What do the letters and numbers in BMW model designations mean?
It gets interesting as each day passes by and you discover that there are actually many new things to learn on a daily basis regarding the everyday things which you passby regularly but fail to notice from a different perspective. It is indeed educational to know what acronyms given by automakers really mean just for our general knowledge.
A. From a posting by Tom Coradeschi to the rec.motorcycles newsgroup (And be sure to check out the cycle chronology at http://www.bike.bmw.com/english/infobox/120modelle/chronologisch.html): Roughly speaking, R stands for “rad” which is German for cycle. K stands for “Kompact” (Kompakt?) and is BMW’s name for the drivetrain layout on those bikes. All of the R bikes (at least those currently in production) are boxer twins, while the K bikes have inline 3 or 4 cylinder engines. As far as the letters go, if it has an S after it, it’s a sport model, with a small fairing, belly pan and low handlebars. There is no K75R, but there is a K75RT, which is a touring bike: big fairing, moderately high bars, electrically adjustable windshield on the later model bikes, probably comes with saddlebags and possibly a top case. There’s also a K75LS, where the LS stands for Low Seat – very low seat with different battery covers, etc to make room for it. For those who prefer a more systematic approach . .