The Inline-Six Bagger I Was Completely Sleeping On

This motorcycle weighs 741 pounds. It is the size of a small piano, it has a seven-gallon tank, and BMW built it to eat interstates for breakfast. None of that is the interesting part. The interesting part is that it made me ride like a hooligan.

I had passed groups of guys on these in the mountains for years and had no idea what they were. Some kind of touring drone, I figured. Turns out it's a K1600B, the only inline-six bagger you can buy, and it sounds like nothing else on two wheels. I rode this one feeling like absolute death from allergies and still didn't want to give it back.

Here's the thing. Bikes this heavy are not supposed to be this fun. This one is.

Performance highlights

Start with the engine, because the engine is the whole story. It's a 1,649cc inline-six making 160 horsepower and 129 pound-feet of torque, and it is the smoothest motor I have ever twisted a throttle on. Yes, including the new Gold Wing. If this isn't smoother than the Wing it's close enough that you'd argue about it. On the highway there is zero vibration anywhere, right up until about 100 mph in sixth, where a little buzz creeps in. Drop back to 90 and it vanishes.

Then there's the pull. We lined up a 40-80 run, I dropped it into first, and I genuinely think I blacked out for a second. It hit so much harder than I expected from something this size. 3.21 seconds. That is sport-naked quick on a bike with hard bags. The power delivery in town is the opposite kind of impressive, smooth and metered, controllable enough to trickle through traffic and then gone the instant you ask for it.

Brakes are linked, front lever working both ends, which is exactly what you want when you're hauling down this much mass. They stop the bike fast and I'm a big fan.

The suspension is where you pay for the comfort. It soaks up bumps so completely you stop noticing the road exists, and it's genuinely shocking how easily this thing flicks left to right for its weight. But push into a real corner and it never quite settles. It bobbles, it floats, it never locks in. Nothing felt unsafe, I just wanted more from it when the road got fun.

Rider experience and tech

This is the most comfortable place I've spent time on a motorcycle. The seat is wide and angles up at the back so it cradles you, the floorboards are great, and the electronic windscreen goes up and blocks basically everything. My one gripe is the bars, which sweep back into a middle spot where I think your arms would get tired on a really long day.

The tech is deep. Three ride modes that change throttle, ABS, and the electronic suspension all at once, cruise control, hill hold, reverse for parking 741 pounds, and a removable GPS in the dash. The catch is this is a 2018, so you don't get the big TFT the newer ones have. I'm a needle-or-TFT guy and this dash lives in between, but BMW lays it out well enough that I can't be mad. The controls held up beautifully too, and this test bike had over 20,000 miles on it.

Ease of use is the honest weak spot. It's heavy enough that if it starts to lean at a stop you'd better be ready, and I could not for the life of me find the turn signals. As a do-everything tourer, though, it's the real deal, happy in the city and built to vanish horizons on the highway.

The Chase score and final thoughts

With a Chase Score of 71/100, this lands in Good tier and ties the Honda Gold Wing Tour, which feels exactly right. The K1600B is the German answer to the bagger question, where the Gold Wing is the Japanese one and the Road Glide is the American one. You get more tech and more performance, you give up a little of the classic cruiser soul.

Buy it if you want the smoothest, fastest bagger in the class and you can find a used one in the twelve-to-thirteen-grand range like this one. Skip it if you want Harley character or a razor-sharp canyon tool, because that's not what this is. I came in sleeping on the K1600. I left a believer.