BMW K1600R – new inline-six street bike planned?

While BMW Motorrad’s much-loved ‘R’-boxer twin, and the inline-four S-series engines, have seen wide acceptance in the riding community, its big inline-six has thus far been confined to heavy-touring duty, in the K-series long-distance highway cruisers.

This could be about to change, as a rendering of what purports to be a naked streetbike using the big K-series engine, has emerged. As published in German motorcycle magazine Motorrad.de, this rendering by Stefan Kraft of S-Kraft Design in Stuttgart shows BMW Motorrad’s massive 1,649 cc inline-six mounted in a naked chassis.

Dubbed the K1600R, the bike shares styling cues with BMW Motorrad’s other roadsters, the R1200R and the S1000R. In the current K1600GT, the K-engine is rated at 160 hp and 175 Nm of torque at 5,250 rpm, and is capable of propelling the 332 kg tourer to well over 200 km/h.

In naked sportster form, that amount of power would be almost, but not quite, insane. The chassis looks like it has been lifted off an S-bike, which would make sense as the beam-aliminium frame is already designed to deal with 200 hp.

This sportster would certainly be an interesting addition to the K-series range, harking back to the days of the Benelli 750/900 Sei, Honda CBX 1100 and Kawasaki Z1300 inline-six bikes.

GALLERY: BMW Motorrad K1600 GTL Ignite Straight Six project

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