2005 BMW K1200 fruit review

[kiwifruit]

On sunday i was lucky enough to have the opportunity to ride a 2005 bmw k1200 several hundred kilometres, from Taupo through the Waikato and onto the Coromandel peninsular (anticlockwise). All with a pillion not much heavier than a day pack.

Dan had talked the poor K down so much i was a little worried about riding it all day. "Its gutless, handles like shit and it has NO brakes". Well, at least i shall be comfortable i thought. We swapped bikes at Whakamaru and headed towards Tokoroa.

First impressions: It goes ok, its not gutless, Dan what are you on about. Saw 100kmh at least a few times! Hmm, no brakes though, a little worrying. Handled well for its size, predictable and stable. Ground clearance is a major issue as to be expected.

We turn left up Old Taupo road just before Tokoroa, i love this peice of road and was looking forward to having a giggle thru the twisties. To my surprise the big K was great fun in the tight stuff, changing direction well, ground clearance was an issue but kept me in check i guess. Alot more thought required punting it thru the slow tight corners, compared to the type of bikes i'm used to riding. This is great!

Fairly casual trip from old Taupo road thru to Paeroa, via Old Te Aroha road. Quite enjoy that road too with its dips and rises. Managed to get the front up on the big K, it does have some power, not 140hp, but some. Paeroa to Waihi and i'm really starting to enjoy the big K. My pillion and i leave the flash harry wizzbanger ohlins fandagled superbike behind thru the smooth flowing corners. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Waihi and on to "the coro gp". Had a blast thru the tight stuff around the gp. Medium / high speed sweepers are the K's weak point, the lack of ground clearance really shows there.... Maybe slightly better without a pillion. The brakes seemed to be getting better, they were getting a real workout. The bike handles well in the really tight stuff, allows fairly hard braking right upto the apex, plenty of torque to pull it away from the corner.

Visor up, nothing but wind noise (and brake pads grasping at the disks), flip flop, relaxed, calm, i really enjoyed the different genre of motorcycling. I can see the attraction. I think a st1100 /1300 / FJR etc would provide the same sort of thrill. The bmw had some sort of soul, character, i felt kinda bad when redlining it, unlike a jappa. Maybe i was just in the right frame of mind.

Around 6pm we stop at Thames for goodbyes and the swapping of bikes. The K's tyres are well poked, opps. I get back on the flash harry wizzbanger ohlins fandagled superbike and head back to Taupo. Anything under 300 is a struggle. Thoughts of the big red K fill my mind as i effortlessly round corners at 10 times the speed i had done on the bmw some hours ago. I can't wait til i'm old enough to consider the purchase of such a bike. Barrel of monkeys it was.

Thanks Jon, Dan and Kat. Awesome day.

(Pic below is of a similar bike, not the actual K involved)

[jrandom]

Nice writeup, Mr Fruit!

I did enjoy making a start on getting my head around said flash harry wizzbanger ohlins fandangled superbike. Nearly shat meself on that first set of 35km twisties when you and pillion waltzed away on the fat-arse K, but an hour or two later I was starting to find a groove, of sorts.

Pity about all the cars on the road down into Coro town; if time had not been a-pressing I would have been all about a few practice runs to and fro along there.

Ah, the joys of being a newbie rider, eh?

I'll photograph the K and its rear tyre tomorrow and post for general amusement. I don't think I've ever seen a 'sport touring' tyre quite so thoroughly shredded within its first 500km.

[Cajun]

hahaha nice write up, it seamed you were getting along pretty well when we spotted you.

Nice write up Fruity Boy
Yeah they are an interesting bike, to ride, father in law he did a bunch of kms on, was interest to bike to ride every once and a while.

[kiwifruit]

I don't think I've ever seen a 'sport touring' tyre quite so thoroughly shredded within its first 500km.

Um!
i didn't realise the tyres were new!?
Opps!!!!

[Mental Trousers]

Rode an 06 K1200S with all the fruit a wee while back. Was very interesting.

Handling was similar although this one had no problems with high speed corners, probably because it had better suspension fitted than the 05 you were on. Only thing I found with the handling was where the wheels contacted the road felt a long way away when at angles that scraped the pegs. It definitely felt very tall then.

Unlike the bike you tried the brakes were crazy. Servo assisted, ABS and linked. It took me quite a while before I got used to how little pressure was needed to slow down. Found the ABS worked well when I merged onto the southern motorway behind a car and he put his brakes on suddenly.

Two up it felt a little bit different to solo so I twiddled the remote preload adjuster and it felt good again. Mind you I didn't need to adjust it much as Pete is a big lad.

Took me a bloody long time to get used to the way the indicators are set up, but once you're used to them they seem a bit more natural than the normal set up on other bikes.

It had tons of grunt all over the rev range and with the pillion seat occupied I wasn't able to test this adquately.

Could've sat on there all day long. No wonder BMW's seem to be a favourite for the Grand Challenge etc.

[jrandom]

Dan had talked the poor K down so much i was a little worried about riding it all day. "Its gutless, handles like shit and it has NO brakes".

Hmm. Well, as we discovered this morning, the brake pads were covered with silicon oil spray due to eMoto's rather odd ideas on pre-delivery bike grooming! So it's hardly unsurprising that they improved significantly after heating and scrubbing...

And I really suspect that something loosened up in that poor overly-nana'd sub-10,000km engine during Sunday. I swear it was pulling much more happily heading home than it did on the way down.

Medium / high speed sweepers are the K's weak point, the lack of ground clearance really shows there...

Not the first time I've been hard up your arse.

[fireball]

ah what a lovely day it was, nothing but sunshine and lotsa road ahead!

starting out on the mentioned flash harry wizzbanger ohlins fandangled superbike was a bit of fun until i realized how shit my helmet is at such *legal* road speeds... must say mr fruit you the only man to get my blood pumping like that!

at the change of bikes i was much releaved to get off the flash harry wizzbanger ohlins fandangled superbike with its hard pillon seat and onto the nice soft K it cruises nicely and is totally old mans bike!

was only one moment on the whole ride where i nearly filled my pants going over that last rise where we go a little air and coming down onto almost nothing! and the misson it was to find that bloody foot peg!

all in all a great day i had a blast and have finally got the concept of cornering!

thanks much for the ride guys we must do it again sometime!

[vifferman]

So who actually owned this alleged K1200? Was it a loaner from eMoto?

[jrandom]

So who actually owned this alleged K1200? Was it a loaner from eMoto?

A colleague and ex-flatmate of mine obviously suffers from an excess of trust; he gave me the keys to the K for the weekend after seeing my ongoing pain caused by having to wait for GSX-R intake valves to arrive from Suzuki Japan.

[kiwifruit]

A colleague and ex-flatmate of mine obviously suffers from an excess of trust; he gave me the keys to the K for the weekend after seeing my ongoing pain caused by having to wait for GSX-R intake valves to arrive from Suzuki Japan.

aka the house that sallo was 'house-sitting'

[fireball]

And I really suspect that something loosened up in that poor overly-nana'd sub-10,000km engine during Sunday. I swear it was pulling much more happily heading home than it did on the way down.

it did feel much better on the way home, was a more comfortable cruise home than i expected