Originally Posted by
RoadSurfer
I'm with you RickJ - waiting for the snow to melt and the salt to be washed away up here a few hours north of you. And, like you had been doing, I'm debating whether my attraction to the F6B is well-founded enough for me to make the switch from my 2008 BMW K1200GT. While I love the looks of the F6B, like others have said, the greater comfort it would provide me is the first practical factor, in my mind. I suspect that if money were no object I'd be at the dealer today to make the trade-in, even though I'd be giving up a lot of extra bells and whistles that the K12GT has and the F6B does not (tire pressure monitoring, heated seats, gear indicator, fuel consumption and miles-to-empty read-outs, electrically adjustable windshield, three-position adjustable seat height, removable hard saddlebags and trunk, 12-way electrically adjustable suspension, etc.). In exchange for those features, I'd get more comfortable ergonomics (especially with the addition of highway pegs) and less wind noise (with the installation of a taller windshield). For me, those two benefits probably outweigh all of the other characteristics of my Beemer.
I do want to question your indication that BMWs are "too pricey" in comparison to the F6B, however. Maybe you are comparing prices of left-over F6Bs or maybe there is an oddly greater disparity in the prices in New York State compared to up here in Ontario, but here in Ottawa the MSRP for the 2015 BMW R1200RT (a bike that most reviews crown as the best sport touring bike available today) is actually about $2,000 LESS than that of the 2015 F6B. I think that even the K1600GT is a bit less than the F6B.