August 2024 issue of Classic Bike

I have a RGS and have owned four BMW K bikes and currently have a K1200RS, I can say without a doubt the RGS is a way better bike than the K100.

Although the BMW will run many more miles before the motor needs attention, it is a nightmare to work on if something breaks. And in the case of the K100 it has really annoying vibration at speed and does not handle all that well. It will also roast you on hot days.

I only owned the K bikes for commuting the 90 miles a day for work. You could park it Friday night and not have to do any maintenance to be back on the road Monday. One thing they should have mentioned is parts availability, it is easier to get parts for my RGS than an old K bike. BMW does not support them very well compared to the twins. Many common parts I ask for at the dealer they say are no longer available. I needed radiator hoses last year for my 2003 K1200RS, you can't get them.
 
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1200ts said:
I have a RGS and have owned four BMW K bikes and currently have a K1200RS, I can say without a doubt the RGS is a way better bike than the K100.

Although the BMW will run many more miles before the motor needs attention, it is a nightmare to work on if something breaks. And in the case of the K100 it has really annoying vibration at speed and does not handle all that well. It will also roast you on hot days.

I only owned the K bikes for commuting the 90 miles a day for work. You could park it Friday night and not have to do any maintenance to be back on the road Monday. One thing they should have mentioned is parts availability, it is easier to get parts for my RGS than an old K bike. BMW does not support them very well compared to the twins. Many common parts I ask for at the dealer they say are no longer available. I needed radiator hoses last year for my 2003 K1200RS, you can't get them.
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Iā€™m going to be devils advocate here- the K100 was a milestone in motorcycle engineering & development ( single sided swing arm, alloy tank, fuel injection, compact motor, low centre of gravity etc..) and was used by Police / Escort services and was a huge success for BMW selling nearly 40,000 units.
The Laverda wasnā€™t - it was a dated ,heavy and didnā€™t sell particularly well. Fast forward a few years and itā€™s a classic.
Your point about spares is interesting - When I worked for BMW ( I have never owned one! ) they had a strange attitude to bikes that had been flagship models ten years previous were now regarded as ā€œ old bonesā€ and were not to be worked on by main dealers! This is very much a car manafactures attitude- Honda & Suzuki UK however do their best to keep old bikes on the road, Honda guy told me they would supply engine parts on a need only basis to stop people buying up all the exhaust valves and hoarding them. Your vibration at speed may be because you werenā€™t going fast enough- BMWs are designed to go fast not 55mph - not great for the US market.

Finally I would much rather have the Laverda than the BMW- itā€™s clearly not better than the beemer but is way more fun, sounds cool and has what all Italian bikes have & BMWs donā€™t - desirability.
 
On the way home from 75th we shared a table at a cafe in Austria with a bike bloke, of course talked bikes. He had been a long time BM K rider but said the high frequency vibes drove him nuts and he gave them up, def not a 90kmh rider.
 
As for riding BMW's at 55 MPH, not the case here. The 55 MPH speed limit was repealed in the USA almost 40 years ago. I do most of my riding at 80 MPH and faster.

The K100 and K1100 most definitely vibrate pretty badly at speed. Had they not had this problem, BMW would not have rubber mounted the motor for the K1200. The first K bike I rode was a K100 which was quickly replaced with a K75 that has a balance shaft. The 90 HP BMW claimed the K100 made was most likely from very old horses!

I agree the K100 was a technological marvel when it was introduced in 1982 compared to what Laverda was making but is a boring bike to ride and on a hot day will roast you to death after your hands go numb from the vibration.

BMW K bikes do have one huge advantage over owning a Laverda. The used parts on Ebay are basically free. I have a new K75 motor I bought a few years ago for $260. No one else but me even bid on it. And yes it is a brand new motor that has never been in a bike. The cost to buy it from the dealer when you could get one was around $3000. I don't have any K75's anymore so will eventually sell it.

And comparing Japanese bikes of the era to a RGS, for about a year I rode a 1986 Kawasaki Concours 1000 (GTR1000 in Europe) which was even worse heat wise than the BMW and it weighed 671 lbs with fuel. I never understood why the Kawasaki was so popular?
 
