More Power For The GS1200?

[SteveW]

I've had a couple of air cooled GS1200's and I've ridden a couple of liquid cooled 1200's.
I never find them lacking in power, but 125bhp is small change for a 1200cc bike these days.
I know the GS makes its power in a very accessible way and never feels underpowered, but 125bhp on the spec. sheet may put some purchasers off.
It's obvious that BMW will have designed the first incarnation of the liquid cooled engine with the potential for increased power in subsequent updates.
I was pondering what would be the potential of this engine......increase in cc's and power output?
I'd expect the next generation of liquid cooled boxers to make 140bhp at 8250 rpm with 135Nm at 7000rpm.
I wonder when we'll see this?

[qcnr]

To be honest power on paper means nothing. You need to ride a bike to find out what it is like,
and like you have said the GS has never been lacking, so why add more. Add more efficiency instead.
This is a reasonable vid to show what should be done. After tuning an increase of about 4bhp, but a much
more rideable bike.

[AlanHolt]

Torque is far more important than power when riding off-road or riding fully laden, and that's how the BMW is tuned, loads of torque for effortless riding and maximum reliability.

[SteveW]

.......yes, yes, I know it's all about how the bike rides. You're preaching to the converted.
But so many bikes are sold on their specifications.....a typical sports bike rider moving onto an adventure bike is in danger of passing up on a 1200 GS because it "only" makes 125bhp.
BMW will know this, so a power- hike has to be inevitable.......needed or not.

[macvisual]

Many years ago I put my fuel injected Honda Blackbird on a rolling road with a fitted P.Commander and gained only 4BHP but with improved curves and ironed out the small glitches in the power curves........wOw such a difference it made, butterly smooth and improved torque.

I adored riding it home that day and long after.

Peter

[daveuprite]

Back in the days when I had money, I used to spend some of it on race bikes and improving my road bikes too. PDQ's dyno ate up quite a lot of cash, but was a brilliant investment to create bikes that were superb to ride. With the exception (to an extent) of my supersport 600 race bikes, the golden ticket was not peak bhp but producing a nice thrust curve, which is a function of many factors but definitely requires the fattening of the torque curve and the elimination of peaks and troughs along the way. I probably got the best result from my Bimota SB6R, which had the 1127 GSXR engine. Bimota blueprinted the engine, and combined with some further tuning and dyno time I ended up with a beautiful glitch-free curve. It could be ridden a gear higher than a contemporary R1 to give even more output at all rpm, and torque just oozed from that bike. Easiest bike to wheelie you could imagine, but the potential cost of bodywork after a loop out tended to put a stop to all that.

As has been said above, it's improvement in rideability that you notice rather than the peak hp figure, which is why bikes like the KTM Superduke 990 and Tuono V2 are often more satisfying to ride on the road than an R6 or Blade.

[Brads]

BMW are taking that engine to 1250cc aren`t they ? along with VVT

[macvisual]

That reminds me;

My 2008 Suzuki V-Strom DL1000 has been fitted years ago (by myself) with a P.Commander - K&N air filter - carbon fibre oval Akrapovic pipes but never actually set-up properly on a rolling road and re-mapped accordingly.


Must try to organise above before winter kicks in...

(Peter)