Used Buyer’s Guide.........................
The early 2000s were something of a transitional period for BMW. Desperate to shed their ‘pipe and slippers’ reputation as an old man’s company that made excellent tourers but not a lot to excite younger riders, BMW were pushing the boat out. They needed to attract a whole new generation of riders to the brand as, to be brutally frank, their loyal customers were getting older and dying out! With this in mind, BMW decided the time was right to launch something very exciting indeed – a hyperbike.
Unveiled in 2005, the K1200S took over from the rather hideous previous K-Series of bikes (the K stands for Kraftrad, or wheel power) that featured a longitudinal inline-four with horizontal cylinders rather than a conventional across the frame motor. So, turning their back on their traditional K-format, BMW followed the crowds and built a cutting edge inline-four and stuck it the right way in their frame. And, after a few initial hiccups with a terrible fuelinjection system that delayed the K1200S’s launch by six months, they did a very good job indeed.
Comfortably fast
By drawing on experience gained by their four-wheeled motorsport division, BMW Motorrad built only their second generation of inline-four engines in over 80 years to prove a point. This was a firm who could do fast and thrilling if they wanted – and if you still had any doubts, the claimed 167bhp and 130Nm of torque (in reality 153bhp and 123Nm at the rear wheel)