I mentioned that my new bike is a BMW K1600 GTL in the first post. This bike is really an amazing piece of machinery.
First off is the engine. This monster has a 1600cc inline-6 motor. BMW is famous for it's inline-6's and this is the most compact I-6 ever made, by anyone. The feel and sound of the thing reminds me of a turbine engine and the power is amazing. Cruising at 80 mph is far too easy with this bike. The GS had the twin boxer motor that could run at any speed all day without stopping but it had certain RPM ranges that were buttery smooth but others that put a lot of vibration into the bike. The GTL is just smooth as silk at any RPM range that I've found. The exhaust note is a deep low 'throbbing' at idle or steady cruising. Open it up and it sounds like an off-shore race boat! I am going to be so lucky if I make it through this trip without a performance award from a state trooper somewhere out in the wide open countryside.
The electronics are almost comical:
- Entertainment
- Sirius satellite radio
- Garmin BMW Nav4 GPS with bluetooth for phone
- USB interface for music
- Support for iPhone/iPod
- USB flash drive
- Bluetooth support for two helmets
- Comfort
- Electronic windscreen adjustment
- Heated Grips
- Heated Seats
- Central locking
- Alarm
- Drivability
- ABS
- Dynamic Traction Control with three settings
- Electronic fuel mapping with three settings
- Electronically variable suspension settings
The list goes on but you get the idea. All of the electronics are controlled by a few buttons and a whiz-bang do everything wheel/toggle. You never have to move your hands from the grips or even look down to make changes if you're able to memorize the entire set of menus.
The accommodations for the passenger (pillion in motorcycle parlance) are much better than on the GS and are a major reason for the change to this bike. We've done a couple of day trips to get used to the bike and so far this one is getting the thumbs up from the wife so I think we have a winner.
T-minus 24 days and preparation is already underway for this year's trip to the races.
This year will be a slightly different adventure since I no longer have my beloved R1200 GS but instead have a brand new shiny BMW K1600 GTL. The GTL is not an off-road machine by any stretch so this trip all be on nice smooth tarmac. What the GTL lacks in off-road capability it makes up for it technology and raw performance. I could easily make it all the way to SLC in two days with no problem if I had a get out of jail free card to hand the cops every time I got pulled over. The full fairing and larger windscreen will also make the trip a lot less work for me so I hope that I'm not as worn out at the end of the day.
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| The new GTL |
I'm still determining the final routing for the trip but the outline is to hit the following places:
- Angle Fire, NM
- North rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison
- Moab, UT
- Salt Lake City
- Telluride, CO
- Aspen, CO
- South Fork, CO
One of the goals is to scout for any potential areas where we can built a vacation home so I'll probably cover fewer miles than normal so I can spend a little more time poking around in a few key areas we are interested in knowing more about. Unfortunately I probably won't hit as many parks either. Of course Colorado is pretty much a giant park anyway so I'm not missing much.
I'm still looking at how to best capture a record of my trip and how to make it easy to follow where I am and what I'm doing. Last year I used a blog like this and it seemed to work so I'm reading about the new options they have for people to follow the blog updates. I may be tweaking the format of things in the next couple of weeks until I figure out how this all works.
