All Tests – BMW K1600GT Test: Grand-Touring at the bottom of six! – Details that make the difference

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BMW K1600GT test: Grand-Tourisme at the bottom of six !

All Tests - BMW K1600GT Test: Grand-Touring at the bottom of six! - Details that make the difference

Reducing the BMW K1600GT to a slightly less luxurious and voluminous variation of its statutory sister K1600GTL would be a mistake: the second BMW roadster equipped with an in-line six-cylinder is in fact much more versatile and sporty. ! Test.

Details that make the difference

On paper, very little separates the BMW K1600GT from the K1600GTL (read our): the two new Grand Touring motorcycles share similar lines, identical powertrains (a salivating 1649 cc inline six-cylinder) and the same chassis. perimeter (read our "Technical update on the K1600GT" following pages).

However, the managing director of BMW Motorrad is categorical when presenting this top-of-the-range duo: if the GTL is to be regarded as a luxury "Super road", the K1600GT does not aim at all the same niche and aims outright "to redefine the concept of Grand Tourism", warns Hendrick Von Kuenheim…

Behind this discourse that is all in all very agreed (if each of our readers earned a euro each time a manufacturer claims to revolutionize a segment, their fortune would exceed that of Liliane Bettencourt!), The palpable enthusiasm of German engineers shows that BMW really believes to the veracity of this presumptuous program: a big smile on our lips, everyone told us that the K1600GT was going to amaze us with its performance…

So what: it would suffice to dismantle the top-case and the sophisticated audio system of the K1600GTL (optional on the GT), to reduce the size of its electric windshield and the volume of its tank (which goes from 26, 5 to 24 liters), to energize the position by means of a handlebar, a saddle and footrests placed differently, then to review the setting of the suspensions to transform this "two-wheeled limousine" into a sport -Ultra-comfortable road ?

And all this without touching the dimensions of its aluminum chassis (1618 mm of wheelbase, 106.4 mm of trail), or even reworking the power and torque values ​​(160.5 hp at 7,750 rpm and 175 Nm at 5,250 rpm), injection and its three selectable maps on the handlebars (Rain, Road and Dynamic) or the gear ratios ??

Legitimately skeptical when it comes to getting on the K1600GT and tackling a loop of just over 180 km on the roads of South Africa, the editorial staff of the Motorcycle Journal of the Net begins by tracking down all the small details that differentiate the K1600GTL one that claims to be able to eclipse both the Honda Pan-European and Kawasaki 1400GTR, but also the Yamaha FJR1300, Triumph Sprint GT and other VFR1200…

Despite a stroke of pencil strictly identical to the GTL – a successful mix between statutory classicism and good-quality modernism – the K1600GT has some minor differences: the chrome rods of the suitcases (where a full fits easily) have disappeared, as have the rubber inserts placed on the beautiful and sturdy footplates.

Likewise, the handle ends and the single left side reinforcement change from a chrome to black tint, like the effective removable air deflectors placed below the aluminum handlebars, itself much shorter and lower. than that of the K1600GTL.

Finally, the two 7.5-liter silencer with triple outputs are no longer chrome but metallic, while the pilot seat is now flat – and no longer hollowed out as on the GTL: its height goes from 750 to 810 mm. Finally, the absence of the 49-liter top-case visually lightens the rear part.

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