2013 BMW K 1600 GTBMW Motorcycle NewsWith victories in the “Touring Bike,” “Sports Bike,” and “Trial/Enduros” categories and six other top places, BMW Motorrad achieved excellent results in the MOTORRAD magazine “Motorcycle of the Year 2014” readers’ choice awards. BMW Motorrad has never won so many top places in the reader survey before.
As was the case last year, the BMW HP 4 took first place in the “Sports Bike” category with a 27 percent vote. Thus, the participating MOTORRAD readers once again paid their respects to the superior combination of sporty performance and the Race ABS und Dynamic Traction Control DTC safety systems.BMW Motorrad actually scored a brilliant three-way success in the “Touring Bike” category. Scoring 18.2 percent, the BMW K 1600 GT/GTL snatched victory from the R 1200 RT, which registered 17.6 percent of readers’ votes. Third place, with 15 percent of the vote, went to the F 800 GT the premium product from BMW Motorrad for mid-performance bikes in this segment.Once again MOTORRAD readers confirmed the leading position of BMW Motorrad in the “Trial/Enduros” category. Almost one quarter of readers once again voted for the R 1200 GS.“I am very pleased with the excellent result achieved by our motorcycles and wish to thank the readers of MOTORRAD magazine for this seal of approval. We see this as both an incentive and a responsibility. I am particularly pleased with our three-fold success in the “Touring Bike” category as this reflects the absolute key area of expertise of our brand for over 90 years,” said Stephan Schaller, President of BMW Motorrad, referring to the vote.With third place in the “Allrounder” category for the BMW K 1300 S and second and third places in the “Scooters” class for the C 600 Sport/C 650 GT and the C evolution electric scooter, BMW celebrated several other top placements. Voted second in the “Naked Bikes” category, the new R nineT completed the major success enjoyed by BMW Motorrad.In the parallel selection of the “Best Brands”, BMW Motorrad managed to score two more top places. Thus, 34.6 percent of voters were impressed with the textile wear within BMW Motorrad driver equipment and awarded it third place. Also placed third were the BMW Motorrad back protectors, which received 26.2 percent of the readers’ votes in this product segment.The prizes were presented on March 17, 2014 in Stuttgart. The 16th “Motorbike of the Year 2014” prizes, regarded as the most important motorbike and scooter reader’s awards in Europe, attracted votes from 45,707 readers – about 50 percent more than in the previous year. Readers chose their favorites in eight categories. Since 1999, more than half a million readers have participated in this vote.
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This week, in the first segment Editor Don Williams talks to us about the new Kawasaki Versys 650 LT. It’s the middleweight ADV style machine that uses the same 650 parallel twin motor as the Ninja 650, so it’s an excellent performer in a user-friendly, good looking package.
In the second segment, I chat with one of my dearest industry friends—now retired Honda PR executive, Jon Seidel. Jon’s fascinating career spans some 30 years with Big Red, and gave him some great experiences with some incredible machines. I was fortunate enough to be invited on many of the press launches that he organized. His new project is documenting and saving many of the old archives from years gone by—and incidentally, if you have anything that may be of value to the project, please contact us by email at producer@ultimatemotorcycling.com and we’ll pass it all on to Jon.
So on that note, from all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!