Motorcycle Classics wrote: Bahn Burner: 1990 BMW K1
Based on the K100, the 1990 BMW K1 was a sporting machine without a hint of touring pretensions.
By Greg Williams
Motorcycle Classics Magazine
March/April 2016
1990 BMW K1 Photo by Stephen Clark
Slideshow
1990 BMW K1
Engine: 987cc liquid-cooled DOHC inline four, 67mm x 70mm bore and stroke, 11:1 compression ratio, 95hp @ 8,500rpm
Top speed: 143mph (period test)
Transmission: 5-speed, shaft final drive
Weight (wet): 612lb (278kg)
Fuel capacity/MPG: 5.2gal (20ltr)/45-50mpg
Price then/now: $12,990/$4,000-$9,000
At the end of the 1980s, the high-horsepower superbike category belonged to the Japanese motorcycle makers. But Germany’s BMW was about to unleash — in the words of Monty Python — something completely different.
Based on BMW’s 4-cylinder K100, a touring-oriented model first introduced in 1984, the new for 1989 K1 was a sporting performance machine without a hint of touring pretensions. According to motorcycle historian Ian Falloon in The Complete Book of BMW Motorcycles, in the late 1980s BMW took a look at the available Japanese superbikes with their firecracker performance and taut handling. Tops in horsepower and agility, all of these Japanese rockets featured chain final drive.
“BMW decided the time was ripe for a shaft drive Superbike,” Falloon writes, “one considerably more performance focused than the K100. When it was first displayed at the Cologne Show at the end of 1988, the K1 shattered the perception of BMW producing only conservatively styled touring and sport touring motorcycles.” Of the resulting K1 fitting into the established superbike category, a March 1990 Cycle report said BMW had gone its own way, just as BMW always had.
Article continues here.
--John
