The BMW K1600GT, K1600GTL, and K1600B are

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: Long-distance ...

s manufactured by

BMW Motorrad BMW Motorrad is the motorcycle brand of BMW, part of its Corporate and Brand Development division. It has produced motorcycles since 1923, and achieved record sales for the fifth year in succession in 2015. With a total of 136,963 vehicles sold i ...

. The former two were announced in July 2010, unveiled at the

Intermot INTERMOT Cologne is a biennial trade show for motorcycle manufacturers. The trade show began in Munich in 1998, though it was founded in Cologne. Since 2006 it has moved to ''Koelnmesse Koelnmesse GmbH (''Cologne Trade Fair'') is an internat ...

motorcycle show in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

in October 2010; they went on sale in March 2011. The latter was announced in October 2016. The K1600GTL is a full dress luxury

tourer Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). "Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. Th ...

, which replaced the K1200LT. It was intended to compete with the

Honda Gold Wing The Honda Gold Wing is a series of touring motorcycles manufactured by Honda. Gold Wings feature shaft drive and a flat engine. Mooted by press in September 1974 as "The world's biggest motor cycle manufacturer's first attack on the over-750cc ...

. The K1600GT was more of a sport tourer similar to the then-existing K1300GT and previous K1200GT models. The K1600B is a

bagger Bagger, packer, sacker or bag boy (US) is an unofficial title given to a courtesy clerk at a grocery store. Job profile The primary duties of a bagger revolve around putting groceries into a shopping bag and then into a shopping cart. Upon r ...

designed primarily for the North American market.

Technology

The bikes feature a new

straight-six engine The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine bala ...

which is mounted transversely across chassis. The cylinders are angled forward by 55°. The engine was originally used on the Concept 6, a

concept bike The six main types of motorcycles are generally recognized as ''standard'', ''cruiser'', ''touring'', ''sports'', ''off-road'', and ''dual-purpose''. ''Sport touring'' is sometimes recognized as a seventh category or integrated with the ''touring' ...

that was shown at the 2009 EICMA Milan Motor Show. BMW claims that the engine, which at wide is just wider than the K1300 engine, is the narrowest in-line six-cylinder engine ever produced. Cylinder bore is and the distance between cylinder centres . The

camshaft A camshaft is a shaft that contains a row of pointed cams, in order to convert rotational motion to reciprocating motion. Camshafts are used in piston engines (to operate the intake and exhaust valves), mechanically controlled ignition systems ...

s are hollow, with cam lobes pressed on, which saves around . The engine has

electronic throttle control Electronic throttle control (ETC) is an automobile technology which electronically "connects" the accelerator pedal to the throttle, replacing a mechanical linkage. A typical ETC system consists of three major components: (i) an accelerator ped ...

and multiple drive modes which can be set according to road conditions. New technology for BMW on these models include adaptive headlights. As standard the headlights shine onto a mirror which keeps the beam level according to how the bike is pitched. The optional adaptive headlights include a

servomotor A servomotor (or servo motor) is a rotary actuator or linear actuator that allows for precise control of angular or linear position, velocity and acceleration. It consists of a suitable motor coupled to a sensor for position feedback. It also ...

that directs the headlight beam according to how the bike is leaning in a turn, effectively pointing the beam around the bend. To save weight, the motorcycle has a unique cast

magnesium alloy Magnesium alloys are mixtures of magnesium (the lightest structural metal) with other metals (called an alloy), often aluminium, zinc, manganese, silicon, copper, rare earths and zirconium. Magnesium alloys have a hexagonal lattice structure, w ...

subframe to which the front fairing is secured.

2022 model year redesign

The K1600 was redesigned for the 2022 model year to include an all-digital instrument cluster with color display. Navigation is integrated with the same display.

Reception

In July 2011, US magazine ''

Cycle World ''Cycle World'' is a motorcycling magazine in the United States. It was founded in 1962 by Joe Parkhurst, who was inducted to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame as "the person responsible for bringing a new era of objective journalism" to the US. ''Cyc ...

'' named the K1600GT as its best

sport touring motorcycle A sport touring motorcycle (sometime a "sports-tourer") is a type of motorcycle that combines the performance of a sport bike with the long-distance capabilities and comfort of a touring motorcycle. The first sport-tourer is said to be the ful ...

, and the K1600GTL as the best touring motorcycle for 2011. ''

Motorcyclist Motorcycling is the act of riding a motorcycle. For some people, motorcycling may be the only affordable form of individual motorized transportation, and small- displacement motorcycles are the most common motor vehicle in the most populous c ...

'' named the K1600GT as Best Touring Bike in its 2011 Motorcycle of the Year awards. UK weekly newspaper ''

Motor Cycle News ''MCN'' or ''Motor Cycle News'' is a UK weekly motorcycling newspaper published by Bauer Consumer Media, based in Peterborough, United Kingdom. It claims to be "the world’s biggest weekly motorcycle newspaper". The title was founded in lat ...

'' named the K1600GT as Best Tourer at its MCN Awards 2011. ''Motorcyclist'' road tested the K1600GTL against the

and preferred the Honda. They did note that the additions on the K1600GTL over the K1600GT worked against it, and concluded that the latter was the better bike.

Footnotes

References

External links