" is vastly different than the current one using a horizontal, longitutinally mounted inline four-cyclinder. It's engine is isolation mounted in an addtional 75 pound frame - with and engine still carrying the weight to allow it to be a stressed frame member as it was in K100 and K1100 versions. It is smooth, for the rider, though my hand does go numb on the throttle grip. But that engine is still vibrating like crazy down there.

The current K-bike uses a transverse, leaned forward motor like the FJR. The current K1200S, and K1200R using that engine and its mounting both buzz the bars beyond acceptable levels to me. Particularly if such were present in a Sport Tourer that was likely to be ridden hours at a time.

This bike, the K1200GT, has all the same new engineering, or lack of it. As I said, "Lately, BMW has demonstrated and inability to 'work things all the way through'. I don't expect their Sport Tourer to be without some glaring faults, not just "shortfalls". While certain "phenomanon" could be considered "shortfall", on a $20,000US bike, I'd tend to view those as "faults".

Finding out how the new model effects riders, and what they think about that will have to await its release. Attributing characteristics to it based on the prior model sport tourer doesn't seem at all valid considering the vast engineering and design differences.

Best wishes.

 

[Jkern1]

MC how do you compare out the door price? So let say that you get OTD price on FJR for 11.5K, under your formula the BMW would be 15.3KOTD.

11.5K X 1.33 =15.3K

I think that the BMW would be a pretty good deal at 15.3K. I'm thinking more like $17.2K.

 

[rdfrantz]

BMW final drives = Yamaha ticking. Both are problems

That's kinda like saying two people have medical problems... but that's where the similarities end.

Ticking issues = migraine headache

Final drive failure = death (as in, you're stranded on the side of the road with a dead machine! ) :lol:

This simply isn't true. A wide variety of BMW final drive issues get lumped into the term "final drive failure" and most are relatively benign involving oil leakage from seals, excessive play in the bearings, and other things that while serious, will generally get you home without major issue.

On my R1100S, I had a minor rear seal leak at the beginning of a 6K trip. I monitored the leakage but it never dropped enough to bother topping off. At the end of the trip, it was a fairly minor repair. 30K miles later, no problems.

And except for the catastrophic rear spline failure problem (which is relatively rare) the repairs on BMW final drives are probably an order of magnitude less involved than pulling the head on an FJR engine and replacing valve guides.

Six to one, half dozen to the other in my book.

- Mark

"Less involved"?

Really, the seal problems are the most common, and they only cost about $300 to fix.

Next most common seems to be crown wheel bearing failure. That occured to me during my last trip. Irony is I had scheuled to have all the "wheel" bearings replaced, but then decided to take the K1200RS on the trip rather than the FJR.

That cost $600 because the gear set was damaged as well. And that very much was right up against the edge of "Death" as Warchild put it. Perhaps mine from a crash had I not become aware of what felt like a front tire problem soon enough.

Perhaps putting a finer point on it, models prior to the new R and K series, up until 2005, have demonstrated much more abundant drive line seal failures, some of which ruin cluthes, as well as hugely destrutive clutch spline failures. All those require the bike be actually split in half to repair. Not only is that very expensive, but it is not something we see happening to other manufactuers' motorcycles - at all!!! Indeed, it's a a result of BMW's "unique design". Something I've become increasingly wary of.

Best wishes.

 

[charismaticmegafauna]

Much talk last weekend at a m/c get-together about local "across the frame" K1200S clutch basket failures w/accompanying metal "swarf" digested throughout. Anecdotal, yes -- but not good just the same....

 

[MCRIDER007]

MC how do you compare out the door price?  So let say that you get OTD price on FJR for 11.5K, under your formula the BMW would be 15.3KOTD.
11.5K X 1.33 =15.3K

I think that the BMW would be a pretty good deal at 15.3K.  I'm thinking more like $17.2K.

Your math is correct if you are trying to "back into" what the BMW would have to cost to be only one-third more than a $11.5K FJR. If you want to see how much percentage higher one item is than another, then you have to divide the cost of the higher item by the cost of the lower item. If you are comparing a 17.2K BMW to a 11.5K FJR then:

17.2 / 11.5 = 1.50, the BMW cost is 50 percent higher than the FJR.

If you want to compute how much less an item is from another, you divide the cost of the lower item by the cost of the higher item.

11.5 / 17.2 = .67, the FJR cost is 33 percent less than the BMW.

Same difference in cost, but different percentage differences depending on how you calculate (and report) it. In the above example, it would be correct to say the FJR costs one third less than the BMW, it would not be correct to say the BMW costs one third more than the FJR because it would actually cost 50 percent more.