Greetings From ‘Murrica, Everyone.
I just snagged a ‘15 K13S that was accepted as a trade-in to a Louisville Harley dealer. 2,836 miles on a pristine black and gray freight train of German engineering. I’m very impressed with this bike. I’ve been riding sport bikes since I bought an ‘85 Kawasaki Ninja 900 to look more like Tom Cruise. ‘91 GSXR-750 that I punched-out to 955cc, then an ‘07 GSXR-1000, then an ‘05 KTM 525 Supermoto (an absolute hoot, but a misery on the highway), now this K13S, my first BMW.
The motor is a very enjoyable blend of smooth sophistication and barely-contained rage. The ergonomics are good, probably a bit better than I expected. I have a fairly long torso which puts my shoulders further up and forward than a regular 6’2†guy. This has me lamenting the lack of rotational adjustability of both the clutch and the brake levers. It seems downright odd to me that BMW is so adamant that these remain fixed that they went so far as to bolt the underside of the lever perch to the bottom of the bar holder. The manual also makes it clear you’re not to attempt to adjust them, ostensibly for fear of the possibility you’ll uncover the master cylinder feed port. I have adapted OK to the too-high lever heights, but it still seems like a strange thing to make fixed.
I’m also impressed with the straightforward nature of standard maintenance tasks like oil changes, rear end lube service, air filter replacement, etc. It looks like tasks like coolant flush require a vacuum fill setup and also that spark plugs/coils and the rare valve clearance checks are best all handled simultaneously. All my Suzuki’s have required half an hour of washing spilled oil filter oil off the headers and that’s after you’ve figured out how to reach past the hot headers to spin the thing off in the first place. It gives you the feeling that things have been thought through. All of these things will be complicated by my lack of a centerstand, but cutting a perfect fairing gives me the heebie-jeebies.
One aspect of the motor is that it’s a bit less than perfectly smooth in the on-off-on throttle response. I don’t mind the significant engine braking, but it seems the transition from very small throttle cruise to coasting and back requires a pretty deft touch to smooth it out. I doubt a Power Commander does a great deal to smooth that out some as I suspect it’s part of closed-loop mapping and if you try to add fuel at closed throttle, the O2 sensor will just tell the ECU it’s too rich and pull it all back out. Wonder if anyone has tried this.
Oh, and one final niggle has to do with the perils of buying a used bike, even a really cherry one: it only came with 1 key. I have heard BMW keeps a pretty tight leash on the issuance of replacements and that it will involve a trip to the dealer (shudder) with proof of ownership and a big wad of money in-hand. Does any of that sound correct?
Anyhow, I plan to hit some of the “famous†area roads as soon as it’s not Africa hot in Tennessee, including the infamous Tail Of The Dragon. This should be quite an interesting experience compared to a 50 horsepower, 275 pound Supermoto.
It’s tough being retired.
Bill
