I'm about to set off for Portsmouth to meet with the other in the main party. 

Ready for some sun and superb roads. 

There is still the possibility of a place on the trip if anyone is interested. It'll mean great roads, warm weather and superb company! The perfect combination for a biking holiday.

Someone offered me a 2012 K1300S today for £8,500. It has all the extras such as quick shift and ESA. It has done 260 miles. Needless to say it is immaculate.

I will be sticking with my K1200S.

I'd have bitten his hand off at that price.

I've had a K1200S that I put 45000 miles on and now have a K1300S which, so far, I've put 36000 miles on.

I'm going to disagree with Brian and say that the 1300 is better than the 1200 at everything. (Except, so far, attracting expensive repair bills) However, the 1300 is only just a tiny little bit better at most things and, in my opinion, not better enough to warrant changing a good 1200 for, as you'll need to spend a fair bit of extra money.

While the 1300 only has a little more top end power, it has significantly more mid range torque which, combined with a quick shifter, makes it a  fair bit faster in real road situations. The slightly revised steering geometry makes turn in a little quicker without any loss of stability and the non-assisted brakes have as much bite but much greater feel.

The only things that were better on the K1200S were the 3 button indicators and the slightly taller top gear.

I think the fronts are OK for the moment but I had a "heads up" on the rear at the last service. It's about to go in for it's 36k service and will need it's 42k just before the Old Gits trip to Northern Spain in June. I'll see what they say at this service but will I want to make sure everything is sorted for June so I'm preparing things.

So far I've only used the BMW pads.

Has anyone fitted Brembo replacement disks rather than the OEM one? (May even be the same!

The reason I ask is that my disks are near replacement time and someone has pointed me at some cheap Brembo disks from Italy.

http://www.carpimoto.it/en-GB/Bike_BMW_K-1300-S/Specific/Brakes/Brake-Discs/

I find the BMW Sports panniers fine for touring with. I don't like them to be extended as it makes the bike wider for filtering but the ability to "over fill" them then squash them down on the ratchets is great.

I hate top boxes. The worst place to add weight or air resistance on a bike is high behind the rear axle. Exactly where a top box goes. I have a small 5ltr tail pack on my rack for waterproofs, phone etc. when commuting and I don't even like that.

The best way to carry luggage is in a tank bag. the weight is forward and it sits in relatively still air. A well designed and filled tank bag will not only give you somewhere for you luggage but will also give you somewhere to rest your chest and take some weight off your arms after either a lot of town work or a long high speed dash. It also gives easy access for passport, cash, credit card, tickets  etc. making toll stops as quick and easy as possible.

OK, a little late to the party, but here are my thoughts:

Firstly, I have never tried the PR3s so can't comment on them other than through hearsay from other riders.

I had PR2s on my K1200S and covered almost 45k miles on just over 5 different sets. 8K from the rear and 9K from the front was my normal usage and on good dry roads I could happily ride to my limit on the corners. Wet performance was easily good enough for me, allowing me to still be as quick as or quicker than other traffic on the road with no "worrying moments".

I fitted PR2s to the K1300S after about 2000 miles on whatever rubbish came out of the BMW showroom and found the K1300S on PR2s was pretty much the same as the K1200S on PR2s. I then fitted the PR4s as there were no PR2s available at the time. The pressures were set to 2.4/2.8 as recommended to me by previous fitter for the PR2 for spirited solo riding.

Generally, dry and wet grip was fine (same as PR2s) until I got to the nice roads of the French and Italian Alps where I could have some real fun. As I started to push closer to my limits I could feel the back tyre moving. Not enough to cause a panic but enough to be uncomfortable and to stop me pushing any harder. This happened on a few occasions and meant I spent a week on some superb roads only riding to about 85% of what I thought was safely possible.

As Brian has mentioned I did report my issues to Michelin who said I should not be running PR4s with less than 2.5/2.9 I didn't get any real chance to test the PR4s again but I did notice that both the first set and the second set I fitted with the correct pressures became sensitive to white lines much sooner and with a much greater "discomfort level" than the PR2s.

Both sets of PR4 did 7.5K miles and while the front wasn't fully worn out I was not happy to leave them on due to the white lining.

So, in summary, the PR4s gave me nothing (that I could use) that I didn't get from the PR2s, wore out slightly sooner and cost almost 20% more. I now have PR2s fitted but have not had the weather/opportunity to test them towards the limit. I am however, very happy with them and unless something significant has changed will be continuing to use them for as long as I can get them.

PS The hearsay I have picked up on PR3s is that they are no better than PR2s in the dry, are slightly better in the wet but wear out quicker. Again, they appear to offer nothing extra I want but cost more/are not such good VFM hence I've not bought any.