The All New LIQUID COOLED R1200GS threadfest

It would be nice if the liquid cooling and new design allows intervals of 12k or 18k. With my 07 I don't worry too much about where I will be when it's time for a service. I can easily carry the few tools needed to do it. I've done it more than once in a parking lot in a 3rd world country and it isn't a big deal. No concerns about finding the right shim or waiting for it, or finding what shim I need only to find out it isn't quickly available and having to put things back together and deal with it at a later time when the shim can be had.

The camhead Boxer valve intervals are check at 6 K miles then every 12K miles afterward. Adjustment is rarely needed even at 18K miles, The K16's check is at 18K miles and rarely needs adjusting.

No doubt the water Boxers will easily meet or beat that.

IMHO The effective valve check interval will very likely increase to at least 18K, maybe 24K as they gain experience with them.

The current Camhead can easily go 12K, and it looks like 24K is not unreasonable.

Jim

"The invention of the vacuum tube or thermionic valve....."

Never knew vacuum tubes were also called 'valves'. Thanks for the education.

The boxers have not had rockers since 2009 when they had CVH (Cam-shaft Within Head)
The new boxers is OHC (Over Head Camshaft) and they have Slipper Type Followers just like the F800/650, K1300/K1200S/R/GT and the S1000RR, With a hemispheric shim betveen the valve and the slipper.

No way in the dirt it won't matter but on the high way i guess we'll see I'm probably will help over weight people like myself if your tiny and like 90-150lbs like BMW clothing line you won't need it. The extra power you have to remember what happens in a desert when you need the reliability. I wouldn't take the extra hp I came from bike 165hp. I wouldn't take liquid cooled over air/oil in a boxer format. I also thought I they didn't do that for a long time because the piston stick out in the air. All the rich guys will up grade to the newest GSs and then the newest next one, and the next one. Never really owning something special. This R1200GS is a special bike it head over head on looks to the 1150GS it the last air/oil you now the one in the 20' and 3o's that are in museums and also it sold a record number over 200,000 in sales and counting The number one bike in sales 5 years in a row and it double the price of the 2nd place motorcycle.

Ran it through Google Translate...nothing doing.

:huh

Babelfish?

Well its kinda strange coming from my 2000 Honda VFR with 80k miles on with NO valve adjustment ever needed..to my 09 GS with valve adjustments required every 6k!

What the hell are you trying to say? Did you just throw magnetic poetry at the refrigerator and copy down the result here?

I'm sure this pic has been posted before, but it bears considerable resemblance to the spy shot of the WC GS below.

If BMW does release a water cooled Boxer, I don't see much difference between a GS and the upcoming Triumph.

Meaning: BMW will have lost what made them 'BMW', and everything that goes with that.

It's a razor's edge, keeping contemporary while honoring your past. I'll go on a brief sidenote about the Japanese Four offering variants of the same bike in 600 and 1000cc displacements. Who cares about those bikes? They're disposable, nearly identical for all intents and purposes and have nothing to differentiate, no soul.

BMW goes down this path (and I'm sure they are weighing their future), they risk doing the same. Becoming one of their own competition, and playing a game of subtle variations on the same theme. Heritage and legacy is what the European brands had on their side to maintain high sales despite the economic downturn. While a commodity mentality had the J4 staggering on the ropes during that same time.

Think about that as the GS lineage moves forward.

The desire for 'more' needs to be weighed carefully in lockstep with 'how'. I'm sure the Quandts are weighing that during their strategy sessions in Motorrad, as well as conversations with Von Kunheim.

Because if the orientation of the pistons are the only 'detail' that separates these two bikes. . . .then they compete on price point alone. And that's a losing proposition.

Naah, close but still so different.
Honda Crosstourer could be nice, dual clutch...

Better buy a half a dozen of the remaining CamHeads, oil em' down and stash them away and most importantly, don't go for a test ride on the forthcoming WetHead, cause dollars to donuts all this nonsensical lamenting, will have been for nothing.

996DL

oh.... thats right.... carbed engines were even better.... guess we need to starting collecting all them too...

seriously dude... have you not seen the progression BMW has made? look at the old 850gs and compare that with the 1200gs..... MAJOR improvements.... major ground breaking technology....

go build your post count somewhere else if you can't bring something productive to the thread.... :huh

...at least that's the way I read it...

IMHO, I've found that BMW keeps moving forward and makes their models better and better each year. I'm sure that the new "GS" water cooled version, will be fantastic. Also, I'm sure that there will many used "non" water cooled versions to buy, for those who prefer them.

As for me, I admit that I like the more "simple" approach that this current air/oil cooled motor offers and I'm happy, and content with its H.P./Torque for the "REAL" roads of life (heck, 90% of riders out there cant even begin to "effectively" use the H.P. they already have, but of course want more).

Currently, I'm in the market for another BMW (a new GS or R). I'm a bit torn, because I know how good the current air/oil engine package is and the way they handle, and perform, and I ask myself how much better can they really make it? The fact is, as time marches forward, "typically" so do advancements in design, metallurgy, efficiency, less weight. Anyway, time will tell if my new "air/oil cooled" GS or R will need to be replaced with the new "water-cooled" version???

Mike K.
Dana Point, CA

+1. But then again, I'm just trying to build my post count!

Breathe deep and reread and most importantly, don't apply for work as a proofreader.

996DL

Seriously, this happens every time BMW brings out a new model. The masses cry foul about the increase in technology and complexity, but then the new becomes old and it starts all over again.

Personally I am looking forward to the new bike as likely my next new bike. I was an early adopter on the Hexhead, and will be on the new Wethead!

Jim

Couple of quicks in reply to this smart post...

Just dragged these two pics into Photoshop, resized your referenced second image, and it laughingly came to be that the two bikes are identical in size, angle, and accouterments...I also looked at the images in the pixel level and everything is near identical on the bikes...will post pics later of one layered over the other with transparency thrown in to illustrate the point when time is availed...lastly it is worth mentioning that the only delta in the bikes is the rather low brow Photoshop manipulation in the tank area...that and the cheese backgrounds which are Photoshop'd in...silly wabbits...