BMW K1200S (2004 - 2008) Review

Year: 2005

Reliability and repair costs are stupefying if it goes wrong

Year: 2007

This bike is perfect, IMHO. It's got more than enough power, you will be the fastest thing on any number of wheels around 99/100 times. Suzukis, Hondas, etc will try to fly by you thinking you're just on another old man K-bike, but drop that gearbox down a couple gears, get the engine around 7k and leave them in the dust. The bike is truly outstanding and outrageous all at the same time. If you're experienced and a bigger guy like me, (6'2" 225lbs) the handling is a dream, just trust the bike and the Bavarian roundel gods will smile upon you. I can take this huge hunk of german excellence and carve up the Twisties with the 650's, now they may overtake at the apex but any amount of straightaway, you will leave them far behind with that 1.2 liters screaming in their face while they struggle with half the displacement made by Italians or japanese who's engineering prowess is respectable but the pales in comparison to the level the Germans take it to. This is a rider's bike, respect it and it will treat you right. It will take time to get used to, it's a big girl and you need to learn how to handle the power, handle the steering and throw the weight around with the poise and precision of a surgeon, but once you master this bike's method of madness you will have one of the most impressive bikes on the road to this day. I get compliments on it and how I ride it all the time. It is a German bike though, the germans are meticulous and when they say you should do this and when you need to do it, you do it. Lots of German cars and bikes get the reputation for being unreliable, no it's people who are unreliable. It only takes 93, premium gas, the oil is for the wet clutch and the engine and needs changing on the dot with the exact type of oil, MA-4 wet clutch approved. Trust me, if you think you can handle it and want something that'll rocket to 90 mph in just 1st gear in under 4 secs. Get this bike, hands down my favorite I've ever owned.

Year: 2005

Engine the best feature. Handling the worst feature. No I would absolutely not recommend this bike to a friend.

Buying experience: Excellent.

Year: 2006

Fantastically powerful and comfortable tourer. Impeccable handling. Bike still looks like new after 16 years and 42,000 miles. Main dealer servicing costs expensive

Buying experience: £4500 in 2012. Maybe lost £1000 in value in 10 years. I can cope with that

Year: 2008

Annual servicing cost: £175

Very well built comfortable sports tourer with almost 170bhp on tap. Mines a 2008 non Abs model with 40k miles and other than a regular oil/filter change and fresh set of rubber it never needs anything. Incredible stability at speed. Heavy clutch

Buying experience: Dealer

Year: 2007

Annual servicing cost: £300

Great performance. Very good road manners even at low speed. Incredibly stable at highway speeds.

Year: 2008

Annual servicing cost: £200

Very strong confidence inspiring machine with almost 170bhp discreetly on tap

Buying experience: Dealer. Paid £6500 in 2013 when bike was 5 years old

Version: Non ABS

Year: 2006

Utter nightmare throttle stuck open second time out ( exciting in a change of underwear kind of way ) then went to the other extreme stalling on roll off drank fuel like it was going out of fashion full of unnecessary er “innovations “ that don’t really work any better than older more standard set ups

Year: 2006

Wonderful bike. Only minor issues...fuel gauge sensor, which BMW took care of on all the K1200's outside of the warranty period.

Year: 2005

This is an update to a review submitted in Oct. 2020. Since then the bike has not turned a wheel. It has been sitting in a relatively local motorcycle workshop. The reason for this is the extreme difficulty in sourcing new replacement exhaust down pipes. No after market option is available. BMW have none available and are not the slightest bit interested in an old model. Parts are very expensive anyway but you are left with a real dilemma when you can't get them at all.

Buying experience: Buying experience was okay. Ownership experience has been the worst ever.

Year: 2005

Annual servicing cost: £120

Reliability issues earlier on as documented and expense of repairThis last year bike had been fine New Battery .... new back tyre That’s it ... MOT pass ok

Buying experience: Read my posts

Year: 2005

Annual servicing cost: £200

Absolutely fantastic bike great to ride and a very capable machine for long and short journeys. Gear box is a tad clunky in low gears when cold But I can put up with this just because of the quality of this machine.

