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Uber Tourer joins the shed
1999 BMW K1200LT
(by Guy 'Guido' Allen, June 2022)
Our
recently acquired super-tourer set a couple of little
challenges before we could head off for a trip north
It was a simple enough plan:
Muggins was in the market for a heavyweight division
super tourer. You know the sort of thing – armchair
seating, giant windscreen, cruise control, sound, maybe
some heating...that sort of thing. But it needed to be
cheap, as the bank account was looking a little bruised.
Cheap kind of ruled out the
default setting, which is any Gold Wing. They hold their
values well, and even very well-worn ones are mid teens.
Also out was a Harley Electra Glide, for similar
reasons. The next most obvious choice was this, BMW's
K1200LT.
Though it was going head-to-head with the Gold Wing 1500
series when launched (see our model
profile), and then the 1800, its resale value is
nowhere near those of the Hondas. In fact, with Au$8500
(US$6100, GB£4900) in your hot little hand you had a
choice of the BMWs. Mine came with just under 50,000km
on the odo and seemed to be in decent shape.
The plan was simple: Fly to
Newcastle (NSW) and ride it 1000km home to Melbourne.
One proverbial fly in the ointment was that while the
seller had replaced the rear tyre in recent times he
didn't do the front and it was, to use the correct
technical term, stuffed. Not good. It had just enough to
tread to get me home, but the profile had worn to a
weird shape, which did equally weird things to the
steering.
That kind of killed off any ambitions of returning home
by backroads – down the freeway was the only reasonable
plan.
Still, it was a chance to check out what it was going to
be like as a highway mount. In short, it was terrific.
Comfortable, the cruise worked a treat, as did the
heated grips and seats. The latter still seem like a
ridiculous idea, but they make life pretty cosy on a
Winter day.
This bike, by the way, replaced our K1100LT (above),
which has recently left the shed for a new home. It did
its job admirably, and the 1200 replacement is a big
step up the touring bike pecking order. Not only is it
physically bigger, it has a lot more equipment on board.
At around 6'2" in old measure
(188cm), I hit the typical problem where the screen and
seat relationship was set up for someone just a little
shorter. If you raise the seat to max height for a
little extra legroom, the electrically-adjusted screen
was a little too short even at maximum extension. No
matter, when I got home I ordered a bigger aftermarket
unit.
Above: The old and new
screens.
What turned up
was a Lexan unit called VStream, by Ztechnik. The
surface area is about 30 per cent more than the stocker
and at minimum height offers the same coverage the old
one did at maximum. Fitting was dead easy – pop off a
couple of covers and remove four mounting bolts.
Above: The new screen at minimum and maximum
extension.
We got home from the pick-up ride in pretty good shape,
having discovered a couple of things. For a start, it's
very light on fuel, getting better than 20km/lt at times
when it was sat on cruise at 110km/h.
It also did the usual K-series thing of blowing smoke on
start-up, if you park it on the sidestand while still
hot. All the machines from the generation with the
laid-down along-the-frame engine do it it thanks to a
little oil creeping past rings and assorted seals,
particularly if they're left sitting on a sidestand for
long periods. This one does it, to the point of it being
an art form, but it does eventually clear. The solution
is to use the centrestand whenever possible and (in this
case) you won't see so much as a wisp of smoke.
We almost immediately hit an
issue, which was the front top brake line sprang a leak
where it had been rubbing on a handlebar cable retainer.
Bugger. First stop was BM Motorcycles in Melbourne
(Ringwood) where ringmaster Chris made up a braided
steel replacement from a Venhill kit he keeps on hand.
That brand name may be familiar? I recall them
advertising aftermarket cable replacements, particularly
for Brit bikes, several decades ago.
Above: New and old upper brake lines.
Anyway, the kit enables you to make up a replacement for
most situations and it works well, while the end result
is very reasonably priced.
Above: And the new
version of the lower section.
Now is when I confess to a rookie mistake: Replacing one
front line instead of all of them. The upper line now
worked fine but the calipers were tending to bind when
you let go of the lever, a sign the inner section of
another line on the lower section was breaking up. So
back to BM Motorcycles and we complete the kit, using a
mix of new braided lines matched to the original steel
connector section (above).
Above: Replacing the front
brake lines required fairing removal.
Normally replacing a brake
cable should be a simple job. Maybe get a guard
out of the way and then it should take maybe an hour.
Not in this case. The right side of the fairing needed
to come out, which involves lots of fasteners. There's
no rocket science involved, it just requires patience.
Above: With the fairing
off, you get to enjoy the peculiar architecture.
Note the 22lt plastic fuel tank made by Acerbis.
Once we got the lines in and had them nicely bled, we
discovered the master cylinder needed new seals as it
refused to build up sufficient pressure. Oh well,
another $170 or so and we had a rebuild kit (above),
which is simple enough to install.
Of course we replaced the front brake pads while we were
on the case.
Above: We replaced some of the perished wiring wrap.
One unexpected glitch was we
noticed a lot of the original vinyl wrap covering the
wiring was perishing. The brake fluid leak certainly
would have accelerated this. However I've had a similar
issue on my leak-free R1150GS of the same vintage, which
leads me to suspect a poor choice of material. As with
the GS, I replaced as much as I could reach with an
aftermarket woven cover bought online.
Above: The re-covered
wiring and new brake line tucked away in the
handlebar lower casing, ready for the top to go on.
Hopefully that's the last of the surprises for a
while. We now have fresh engine oil and filter, fresh
hydraulic fluid all round, plus new or near-new tyres
and brake pads. In other words, we should be right for
the trip I actually bought this thing for, which is a
mid-Winter Melbourne to Brisbane loop, of approximately
3600km (2200 miles).
Wish us luck...
See our BMW K1200LT model
profile
Helpful parts suppliers:
BM Motorcycles, Melbourne
Munich
Motorcycles, Perth/Fremantle
Useful workshop & ownership forums
Illinois BMW
Riders (You Tube)
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