Motorcycle Investor mag
Subscribe to our free email news
Take 2 – reviving the super-tourer
(by Guy 'Guido' Allen, August 2022)
All it
takes is patience, miles, time and a budget...or
something like that
A little while back, we
confessed to buying a 1999
BMW K1200LT 'super tourer'. Back when it was
launched, it was aimed squarely at Honda's king of the
road, the GL1500 Gold Wing and its soon-launched
successor the GL1800. The latter was a formidable
opponent in this market which, if you followed the money
trail, was centred in the USA.
We're now a few months down the
track and have a fair bit to report, including a major
driveline rebuild.
Before we get to that, a quick recap is in order. While
taking on Honda's 1800 'Wing (and even Harley-Davidson's
Electra Glide Ultra) was a tall order, BMW made a pretty
good fist of it (see the model
profile). The 16-valve K1200 inline four claimed
about 100 horses and was competitive in a straight line.
It gave away some low-end urge, but had the goods in the
mid and upper ranges. Curiously, BMW insisted on
sticking with five rather than six gears.
In typical BMW fashion, it came
fully-loaded for the Australian market. That included
ABS, cruise control, heated grips and seats, power
screen and a reverse working off the starter motor. Oh,
plus there was a sound system, which included radio,
cassete and a CD stacker. Overall the spec was similar
to that of the GL1800, with the addition of the heating.
That was to come later on the Japanese product.
It weighed around 20 kilos less than the Honda and was
very competitively priced at Au$32,000 (US$23,000,
GB£19,000) plus on-road costs. The GL1500 was $30k,
while the 1800 leapt to $40k.
Motorcycle Trader magazine (RIP) back in 2001
conducted a Melbourne-to-Cairns 3000km (1800 mile)
comparo between the 1800 Honda and the 1200 BMW, which
the latter won by two votes to one among the three
riders involved. Ironically, I was the dissenting vote,
and a couple of decades later ended up buying the BMW.
With 50,000km on the clock it was in overall good shape,
with a couple of provisos. One was the front tyre was,
to use the correct technical term, rooted. It didn't
look so bad at first glance, but the handling was
appalling thanks to the fact it had somehow worn into a
triangular profile. Having picked up the bike, I stopped
two corners later to work out what the problem was and
to this day have no idea how the seller coped with it.
Weirdly, he had replaced the rear...why not do both?
The real issue however was the tell-tale oil weep near
the seam between the bell housing and rear of the
engine. Plus, nail the throttle in top gear on the
highway and you'd get a little clutch slip. That
suggested an issue with the rear main seal and would be
expensive to fix. This is typical of K-series
along-the-frame engines of the era. The seals tend to go
at 20-25 years regardless of mileage.
Fixing it is expensive as the
rear drive and gearbox have to be removed. On something
like the K1100LT we
owned previously, you can expect a bill for around
Au$2500. However the 1200LT is not only far more
complex, it has some unique parts and features, which
raised the cost to Au$4200 (US$3000, GB£2500).
So why on earth would you get into this? Because the
numbers still stack up when it comes to value. The bike
cost a mere Au$8500 (US$6000, GB£5000), which, along
with the cost of replacing the front brake lines, brings
the total to around Au$13,000 (US$9200, GB£7600). That's
for a relatively low-mile full-dress tourer with all the
features you could reasonably hope for, and still
several thousand dollars cheaper than the equivalent
GL1800.
Taking that logic a step further, the 'old' Kay has
pretty much everything I want in this style of
motorcycle: Decent performance, good brakes and
handling, ABS, cruise control, heated seats and grips,
plus an adjustable screen. In other words, it's doing
everything I actually want that a new heavy tourer would
provide at three times the cost.
The rebuild was cheerfully handed over to BM Motorcycles in sunny
Ringwood, on the east side of Melbourne. Chris and
crew are after-market specialist repairers with a great
reputation.
Super Mario was the appointed mechanic and had quite a
job ahead of him. On the replacement list were the rear
main seal and clutch assembly, plus the clutch slave
cylinder. In an act of design bastardry, BMW chose to
locate this in the clutch housing. Ours was leaking and
it's critical you replace or rebuild the assembly as a
matter of course when you have the thing apart.
Also on the replacement list was a right-side hydraulic
line. Located inside the frame rail and otherwise almost
impossible to reach, the original rubber unit was
swapped out for a braided steel item.
However the real surprise came
when I was informed the quickest way to deal with the
clutch et al was to literally remove the motorcycle from
the engine/gearbox assembly! I must confess I didn't see
that one coming and it easily explains the extra
workshop hours required for the job.
And yes, what you're seeing above is a K1200LT jigsaw...
As it turned out, the leak was major, made worse by the
fact the engine oil had been over-filled.
Most of the parts were ordered in advance and,
surprisingly in these days of rampant shipping issues,
turned up in good time. Prices were okay, too. For
example the expensive components were Au$330 for a
model-specific clutch housing, $313 for a clutch plate,
$179 for a pressure plate and $318 for an updated slave
cylinder.
All-up, the job took a
surprisingly modest 19.5 workshop hours – frankly, less
than I would have expected, given the size of the task.
And the end result? Pretty much what you'd hope for:
Everything working and with no more clutch slip.
In the brief time I've owned
it, the LT has done a Melbourne-Brisbane return trip,
about 3600km (2200 miles). With the big aftermarket
screen in place, it proved to be an exceptional
mid-Winter tourer. Warm, smooth, handles better than a
land-yacht that size has any right too, and it performs
okay. It's also surprisingly light on fuel, getting
20km/lt on the highway.
This probably won't win me any
friends...however I recently had a new BMW R1800
Transcontinental for an extended period. That's the
company's latest 1800 boxer touring package. At
Au$40,000 (US$28,500, GB£23,500) it was nicely appointed
and very up-to-date. However it had features such as
adaptive cruise that I wouldn't cross the street for
when 'normal' cruise to me makes more sense.
Nice as the new toy was, it did nothing important better
than my old machine at a third of the cost.
With the assorted gremlins
sorted, the K12 should be right for another couple of
decades. While I'm not necessarily in love with its
looks, I am a big fan of its abilities and reckon the
whole exercise will prove to be money well-spent. See
you out there, somewhere on the highway...
See our BMW
K1200LT model profile
And our Perth to Melbourne run
-------------------------------------------------
Produced by AllMoto abn 61 400 694 722
Privacy: we do not collect cookies or any other data.
Archives
Contact