Buying experience: Bought this in Scotland and rode straight home to Somerset was a great ride home . Bought privately but was very impressed with the way it had been looked after.

Year: 2007

Annual servicing cost: £250

Good power, handling and comfort. Due to poor component reliability I would be reluctant to recommend it to a friend.

Year: 2008

Annual servicing cost: £250

Great sports tourer, eats up the miles easily and in comfort. Lots of torque and power and no issues with reliability. Feels heavy in town and not great as a city commuter.

Year: 2008

Annual servicing cost: £2,000

Yes the engine is good, yes the ride is good. But I don't care what anyone says; no bike should need thousands of pounds of work on it, that can only be done by people who work for branded mechanics, within 30 thousand miles. Ridiculous machine from a ridiculous brand who make awful, overpriced motorbikes. They look good, they have fancy features. But they fall apart.

Buying experience: Dealers pretend they work and will be reliable, do not trust them.

Year: 2005

Powerful bike more than fast enough for real world riding. Comfortable for a bike of its type. Excellent head lights - full beam is very impresive. 45 mpg without being a slouch. Handling better suited to good A class roads which is is natural environment and where it is very good. Fiited with ESA (Electronic suspension adjustment). This is operated by a switch on the handlebar and gives comfort, normal or sport settings. The bike is let down by expensive repair costs when things go wrong. The parts prices are ridiculous in my opinion e.g. £500 plus for a radiator - £900 for replacement wiring harness.

Year: 2007

Annual servicing cost: £3,000

Incredible ride, when it works. Unreliable Expect problems and expense Bring More Wallet, Bloody May Walk, whatever you call it, BMW didn't do well with this one. They don't look after early machines, it's like they don't wanna acknowledge they ever made them. You're buying a product and a lifestyle and are beholden to a service that neglects this model anyway. There's a reason they don't have warranties for bikes > 10 yrs. Planned obsolescence and lazy design. You don't wanna be a consumerist mug just throwing money at a fancy brand. Just don't do it, get a Japanese bike instead

Year: 2004

Avoid brought a 2004 model , speedo sensor failed , then part of the abs system , then died completely all were repaired by the great dealer , then would turnover but would start , weird crunch when pulling away , it looked mint but was a pile of poo

Buying experience: dealer was great bike was not

Year: 2005

Expensive to fix the poor reliability on older machines

Buying experience: Reliability poor and expensive to repair

Year: 2005

Annual servicing cost: £2,955

BMW, second hand market needs reliable bikes, reasonable to run and cheap to fix when older, punters get wise to the companies who only want to sell new stuff with no back up or support ,(exhaust header obsolete part , that’s poor on a bike last made in 2009)? don't throw away a good reputation , your marque is renowned for older reliable bikes . Keep it.

Buying experience: Keep for another year to get value for money and recuperate some of my expenses

Year: 2005

Reliability issues on older models with expensive bills.

Year: 2005

Annual servicing cost: £2,500

Let's see what the next few months bring , hopefully the repairs will return a good reliable bike, if not, I will let you know how I get on.

Buying experience: Car Dealer who took bike in PX for a vehicle.

Year: 2006

STUPIDLY fast bike. The power is mindblowing It's long. You wont be beating GSXR's or Kawas cornering. But you'll leave them once youre out of the curve Its advertised as a sporty sport touring bike. This is pure sport bike that can be used for touring. If you want luggage etc... have some $$$$ Have i mentioned mindblowing power. 0-100 in OMGWTF seconds

Buying experience: I was looking for a 2006 k1200s after reading the reviews (you'll never find an owner who doesnt love theirs.. thats rare) . Got lucky and found one at my local bmw dealer. Bought it before i ever walked in the door. BMW's customer service is astonishing

Year: 2005

Best bike ever, can't get the smile off my face.

Year: 2005

Annual servicing cost: £200

Super smooth and so much torque. Ride with a smile, its absolutely awesome.

