News – New K 1200 S: BMW leaves its reserve! – Used BMW

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New K 1200 S: BMW leaves its reserve !

News - New K 1200 S: BMW leaves its reserve! - Used BMW

The German manufacturer comes out of its reserve and comes to challenge the Japanese on their favorite terrain with an original sports car packed with technology, the BMW K 1200 S. Presentation.

Following the promises of its president to the press at the 2003 World Cup – "in two years, you will be surprised !"- BMW no longer wants to be cataloged as a manufacturer of efficient but soulless machines. Its strategy of conquering a younger and more passionate clientele necessarily involves performance and sport, values ​​which still fascinate motorcyclists, indeed Sarkozy or not !

After the R 1200GS at the start of the year, BMW continues to renew its range with the K1200S, which will be presented at the InterMot show in Munich on September 15. But if the 1200GS is a deep but expected evolution of the GS concept dear to the Bavarian manufacturer (read our), the K1200S resolutely turns its back on the GT philosophy and should cause surprise.

The new K1200 therefore abandons the letters R or GT to keep only a simple S (like "chport"!), And makes its revolution by becoming a motorcycle of "normal" architecture: perimeter frame, transverse in-line four-cylinder engine forward facing with box in the same housing and wet multi-plate clutch.

However, it should not go unnoticed with its power greater than 160 horsepower at more than 10,000 rpm (never has a BMW engine turned so fast), its ultra compact engine (width equivalent to a 600!) Mounted very low and very inclined and its cylinders forming an angle of 55 ° with the vertical, which should guarantee a generous ground clearance for maximum angles.

All the BMW engine technology is present (multiplexing by CAN bus, 32-bit engine ECU, electronic injection, knock detectors, 3-way catalyst), without forgetting the rear suspension with electronically controlled damping and the Hossack-type fork guided by parallelogram and shock absorber separate, a world first in a motorcycle.

The Bavarian firm’s goal is clearly to tickle Japanese super sports cars while maintaining ease of use on the road, without going so far as to turn it into a circuit bike in disguise. Thus the K 1200S retains a cardan shaft installed on the left side this time (again a first on a BMW) and, of course, the famous EVO ABS braking. Finally, the weight is announced as particularly low and when we see the weight reduction achieved on the R 1200GS, we have every reason to believe it.

This motorcycle should therefore be closer to the philosophy of Honda sports cars rather than track animals like the Yamaha R1, Suzuki GSXR or Kawasaki ZX10R. But will it be a real sports car like the CBR 1000, or rather a sport / GT like the CBR 1100XX? This will be the whole point of this European who comes to challenge the Japanese on their home ground.

See you in September at the InterMot in Munich, but until then we will come back to the technical aspects of this amazing bike, such as the new Hossack fork….

Benoît LACOSTE

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