Bmw k1200gt and a 180 mile commute

[Syed Shah]

Are you sure you want to this?

It is fine in summer, but in winter, ice, salt, numb hands. I have commuted by bike in winter(much less than 180 miles) and would not do it again.

You will arrive tired, be in need of a shower, and of course, a change of clothes.


Take the train, sleep, work on your laptop.... much nicer.

[UpTheIron]

If it helps, I currently commute South Oxon (5 mins J6 M40) to Canary Wharf on a daily basis.

I'm at work now though - I do approx 0700 - 1600. Takes me an hour to get here (M40/A40 and across London) and around 1hr20m / 1hr30m to get home (A13/M11/M25/M40).

[sjwb]

Some intresting and sensible comments here. Must be a first for a PH thread!
GT is a brilliant bike, but I would have thought a touch overkill for two main reasons - size and weight. Perhaps something like the R800ST (keeping to Beemers) would suit more? Let's face it. you don't need to carry the kitchen sink at 120 mph for this particular exercise.
Secondly, good call on the Maxi scooter Slim, but sadly not quite correct. My Nexus 500 uses more fuel than my R1200! Bloody brilliant in London traffic though - twist and go with acceleration to match any.
Good luck with your choice; but motorcyle for me.

[Stig]

Twit said:

tfm said:

As for a tourer and filtering, it's do-able but it's slow compared to a sportsbike or anything of that ilk.

Rubbish. I do about 180 miles a day on my R1200RT. It is massively comfy and I've never had any situation where other bikes have been able to filter and I haven't. Yes, I'm sure a blade or something may do the journey 5 mins or so quicker than me but I would take the comfort everytime.

To the O/P consider the R1200 as well as the K1200. I tried both and felt that the R engine and bike was much better, this may be because I'm used to boxer engines. Either way the journey is easily doable. I do reading to Barking every day, either M4-M25-M11 or M40-M25-M11. I guess you would so about the same, I see the wharf as I come off at Barking. I would reckon 2 hours is about on the button, I do my run in about 1 and a half on an average day. Once you are used to it its fine!

Edited by Twit on Thursday 10th January 21:39

I have to disagree Twit - I've lost count of the times someone on a Beemer has held me up (mainly on R1200GS's which seem all the rage these days thanks to Ewan MacGregor and Charlie Boreman). Boxer engine doesn't help the width does it - and then add panniers?!?!

I'll stick with my nice narrow parallel V-twin ta

[Rubin215]

I'll stick with my nice narrow parallel V-twin ta
[/quote]






A parallel V-twin? I must buy one of them.

Is it like a V4 but with a gap between the cylinders?

[G Man]

Quick update

Having waited until slightly better weather, I will begin my trial commuter on my Ducati St4s for a couple of weeks rain wind and shine.

I have decide to test the following BMW k1200GT and K1200s, Honda Blackbird and VFR, Triumph Sprint and choose next week

[black-k1]

I currently use my K1200S most days for a 60 mile each way commute (across the Suffolk and Norfolk country side). While it is very comfortable and very capable, it gets me to work no quicker than my Honda Firestorm which was easier to filter through traffic with (the BMW does not have the panniers fitted), was just about as comfortable and didn’t eat rear tyres anything like as quickly as the 1200.

For me, the big advantage the BMW has over the Honda for long distance commuting is the service interval. It is very much worth checking the service interval on all the bikes you test as big mileages mean that the bike will spend a lot of time getting serviced.

[Rubin215]

black-k1 said:

I currently use my K1200S most days for a 60 mile each way commute (across the Suffolk and Norfolk country side). While it is very comfortable and very capable, it gets me to work no quicker than my Honda Firestorm which was easier to filter through traffic with (the BMW does not have the panniers fitted), was just about as comfortable and didn’t eat rear tyres anything like as quickly as the 1200.

For me, the big advantage the BMW has over the Honda for long distance commuting is the service interval. It is very much worth checking the service interval on all the bikes you test as big mileages mean that the bike will spend a lot of time getting serviced.

Look also at the actual cost of servicing; if you're doing it yourself it's less of an issue, but if you're paying a dealer it can vary by a heck of a lot from bike to bike and make to make.