Buying experience: Small dealer. Paid as advertised £4795 including sport panniers (Purchased Dec 2014) with free long distance delivery thrown in. Supplied with recent service, new MOT and good tyres and three month warranty.

Version: K1200

Year: 2006

Annual servicing cost: £350

Front suspension and steering deveoped a life endangering fault after less than 10k miles.

Buying experience: Good.

Riding sad since 1997, I had MZ125,Suzuki bandit, Z750S, CBR600F, GSXR1300R, CBR600RR, 2008 R1 and finaly 2006 model K1200S on May 2012. (-) POINTS: You have to inspect all electronics well if you buy a second hand. In some of 2005-2006 bikes there may be problems with ABS, transmission, engine and finaly tank guage. Engine, transmission and tank guage had changed under warranty on my BMW(and be sure these are really expensive) So ask if you think to buy of these elements conditions to he dealer. (+) POINTS It feels heavy first but after the wheels spin you feelp very lighter and nimble bike, even in heavy traffic. Engineering level and all paint&finish quality is #1. Cornering and high speed stability is amazing for such a big boy. You can scrap the pegs with a quality pair of tires. Acceleration is breath taking; up to 100 it is better than Busa(gen1), up to 280kmh similar to Hayabusa but over that speed you are seeking more power. Thanks God; mine can run up to 295 km/h(!) watch my video if you wish : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXYyEVYyemY Fuel consumption is very pleasing with 5,5lt/100 km. Having a chance to be able to breake while cornering under urgent conditions with ABS make you feel really really confidence. Second hand selling may become an issue (as like as Hayabusa)But if you you want a reliable safe, fast and prestious second hand bike than this is K1200S; the best bike I have ever ride. Ride Safe, Be Safe !

Without a doubt the best bike I have owned. The engine is great, very flexible, relax and ride it on the torque or open it up to experience it's full capability of propelling you at stupid speeds. The handling is sure footed and reassuring at all speeds. I have seen as much as 160 miles to reserve and then it counts down from 50 miles. Once I had the reserve counter showing 2 miles to empty and I still managed to fit in only 15 - 16 litres in the 19 litre tank! Generally I found it very comfortable but occasionally got a numb bum on longer trips. However, my bike had it's fair share of problems. If cold the engine would rattle on start up for a second or two until oil got to the cam chain tensioner and if you tried to set off quickly the clutch would make a horrible squeal. Both faults were investigated but no faults were found and a lot of other owners on forums have had the same experience with no further problems, apparently sorted on the 06 onwards bikes. The only failures I had were the gearshift potentiometer, it is used to sense what gear you are in and display it amongst other things. But when it goes wrong you still get the gear indication because the bike works out your revs vs. speed and calculates it, though it won't sense neutral so causing starting issues but you can get round these until you get it in for a fix. The worst failure I had was the brake servo (removed on later models, only used to dampen the earlier models cruder ABS). I was enjoying a bit of spirited riding and the brake fail light started flashing at me, not good entering a 30mph zone approaching a 90 degree bend from a national speed limit. Luckily there was enough residual pressure to slow me down. The brakes still worked but didn't have the huge stopping capacity that I was used to (when they worked, they are the best brakes I’ve used) so I limped home. The fault went away but I took it to BMW who plugged it in, they said the failure had logged but not what had caused it, so away I went and it happened 6 weeks later again. Apart from these issues it was a superb bike and I regret changing for my RSV Factory (on some days). It was a do anything motorcycle, touring, scratching and commuting was a joy.

When your K1200s is due for servicing get them to check throttle linkage as mine is playing up for the second time, throttle sticking open at 6.5k rpm (kind of exciting). Worse of all had major suspension failure two up, Strut connecting shock to mainframe broke in half (Luck was on my side only doing 20mph) BMW replaced free reckoned failed/seized joint, would have been fatal at any more speed so get them to check next service ok :(

Good handling for a big bike, suspension somtimes a bit choppy. Very disappointed with finish - rusty bolts, corrosion getting under paint on castings. If you use it in the winter beware! Dont believe what they say about depreciation, you'll lose more in £ notes than you would with a Jap. Clutch judder (had it replaced, still wasn't perfect). Poor fuelling compared to something like a 'Busa. Why do BMW persist in using 3 buttons for the indicators when everyone else gets away with one? How many times did I flash my left indicator at someone - the button is where the horn is on every other bike! All in all, the little flaws let down what could be a brilliant bike, expensive imperfection. Won't be buying another beemer.

