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I picked up the BMW K1200LT this evening. It is a 2005 and has very low miles on it, just 1027 miles when I picked it up. It is still not through the break-in period. But at nearly three years old it has spent a lot of time sitting in someone’s garage. I’ll get some miles on it and get it broken in properly.

I should explain.  I’ve been riding touring bikes since ’96 when I bought a Harley Davidson Electra Glide. Barbara, my wife, loves to ride too and a larger touring style bike just makes since for us.  One that has hard, weatherproof bags, a stereo, a comfortable seat, highway pegs, and other such comforts for the road. In ’05 we traded to a new Harley, one with a 88 inch Twin Cam motor, and I thought that it would be something I could ride for 9 or 10 years like the ’96 I had before. But the issues with the Twin Cam motors has finally gotten to me so I started looking around at what else was available.  With only 13,000 miles on the bike I have replaced the cam chain tensioners already, they showed a good bit of wear and even more important, there were chunks broken off the friction faces of the tensioners.  (These small pieces of orange plastic showed up in my oil filter)

When you get right down to it, there are basically only three bikes that I would really consider as a serious touring bike. They are, the Honda Goldwing, the BMW K1200LT, and the Harley Electra Glide. I really don’t care for the Goldwing, just to big and bulky looking for me, not to mention they get poor gas mileage. I really didn’t want to get another Harley, even the ’07 and ’08 with the 96 Cu. In motor didn’t really appeal to me. I wanted something a bit more modern and technological. That left the BMW.

I test drove a new ’08 K1200LT (apparently only BMW dealers will allow you to test drive a motorcycle) a week ago and it was really nice. Lots of power, fantastic brakes, comfortable, good luggage, nice bike!

When you first get on the BWM it seems huge. Now the Electra Glide is not by any means a small or lightweight bike, but the BMW just feels BIG. The faring and dashboard of the BMW seems like something that should be on a car. It looks big, and it feels big. It is about 60 pounds heavier than the Electra Glide but it feels much heavier. It feels like the bike has a higher center of gravity than the Harley making it feel much heavier.

The BMW has plenty-o-power to spare, it sometimes feels more like a sport bike than a big tourer. At about 4K RPM the motor really wakes up and things start to pick up pretty quickly! The top end of second gear is almost 80 MPH, so it really likes to run.

There are several things that I really like about the bike. First, you have a small fob on the key with two pushbuttons, a keyless lock/unlock. It locks and unlocks all the baggage, both side bags, the “top case” (BWM speak for a tour pak) and the small “glovebox” in front of the driver.  That is one thing about the Electra Glide, you can spend several minutes locking all the locks when you want to secure the bike.

Second, I like the way the bike runs. It is heavy feeling at low speed, but get the bike moving at all, and it handles very well, it will get around a corner with ease and then accelerate like a sportbike, that’s not your typical large touring bike!

As much as I liked the test drive, I’m still not sure that the BMW really fits my needs. The weight is ponderous! The bike is wide too, and even though I can hold the bike up flat footed, when I get on un-even ground it is quite a hand full to hold up as you come to a stop. On the ride home this evening I got stopped in traffic in a corner that was banked a few degrees. As I came to a stop, I almost dropped the bike, because I was in the banking of the turn. I fumbled a bit keeping it upright, but I held it. I was solo, it may have been different if the bags were loaded and Barb was on the back.

Also, the bike has an “integrated” braking system, meaning that using either brake can activate both brakes. At low speed I have noticed that this can produce some “jerky” operation. Normally I only use my rear brake at low speed to keep from tipping the heavier bikes. I would not want the integrated brakes to dump my ass on the ground because the front brakes grabbed suddenly in a low speed stop.

So here’s the plan. I’m going to have my own “Touring Bike Shootout” just like the big motorcycle magazines, except, I’m not getting free use of bikes from the factories for a couple of days, not to mention I am doing a shootout with three year old motorcycles….but it’s my shootout and I’ll do it the way I want. Check back here to see how it goes. At the end, I will sell either the Harley or the BMW, and just keep on riding!

To be continued!