In July 2004, I was privileged to take a four-day trip to Germany to attend the introduction of this bike to BMW motorcycle dealers from around the world. Fate being what it is, when the time came to leave I was suffering from a lovely little affliction called “walking pneumonia”, but with the help of some strong antibiotics and a sleeping pill to knock me out on the flight over I was ready to go.

The event was based at the Dorint Hotel Nurburgring, which is built on the grounds of the Nurburgring race track, home of the European Grand Prix. A number of rooms (not mine) overlooked the start/finish line and rent for multi-thousands of dollars on GP weekends. The Nurburgring is actually TWO racetracks: the new South Loop which is wide, safe, television-friendly and used for the Grand Prix. The North Loop is one of the world’s oldest race tracks, narrow, with guard rails and walls instead of runoff areas. The North Loop snakes through 23 kilometres of mountainous forest, with something like 130 turns and nearly 1000 feet of elevation change. Known variously as “the world’s fastest country road” and “Green Hell” (for the tunnel-like effect of riding through the trees, particularly later in the day as the sun sets), this is where we would ride the K1200S on Day 2. Later on Day 2, as the sun set...

But before that we were to begin our acquantaince with the bike in the early evening of Day 1 with rider training on a short stretch of the South Loop, which included the very fast 180-degree Dunlop Turn. We would revisit this mini-racetrack the next day in smaller groups, after a stern lecture by the Competition Director to use fourth gear and nothing lower through Dunlop, to avoid spinning the rear wheel. “We’ve had someone highside here everyday so far”, he said. Well, I was damned if I could keep up with our groups’s instructor accelerating out of that turn in fourth, and asked him about it. “This is the Fast Group”, he said, “We use whatever gear we want.” Well, alright then.

Day 2 got off to a rainy start, but thankfully cleared up by noon. We covered two-hundred-and-some kilometres on all sorts of roads from rural farmland much like Southwestern Ontario to Autobahn (crowded, speed limit 120), some urban riding and even a couple of switchbacks. There was an extended break for product training at the memorably-named Café FahrtWind (apparently this means something non-flatulent in German) and then back to the Nurburgring for lunch and the rider training on the partial F1 track.

All the stops, starts and turns made for a good opportunity to get comfortable with the bike, which I was pretty much from the beginning. This is a very easy bike to ride. The gearbox and clutch have a very light action, which is somewhat ironic because this bike can basically be ridden all day in only one gear: second gear was usable from 40 km/hr to about 180. But running it up through the gears was a pleasure; worth it just for the sound of the engine. At higher revs, there is a wonderful howl from the intake system that sounds very exotic. The rev limiter comes in smoothly if you forget to shift, which is easy enough because the engine pulls strongly and smoothly right to redline. The engine has dual counterbalancers to cut vibration. The system seems to be effective since my hands, which will fall asleep on a bicycle, kept their feeling all day. On the other hand (sorry), I could definitely feel the engine run. Personally, I think BMW has achieved a good balance (sorry, again) between cutting objectionable vibration and allowing the rider some feel for the character of the engine. Opinions on this will no doubt vary.

On the topic of opinions, some of the preliminary press reports and also some of the dealers I rode with mentioned rough running below 3000 rpm. I suppose my bike had this symptom, too, but I can’t say I noticed it. Although it would definitely pull from well below 3000, I’m sure I only used that range in first gear to get into the entertaining part of the power band, even riding in town. Anyway, the point is moot because BMW said they knew the symptom was there in the prototypes we rode and it will be eliminated in the tuning of the production machines, as it should be.

Handling was a non-issue on the street part of the ride as really the roads and speeds we experienced were no challenge to the bike. My bike had the ESA system and I experimented with it when I had a chance. The load compensation (one rider, two riders, or two plus luggage) can only be set when the bike is stopped but the shock stiffness (Comfort or Sport) can be adjusted on the fly. I found Comfort gave a better ride on the street—no surprise there—and did not seem underdamped or floaty at any time.

Finally, the ride on the North Loop of the Nurburgring was what we had all been waiting for, and around 6:30 we got our first chance. The drill was to go out in your designated group, following your instructor from the earlier training session. No passing allowed, except of an entire slower group. Eventually I got in 3 laps before the track shut down at 8:30 with the sun below the treetops. This is where the K1200S really showed its’ stuff. With 130 or so turns, the locals suggest that a rider needs about 100 laps with an instructor to learn the track, and that sounds right to me. At times when I was near the back of the group the leader was totally out of sight and I was merely guessing at the proper race line. The S was forgiving of mistakes, including a tense moment when a slower rider wandered right onto my line at the apex of a corner. Backing off the throttle at full lean, both wheels remained planted, the suspension didn’t settle and nothing touched down. In fact, ground clearance seemed limitless: I never dragged any part of the bike but did make a mess of the right knee of my new Streetguard suit. I heard about that when I got home. With the suspension set to Sport, when I got off line and ran through bumps the bike just shrugged it off and kept tracking. Wonderful.

BMW set a motorcycle lap record at the North Loop of 7:57 for a flying lap with the K1200S. Our group blundered around in nearly 10:00 minutes from a s top to a stop, for an average speed of about 140 km/hr. So you have to know that we spent considerable time on the far side of 200, what with the 130 turns and all. There was only one straight where I was able to get up to the top speed of the bike, but it was a long one. This was actually the first time all day that I made any real notice of wind protection. A full racer’s tuck wasn’t really necessary and the bike was as stable at an indicated 285 km/hr as it was at half that speed. It was actually kind of relaxing at the end of a lap of Green Hell.

We will be delivering the first machines to customers early in 2005. The price has been set at $22,500 including semi-integral ABS brakes. The ESA system is extra.
-Ian