BMW K1600GTL (2011 - on) Review

Great for comfort and an ideal bike to mile munch, cornering at speed can be a bit hairy due to weight of vehicle so not for amateurs!

Performance is great but sluggish when you need to floor it when needed!

Overheating whilst in traffic, apparently a common theme with this bike.

BMW are very expensive to maintain and service so bear this mind!

Stereo is poor quality, so don't expect to hear your favourite tunes clearly whilst riding!

Brakes are really good and linked. I can use just the rear lever and stops just as good as using the front. Ride is OK front end can be really crashy rear is good.

Engine is so smooth no vibration and loads of torque can be 2 up at 1000rpm in 6th and it still pulls. Not a fan of rhe whining noise they make though

Switchgear expensive paint on engine no good and driveshaft noise is bad I actually though there was something wrong with it. I test rode the new 2023 gt model driveshaft just as bad

It won't be getting serviced at bmw while I own it I'll do it myself.

Plenty of stuff on the bike cruise control heated front and rear seat heated grips electric front and rear suspension adaptive headlight led driving lights remote locking satnav and radio. The older k16 has tweeters the newer ones don't. The newer ones get hill assist reverse and auto lights. You can also get floor lighting and the speed come up on led screen on mk2 ones. I have the garmin v on mine which is OK

The Euro 5 software causes the following: 1. Starting strategy - engine revs at 1750 rpm for one minute each time it is started, even if you stop to refuel of a short break. 2. Engine ‘pinks’ / rattles at low speeds. 3. Less power/response than previous Euro 4 model. 4. 10 mpg less than previous Euro 4 model.

Can easily travel comfortably until fuel is needed.

The engine is amazing but there are so many panels to remove to get to it.

A small amount of corrosion on the frame and brake fastenings.

Around £250 - £300 for a minor service but then BMW dealers appear to be more expensive. It would probably be £50 cheaper if it wasn't for the fairing and panels.

All the features are good, especially the cruise control, heated grips and seat. Enormous amount of luggage space and would recommend staying with the O.E. Metzeler tyres.

Big heavy tourer good on the move

Brought 2 because I love the engine

Electrical problems that should not happen .

Tyres lucky to last 6k full service £700

Being hard of hearing the radio waste of money better off fitting a Sat Nav as standard could not believe it’s an optional extra on the premium tourer

I cannot fault the ride quality in any way...whether riding through the city or touring the mountains and valley's of Bavaria and Switzerland.Brakes are just awesome....

power delivery is magical.... however I do wish the throttle was a single system and not made up of two components.... occasionally it sticks and wont start cleanly until is properly awake!!

For an expensive bike BMW ruin the image by using poor coating on the centre/side stand.Additionally the use of a carbon "filter strainer" if it gets clogged it give a false tank reading of being permanently full!!!!! poor design, and the fuel delivery rail has no return line due to it being a one way fuel system, therefore the injectors have to pass any crud through causing unknown issues!!

thats Euro's...Fuel is currently around 53.8mpg...so very economical

Hate Metzler Roadtec 01's LOVE Michelin Road Pilot 4 GT's amazing tires...Side cubbies are just too small to be properly useful..

Rust on frame and engine block under paint

Radio heated seats grips space luggage screen up down,

Brakes are excellent & a hill assist brake is very usefull on this model. The GTL is a very comfy bike, the seating possition can take a bit of getting used to & does'nt suit all. My pillion feels secure on the comfy back seat. It's a very heavy bike at slow speeds but the weight all drops away as you get going.

One of the reasons to buy this bike, 6 cylinder, smooth, sublime excellence. Super power, great exceleration for a big motorcycle. Uber monster!

Purrs like a kitten & put together very well with quality fastners , very happy with quality & not had any reliability problems. One bug bear with this bike that other owners somtimes complain about is corrosion on the cilinder heads which my old bike suffered from.

It's an expensive bike to start with & main dealer servicing is'nt cheep but it's a luxury high end motorcycle.

My GTL is top spec & I love the keyless ride, stereo, the quality of all the standard kit. I have fitted Held fron protection bars which are great quality & value & Ilium works rear bars - USA very expensive. Would have liked new tech clocks.

Super smooth inline six cylinder delivers power beautifully to the road surface. It is more agile than many think and nimble around bends. Only extraction is that no BMW engineer ever rode pillion - because if they had done they’d have sorted the intense buffeting and wind noise that poor pillions have to put up with. It is in serious need of a screen redesign and the fairing needs to move air out to the sides to protect the legs more. Of course one might think BMW design engineers had shares in Wunderlich who will sell you a screen and SORN leg and feet deflectors for around £1000 to overcome the issues.

Servicing isn’t the expensive bit on these bikes. Insurance can be. Parts most definitely are!

