That's how I currently feel about the loan K1200GT I am using at present.
It's a superb piece of machinery, highly technologically advanced and super efficient at whisking you from A-F via B, C and D. The large IL4 engine, the pinnacle of the "Flying Brick" series of laid flat IL4s, is smooth as silk and very, very quick once you spin it up. The fairing can protect you from nearly 99% of windblast at the top of it's electrically controlled movement, and the heated grips and seat will keep you cossetted for hours.
But. For each benefit there is a drawback, and this is what kills the bike as a serious proposition. The engine may well be powerful, but at very low engine speeds there is hoot ALL torque - I stall it pulling away from the house EVERY DAY because it won't pull away under 4K when it's cold. The super efficient fairing may well kill all the windblast - but the riding position is semi-sporty, which NEEDS a bit of windblast to keep the weight of your wrists and support your shoulders. So you can ride around at 3 figure speeds but it feels like you're doing 10mph in a potholed London street. The only riding position that makes any form of sense is that adopted by police where you shove your hips forwards and arch your back - very healthy I'm sure - but NOT comfortable, and it makes you very susceptible to forward / back movement on braking and acceleration.
Which brings me to the brakes.
They're servo-powered and extremely powerful when engaged from high speed. Which is Good. Very good.
Except for the delay. When you are doing 40/50 ish and the car you're passing on the dual carriageway suddenly decides that no, HE is going to pullout first, you need brakes, quickly.The BMW thinks different. It gives you brakes, you smoothly squeeze the lever and you slow, rapidly.... AFTER you have a heart-stopping moment of No brakes whatsoever while the servo's get up to speed. :eek: The ABS also has a disconcerting habit of killing the brakes temporarily if you hit a pothole with more than a whisker of braking effort on. Very worrying in city streets.
So it's not a good town bike, which is not really a surprise, but the fact that it's also not good out of town DID come as a surprise, especially when I happened to be heading home later than usual one evening. The headlights are the worst examples of wishy washy, pathetic road-illumination I have ever seen. The 6v electrics on a Vincent Comet would beat this thing's full-beam! Normally flipping the headlights OFF makes the road go dark!! For a bikes supposedly designed to travel at high speeds on Autobahns two up with luggage, they're ridiculous and I seriously hope BMW have improved the lights on their latest bikes because you'd have difficulty reading Dr Seusses Cat in the Hat by this light!
Overall, if you want to do long distance riding (because to suggest the Ka1200GT is an option for anything else is ludicrous), say London to Cannes, buy an R1150RT, or a K1200S, or a K1200RS, or a Bentley - anything you want in fact - just don't buy a K1200GT because you'll get there with crippled wrists and a heart condition and the bike will end up decorating the arse end of one of Abramoviches yacht anchors.
I have only activated the ABS once and I'm glad I had it!
