Description
While BMW motorcycles remain mostly associated with its R series shaft-drive boxer twins, it’s the K series liquid-cooled ‘multis’ that have been – and remain – the German firm’s most advanced, radical and downright wacky bikes of all.
Launched in 1983 to propel BMW into a whole new era, the K series has included some of the world’s most innovative and interesting motorcycles. From the original liquid-cooled fuel-injected K100, to the radically aerodynamic K1 of the 1980s, the ultra-powerful K1200RS and space age K1200LT of the 1990s and the ‘Duolever’ K1200S and 6-cylinder K1600 of the 2000s and beyond, BMW’s ‘Ks’ have always been special, but also so advanced and pioneering that they’ve helped shape the whole of modern motorcycling.
Here, for the first time, is the complete story of the K series and what made them so special, including:
The factors that influenced their development and design
The personalities behind the first bikes
Histories, descriptions, pictures and specifications of every K model
Contemporary press reactions
Production numbers
Coventry Road