A SoloMoto.es reader spied what appears to be an undisguised, liquid-cooled replacement for the BMW R1200GS testing on a Spanish highway. In addition to the new motor, it looks like the beak has been sharpened up, the paralever swingarm/drive shaft has been moved to the bike’s left side and the exhaust canister to the right. Why liquid-cooling when the rugged simplicity of the air-cooled boxer suited the GS so well?
Anyone have more info about this potential change for BMW and the 1200GS??????
Source: Hell for Leather
Share this:
Advgrrl Motorcycle Adventures & More 
I don’t have any ifo regarding but have the same question. Why drop a tried and true and RELIABLE air cooled engine to go to the more complicated and probably prone to break down liquid cooled.
Only things I can think of are emissions standards are a $#$@% across the pond or the insane need for excessive horsepower.
All I know is I ride a sport tourer with an air cooled(well….oil cooled really) engine. Love the simplicity and how flippin easy the thing is to work on:)
Sad they are slowly going away.
could be a myth because I can not find anymore real reliable info on this…dunno
Just this last weekend I rode an oil/air cooled R1200R. On Saturday, I was caught in very heavy traffic, and the motorcycle, after 15 minutes of stop-and-go traffic (mostly stopped, with moments of advacing a couple of metres), was on the verge of overheating. With those engines, you can degrade the material of the oil level check window (plastic) and start spilling your engine’s oil all over the place, and if you do not shut the engine off immediately, well, there goes your engine too. You cannot be sure that you will be able to shutdown the engine in a timely moment, because besides rush-hour traffic, you can find yourself negotiating a very technical segment of unpaved road, with almost no air flow over the engine and you would face the same overheating scenario. So, for a large engine that may be used off-road or in heavy traffic in warm weather, water cooling is actually a much needed improvement.
Agree with Hans here. Having ridden my previous R1150R in stop-go traffic it soon heated up and it doesn’t take much to get those pipes glowing red. Doug also has a point regarding emission standards over here. Once again with the R1150R it was a headache to get it through the bi-annual compulsory bike test as concerns the emissions part of the test. Thankfully I always managed to catch a tester who was willing to persevere with the test and issue the bike with a pass certificate. A problem not uncommon to BMW air cooled bikes by all accounts.
we owned Harley’s and I nearly burnt the crap out of my leg on the oil tank on the Fat Boy…air cooled is only good when moving…just my opinion which I seem to have a lot of these days.. LOL
In the summer my tube frame Buell would get scary hot in traffic, but i think it is all to do with emissions and to small degree noise standards. I think Harley’s air cooled days are numbered too. Water or air cooled the GS is a good looking bike.
Jim
you really think Harley would be forced to get rid of the air cooled same technology they have been using for YEARS? Harley is a brilliant company…they keep the same engine and only change the outside of the bikes and keep selling them for more and more money…the softail, Dyna…same just different mounts…go figure…
I think it will even get Harley sooner of later, when i was younger there were alot of 2 stroke street bikes around, and there may still be in some countrys, but not in the US.
what would they do?? have the appeal owning an HD is the rumble and rustic engine…all hell will break loose….LOL
Watercooling enables the production of a lighter engine & also helps to reduce emissions.bmw need to start meeting european emission laws.
thanks for the info Ben!