For a £21-32k filly spec’d up bike it has a 2010 screen and instruments and for some inexplicable reason BMW decide to make it communicate through the ‘optional’ £600 Garmin VI. The fact that this device needs three (yes three) programs to manage its updates, mapping and use, and you fail to understand the sanity of the electrical design engineers who made this poor decision. Whole FB groups are dedicated to trying to make the BMW helmet talk to the Garmin and to the bike and then to any phone unlucky enough to be proffered for coupling. 40% of the FB groups fail to ever get the couplings right. 40% buy a bit of electrical kit and bypass the spaghetti of connections to simply play some music whilst they ride. 100% are dissatisfied with the dogs dinner of the central command and control system. To add more salt to the festering wound I recently downloaded the Motorad App - to connect to the bike and get all my data; won’t connect. A 2018 £23k bike can’t talk to an app - oh lord they really ballsed this one up didn’t they.

Electronic suspension is pretty effective. The windscreen is pants. Even got the GT version, which is lower and a bit better, but still too much turbulence and impossible to use in the rain.

Engine is silky smooth, but fuelling is way too jerky, bordering on dangerous especially when filtering.

Not has a service yet - so don't know. Fuel consumption not brilliant at 48mpg (my car does better) but then that's not what you buy this bike for!!

Fantastic equipment list - some stuff I'll never even use. Not sure why BMW went their own way with the bluetooth interface - only BMW helmets work correctly (intercom, etc).

Horses for Courses The good. It does what it is designed to do supremely well, mile after mile of unbelievable comfort, tour the continent, no problem, fancy a mad moment, again no problem, even heavily loaded with the kit for two weeks holiday it remained sweet handling and utterly predictable. The brakes are that good you simply don't think about them, very powerful yet not at all grabby at low speed. The suspension design works well even under heavy braking loads which means with out realising it you are often braking far harder than on a bike with a more conventional suspension set up. The bad Not a bike for rush hour traffic, riding it fully loaded with a passenger means it will be weighing about ½ a ton and that can introduce a little stress to your day. Brussels immediately springs to mind, roads that were greasy and wet, throw in the cobbles, tram tracks complete with errant trams, well, I think you get my point.

I haven’t been able to work out how BMW can make an engine that pulls, without labouring, from idle speed in any gear to warp speed without a hint of protest and yet still manage to return 50mpg during normal riding. There is no vibration, and I mean no vibration, just silky smooth power everywhere in the rev range, the ideal engine for a touring motorcycle, or Mad Max! The sound from the exhaust as the revs climb is utterly intoxicating, red lining it can get you to licence loosing speeds in the blink of an eye. (well in the U.K. at least).

It has been very reliable over two continental trips one to Lake Como and the other to Belgium last year. The only niggle has been a headlamp that has on occasions misted badly when riding in the rain or damp weather it's being replaced by BMW Motorad under warranty shortly (at a cost of over £1000 for the headlamp alone!).

Road tax 81.00, F/comp insurance 183.89, Tyre 130.00, Service(BMW) 237.87, Total 634.87 Here's the sticking point. It's all relative of course, if you buy new, nearly £20,000 is a huge chunk of money in any language. But once you've paid for the thing the servicing costs can be surprisingly reasonable. Because the servicing is menu driven you only pay for what is needed at that time, and if you fit your own tyres and brake pads and just pay for the items that are required to keep the warranty in force the cost for a 6,000 mile (or 1 year) service can be surprising reasonable. The 18,000 mile service is the killer not helped by the extraordinary expensive cost of the six spark plugs and the valve check. How iridium plugs that would last 70,000 miles in a car need changing so often is beyond me and because they are unique to the BMW means no cheap after market supplies. Same with the valve check, reading the forums I have not heard of any bikes needing adjusting, once again similar technology used in cars but much longer service intervals between checks. But must not bash BMW Motorad too much, some rivals (Honda, Kawasaki ect) have nearly identical servicing requirements and cost's on some of their models at similar mileages. The largest cost by far is depreciation which I have not included in the above, it can be eye-wateringly expensive. My machine which I bought used in March 2015 for £15,890 was valued by a BMW dealer recently at a little over £11000 making for a potential loss of £4890.00 per year despite it's current value in the showrooms of about £14500. Guess that free coffee and nibbles in the showrooms is not really free at all.

I'm going to sound like a right fan boy here. If you get the same bike I own every thing you could possibly want is all ready on the bike, cruise control (don't knock till you've tried it), radio (ditto), heated grips and seats, electronic suspension, traction control, central locking, anti theft alarm it might be better to try to think of something BMW have missed off.

For my BIG ass the seat could be a smidgen longer. All round smooth comfortable bike.

Smooth in every gear especially top and at low revs.

£180 for a run in service is in my book too much. I suppose you buy quality so you may premium prices.