Usually change every year, first bike I have had (other than an RSV - but that was too painful!) that I can't see myself wanting to change for a number of years. Has its faults, clunky gearbox, vibes etc, but that is only when I compare it to others... without a comparison I wouldn't have mentioned it. Went around Spain and France on a 950 Adventure June 07, wish I had owned this then. Too expensive, despite loving it.

I SURVIVED, JUST, BUT WILL BE DISABLED FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE The brakes on my BMW K1200S locked the road wheel[s] solid under no provocation whatsoever BMW K1200S ABS servo brake system most probably failed? Does any body know of similar incidents? We would like to speak to anyone who has suffered a similar problem with a view to BMW taking the correct action in order to prevent other BMW users from suffering a similar fate of worse Can anybody help please? Thank you to all

As the title says, the K1200S is not perfect: the engine is a bit buzzy, the clutch can be finicky, the gearbox clunks, and there are some styling cues that don't quite work, such as the huge muffler can and the 1990's Hondaesque nose. However, the engine is a fizzing, bubbly thing that always wants to deliver great power and seriously storms when you get north of 6,000 rpm. The handling, while criticized by some as being slow in the steering and the Hossack frontend lacking feel, is absolutely planted and stays resolutely on line even when encountering a mid corner bump or the need to brake. Speaking of brakes, these things are foolproof and provide enormous power safely, all with the peace of mind of linked front-and-rear braking with ABS. Straight line stability is rock solid and unhampered by side winds and gusty days. Ride quality is excellent: compliant with good bump absorption, but without feeling cushy or soft. There is a little slack in the driveline, and this can be accentuated by the on-and-off fueling, but the maintenance-free shaft is great for weekend riders. And let's face it - we are the majority of motorcycle owners. The equipment is first class and the ESA is a must have option. The comfort for a sports bike is pretty good as well.

For real life bumpy back roads there isn't a better sports bike out there, and for fast motorway cruising only the specialised tourers can beat it. The ESA is awesome; mine is mostly set on "sport" but for two-up cruising the "comfort" setting keeps the wife happy! Positive: Handling, brakes, stability, engine (it begs to be ridden hard), ESA (!!!). Negative: Gearbox (clunky) and poor on/off throttle transition fueling at 2500/3000 revs. My last bike was an Aprilia RSV1000R Factory and the K12S is just as exciting when ridden hard but way more practical and has alot better stability. On all but the tightest corners I am faster on the K12S because it gives me the confidence to improve my riding.

I have had several different bikes over the years but this beats everything hands down! It does it all - tour comfortably, blitz 'A' roads, scratch on 'B'roads far better than a bike this size has any right to, and is so easy to use with its smooth power delivery and awesome torque! After owning the new K1200GT for 6 months before changing, I was expecting a notchy gearbox for the first few thousand miles, but this has no glitches at all and it goes up and down the box beautifully, with just a snick of the lever. The engine is just staggering - endless power that goes on and on for ever. The brakes are possibly the best on the market and the lights are excellent. Comfort is not quite as good as the GT but you can ride for hours without getting back ache - the bars are in just the right position and the wind protection is surprisingly good. The handling is truly excellent for a big bike. It is surprisingly flickable but what stands out is the planted feel you get when cornering - reminds me very much of the ZX7R I used to have. It really does feel as if it is on rails and totally unflappable. Are there weaknesses? Well, I cannot find any. Yes, it is expensive, but the build quality is second to none and you really do get refinement from BMW these days. For long distance touring you could do with a slightly bigger tank but that is being very fussy! The panniers are actually very good although their style is odd to start with - they do grow on you. This is an aweful lot of bike and it will surprise many people who have old-fashioned ideas about BMW - try one; you will be amazed!

