SPECIAL On Two wheels 2022 BMW K1600 RANGE K

First ride in Andalusia on the latest Euro 5 compliant versions of BMW's four six-cylinder luxury tourers, the sportier K1600GT and more lavishly equipped K1600GTL, and their Bagger sisters the K1600B and full-dress K1600 Grand America

- Alan Cathcart

Fresh from producing 194,261 bikes in 2021, making that its best year ever since it was founded 99 years ago in 1923, and in so doing drastically increasing its global market share, BMW Motorrad is on a product-driven roll that's taken Europe's largest manufacturer of premium motorcycles back to pre-Covid sales levels - and then some. .

However, that was achieved despite the German manufacturer having thus far failed to upgrade the transverse in-line 24-valve six cylinder engine with chain-driven DOHC powering its range-topping line-up of K1600 land yachts and mega-baggers, to make it Euro 5 compliant in time for the new sound and emissions regulations' January 2021 introduction. That being so, it was widely presumed the end had finally come for this über-premium model line-up on offer for the past decade, on the basis that with their presumably limited sales it didn't make economic sense to invest the needed R&D budget to update these models as needed.