When/If I ever upgrade my bike many years down the road, this will be my baby. Oh yes... she will be mine.

Nice bike but will you like the arm rests on it?

The keyless ignition would be a GREAT thing to have in my opinion.

I do have the 2013 GTL and I can attest to it being a great bike that performs VERY well.

DaFish, how many miles have you put on it so far? Any pics?

About 3,800 so far. A little shakedown cruise from South LA to the Appalachians and back in Sept.

I'll see if I can't drag up a couple of pics.

Mostly still stock with only highway pegs mounted on the mothership engine guards.

Oh! And by the way, "Fish" is fine.

No need to be formal

nothing like a little light touring.  

I had a 2012 GTL for 2 years, put 20,000 miles on it and loved it. But traded it in this past August. The cost of ownership was more than I was comfortable with. And I feared what would happen when the very short warranty ran out. I also worried that I would be stranded by the kill switch. It happened to my husband and my friend and I thought my time would come while I was on the road. 

Lisa Epifano Hall What issues did you run into with it that caused the ownership costs to be so high?

The tires only lasted for 7,000 - 8,000 miles so I went through a few sets. Every 18,000 mile service cost is $900. That's when they check the valves and so much labor is involved just to get to them. I was doing my own oil changes so I saved there. The other services were over $400.  My water pump went at 15,000 and that was a common issue, fortunately it was covered under warranty. The warranty runs out after 3 years or 36,000 miles and I was just not comfortable thinking about the what ifs and how much it would cost to repair. 

That seems like a lot in comparison, but I'm very new to riding and ownership. The cost of maintenance, lifetime of parts and general lasting quality were chief concerns of mine, and ultimately why I ended up going with a Honda. I would be curious to know from others if these costs and problems are something to expect for this series of BMW motorcycle, or BMW's in general as the BMW K 1600 is of potential long term interest to me.

I went from a Goldwing, which service cost me maybe $400 a year, to the BMW and although there was a huge performance and handling upgrade I just couldn't justify the cost. 

Lisa Epifano Hall, yea, I never get more than about 6000 miles out of my tires, but then again I change them yearly whether they've got tread life left or not. Too many heat cycles and they start getting hard which gets problematic when leaning the thing over.

Hmmm. $900 at 18K. I think that's probably around the same range that I pay for having service done on my bike. I'll have to check my records. But I rarely put that kind of mileage on unless I'm touring. My bike only has 92K on the clock. 

I'm really surprised by the water pump. That is troubling.

I do admit the "technological monsters" that these bikes have become is a real turn off for me. It's the same with cars. With increased complexity and performance comes radically increased cost of ownership over the long term. 

Were you running Marathon's or similar hard compound tires on the Gold Wing? What year Gold Wing? 

What are you riding now?

I am now riding a 2013 HD Road Glide Custom. Never in my life did I think I would go to a Harley but I have to say the Road Glide is a pretty nimble machine. I'm a enjoying the low center of gravity and seat height. I bought the service plan so all maintenance is covered for 3 years. 
I had 3 Goldwings. The first was a 1999 1500, then Honda redesigned the Goldwing in 2001 and I had to have it. I put 100,000 miles in 8 years on the '01 (it retired in Nevada on a cross country trip, that's another story) I replaced it with a 2010 Goldwing. I had Bridgestones on the wings and they would last about 15,000 miles. 

Lisa Epifano Hall I understand the need to retire bikes. If If were sane I would have retired mine in Montana last summer; also another story.

Very cool that you found something new and different to enjoy. I didn't know HD did full service plans. That's a pretty interesting benefit. I know a few guys who have put serious mileage on theirs and love them.