I bought the k12s in June 2005. The bike its fully loaded:esa(electronic sospention adjustment), abs, alarm, BMW paniers and gps system.I had a Honda CBR1000F  for 10 years and decided I wanted a supersportourer, as the CBR was getting on a bit. I looked & testrode a few (Backbird, Triumph Sprint ST, Kawasaki 1200, and VFR), but when I looked at the K12's I loved the look, it only took a 2 hour test ride on it to make me part with around £12,000!!! I toured around Europe on it(Blackforest trip last year,and Loire castles trip this year....Alps next year!) and it's perfect for me for fast touring. The ergos are perfect as well (I'm 6 feet tall & put a double bubble screen on, which deflects the wind to the top of my helmet). Although the performance is the same as most 1000 sportsbikes, the riding position it not at all extreme and I can ride all day long with no aches and pains. I also use it to commute to &  from work (90 miles round trip), and go out with friends at the week end.The k1200s does this perfectly. Strengths: This bike is a missile and it's alround ability its fantastic! I've found it reliable. The brakes are the best on anything on 2 wheels,and the stability and handling are perfect. this bike is on it's own rail....pick a line & it will not move!! Weaknesses: Clunky 1-2-3 gear shift, slight fuelling glitch at betweeen 2/3k revs., goes too fast too easily. Watch out for points on your licence!!!!

I bought this bike a week ago and the dealer told me not to go above 6000rpm for the first 600 miles (which seems to be taking forever). However the power band starts from 2000rpm so you don't mind so much. This bike corners like it is on rails and the breaks are the best I've ever tried on any bike. Plus the seat and mirrors are fantastic. If you can afford it, this is the best bike around and all the bike you would ever need. Strengths: Engine, performance, handling, brakes, mirrors and seat are all of the highest quality. Weaknesses: Price tag mainly, but also other few little gripes. I wouldnt call them anything more than that. You need to have very close control with the clutch due to its power and yet the clutch is quite heavy so I'd suggest to test ride the bike in a city before you buy it. Also the gear change from 1-2 and 2-3 sound a bit clunky. But other than that, this bike is perfect.

I tried a lot of sports bikes and sports tourers before this bike. I think this has it all! Looks, handling, POWER, comfort (I am 6-3) I just absolutely love it! The ESA is just the trick, never noticed the shaft and this makes it so clean. I just can't say how much I love this bike.... and no, haven't found anything I don't like! Testers have column inches to fill, real-world, this is more than enough for 99% of riders. Strengths: Comfort, power, handling, looks. Weaknesses: Can't stay off it!

Overall this bike has all the real world rideability that you could ever want/need. Sporty seated position but comfortable (similar to VFR), real power and torque. Ok, it's not a sport bike and does weigh a fair chunk, but on the road it all helps. Love the ESA, love the heated grips, BM alarm is easy to use. BM panniers are a clever bit of design, didn't like them at first but after a couple of trips I found that the hard shell/flexible size is a real bonus. Strengths: Brakes - awesome power. Engine very smooth, injection is much better than orignal pre-producation demo models of late 04. Shaft drive. ESA is great. Handling. Quality, quality, quality! Makes Jap' bikes look poorly finished, but then they are cheaper! Weaknesses: Gearbox, 1-3 very clunky, although dropping the height of the lever around 10mm from the factory setting makes a huge difference. Probably the shaft drive adding extra weight to the system. Decrease play of rear brake (from factory setting) to get real power from it. £12K new with ESA, ABS, Heated grips, alarm and panniers - but it is worth it.

I was amazed with the handling and control on a larger bike (cbr900 before), also the electronic suspension adjustment is really good, you can just change the setting whilst going along. It's also very comfortable to ride, very good brakes and the acceleration and handling are up there with the best. You just have to try one! Strengths: Handling, suspension, mirrors, acceleration, shaft drive, sport panniers... Weaknesses: It does not like to be ridden too slowly, it prefers spirited gear changes. The price is in Malta Lira.