Welcome to the dark side. I'm sure you'll like it just fine.

I currently own both a Harley Street Glide Special and a BMW K1600GT. My SGS has the "premium" suspension. I'm in the process of upgrading to Olins. The BMW's suspension is far superior. I dread certain spots in the route to work. There's one spot that even the BMW bottoms out. Set the Harley's preload correctly and it's bearable. Just barely.

The BMW folks think the K1600GT is heavy. Ha! Move a Harley Touring bike around for few weeks, your K1600GT will seem light as a feather. The BMW is fast and the motor is a monster. That being said the 103 High Output motors aren't lacking in the real world. You can only use so much of the BMW's power before you get yourself into ultra legal speeds. On my Harley I can rip away from a stop with more than enough authority. Yes the BMW is better at the sport side of touring. That's a given. It has some cool technology as well. The suspension adjustment on the fly is one. I find it very odd the BMW doesn't have auto canceling turn signals. And the supposedly low tech Harley has had that for a good long while. My first Harley in 06 had it. The motor sound and character firmly goes to Harley. I find the comfort on them to be the same. At least for my 48 year old frame. I bought my Harley last October and just got the BMW. It's a used 2012. The first few days of having the BMW I was all enamored with it and how much superior it was to the Harley. Then I rode the Harley again and the strengths of the Harley showed themselves again. I'm intending on keeping both of them. I'm going to take the BMW tomorrow to work so I can study more which one is better. Truth be known, I'd rather take the Harley.

One thing the BMW crowd, and Victory for that matter, harp on is the reliability of the Harley. It's laughable for the BMWs. The K1600 bikes have known issues with the switch gear going out and water pump failures. My K1600's cruise control is not working and the bike over heated on me while I was taking it back to the dealership to check out the cruise control. And the cruise control was changed in February of this year. It's still under warranty for me. Not one of my Harleys had any issues at all. Nothing had to be replaced under any warranty. That pisses me off when they start spouting the reliability issue.

Ohh, on the heat issue, I feel it on both. But my Harley is worse. I'm going to have to address that.

 

First I've heard of it. I trail brake all the time and have never had an issue.

The adjustable suspension is what I miss the most.

The problem with the K16 is that it's not balanced well. It's top-heavy, especially with the top case on and loaded.

Power-wise it's no contest, but I don't really miss it. The H/O 103 with a stage one does awfully well. I don't want for more power very often, and the want passes relatively quickly.

It baffles me that Harley's the only company who's really grasped the importance of self-cancelling signals.

Yes, but.....That 6 sounds amazing when under load. I punched out the GTL mufflers so it sounded like a GT.

We're the same age. I had a GTL with a GT seat. I was comfortable on the K16, but my bum knee would bother me after a while. I massively prefer the "standard" riding position, as it makes handling the bike much easier, but my damn knee just won't take it over time.

They're both very, very good bikes.

Absolutely. I love BMWs....They're really fun bikes to ride and the tech is amazing. But they're fragile things, and their dealers/service departments could learn a few things from Harley dealers (and that's saying something).

 

cajun wrote in post 61:
"Ohh, on the heat issue, I feel it on both. But my Harley is worse. I'm going to have to address that."

Easy:
- De-cat
- Put a tuner on it
- If still too hot for your taste, put on Ward's Fans or Love Jugs.

 

I'm not talking about trail braking. I do that on occasion as well, but only using the rear brake on the SGS and Ultra before it. I probably could use the front brake somewhat too on the SGS, but I've long ago adjusted my cornering technique to suite the Harley Touring bikes.

What I was talking about is grabbing some brake to scrub off speed mid corner, say on a descending radius curve. On a BMW it's no big deal as far as the suspension goes because the have anti-dive forks. On a Harley you grab some front brake and the fork is so squishy that it throws the bike's geometry off, which changes your line. In the example I recall, that line became an exit line which was pretty scary.

I haven't done this on my SGS, so I would imagine it's not as pronounced as it was on my 11 Ultra. That bike was pretty whippy. The SGS, especially with Ohlins, is far more planted and solid. But it's still doesn't have an anti dive fork.

 

No, no anti-dive fork. But with proper trail braking (riding the front brake into the corner and slowly releasing it until you power out at the apex) the squishy suspension isn't an issue. It'll be less of an issue once the Ohlins cartridges go in.

 

For whatever it's worth, the K1600 does have self canceling signal lights.

 

Negative. What it has are signals on a timer. They "self-cancel" after a certain number of seconds, not because you've completed your turn.

 

And the mid-frame shields too. They made a difference, I was surprised.

 

[QUOTE]Welcome to the dark side. I'm sure you'll like it just fine.[ /QUOTE]
Thanks!

 

Sounds like self canceling to me...timer or lean sensor. Take your pick.