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Trust me and 1200TS when we say no one drives 55MPH in the US, hell if you drive/ride at 70MPH on Southern California freeways you are going to be backing up traffic and get a lot of dirty looks. I came up to the North West, Idaho, getting here was 1400 miles of A and B roads with 75-80 MPH limits, cops were a rarity no cameras either. The Interstate 90 through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho has many many miles of posted 85MPH limits, at 85 you get passed frequently
Exmoor beast said:
Your vibration at speed may be because you werenā€™t going fast enough- BMWs are designed to go fast not 55mph - not great for the US market.
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78jotadave said:
Trust me and 1200TS when we say no one drives 55MPH in the US, hell if you drive/ride at 70MPH on Southern California freeways you are going to be backing up traffic and get a lot of dirty looks. I came up to the North West, Idaho, getting here was 1400 miles of A and B roads with 75-80 MPH limits, cops were a rarity no cameras either. The Interstate 90 through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho has many many miles of posted 85MPH limits, at 85 you get passed frequently
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In UK we have speed cameras, average speed cameras, speed camera vans, variable speed limits on motorways and my village has a 20mph limit. 70mph on motorways with most people driving from 65/90 realistically. Sports bike sales have fallen of a cliff since the 1990s , very few traditional touring bikes with big adventure bikes becoming the norm.
 
Getting bad here in Oz too - in a land so vast with so much remote territory to cover you'd think you could relax - not so. On the ride to my mother in law's beach house there is a nice 15km stretch when you get finally off the main highway. I've always felt safe to drive and ride it well over the limit. Driving home last week someone flashed a warning and sure enough over the crest of a hill was a speed camera car. If I'd been on the SFQ it would have been licence gone, huge fine etc

The thought of trying to rein in 180hp is beyond me.
 
78jotadave said:
Trust me and 1200TS when we say no one drives 55MPH in the US, hell if you drive/ride at 70MPH on Southern California freeways you are going to be backing up traffic and get a lot of dirty looks. I came up to the North West, Idaho, getting here was 1400 miles of A and B roads with 75-80 MPH limits, cops were a rarity no cameras either. The Interstate 90 through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho has many many miles of posted 85MPH limits, at 85 you get passed frequently
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That road is just waiting for sleepers and rails.
Paul
 
Vibration at speed,WTH ?. I put 60k on my 85k100rs with many 12 hour days. Ditto for the k1100rs. The 85 didnt roast my legs. The k11 did because the factory forgot to put the tank insulation on it. Once the insulation was on it was an all season bikefor cali,nevada, az.. I had a red 84RGS, loved the bike. It looked great sounded great,top heavy when full of gas, carburetted poorly for California anyway, poorly designed ignition advance for the Ferrari of motorcycles. The ignition was fixed with Moto Witt. Loved the bike, the sound it made when on cam, even the vibration. God , I wish I had an RGS even though my BMW s1000xr would run circles around it. Anybody want to trade ?
 
If the K100 and K1100 did not vibrate, then why did the next K model, the K1200 have a rubber mounted engine? The K1200 engine is identical to the K1100 other than little bit longer stroke. I have ridden over 400,000 miles on K bikes and know the good and bad things about them.

From a magazine road test:

"It was introduced to the U.S. market in 1984, the K-bikes offered unique qualities and decent performance, though less-than-endearing traits such as excessive engine vibration, underdamped suspension and a hyperactive final-drive system kept the line from reaching its full potential."

"K-bikes have been seriously flawed. Take your pick: smoking engines, toe-numbing vibration, sub-600class acceleration, orange-peely paint that would have looked out of place on a Tijuana taxi, let alone a supposedly world-class sport-tourer. This bike still throws off a lot of heat in stop-and-go traffic."

This a Laverda forum, so I am done with BMW.
 
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Motorcycles are very subjective, handling, vibration , looks itā€™s all a question of taste. Personally I donā€™t like the sound of flat four Subaruā€™s or 180 Laverdas which most people on here wouldnā€™t agree with, different strokes for different folks.
Some people think Guzziā€™s vibrate ffsšŸ™„ ā€¦
 
1200ts said:
That picture you posted, it looks like Amboy in the distance? If so a very fast road that in April of last year I held 120 MPH on this portion of the road on my SFC1000.
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It is Nevada State Hwy 6, Tonopah to Ely about 170 miles of go-as-fast-as-you-dare roads, all above 6000 feet in elevation. The Jota on full stick will not make it on a single tank between the 2 towns and there are no fill stations out there, ask me how I know. Fortunately, as planned the wife was coming up behind with additional fuel, it was a fun trip.
 
I also owned a K 100 when my Laverda had a problem for some time. It was good as a touring bike and I could really go fast at long distance on the highway, 180 k and moreā€¦., but riding this bike hard on curvy roads was hard, shifting down in the wrong moment it started to swing and was difficult to brake it before the next corner. Laverda RGS performs in this situations much better.
 
My copy of the September issue of Classic Bike has just arrived.
As mentioned earlier, there's an excellent 8-page article by Bob Dixon on the recent Breganze 75th bash. Heaps of photos, as well as features of individuals including Marnix and Piet.
If anyone outside of the UK wants a copy, let me know and I'll do my best to get one and ship it at cost.

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