New BMW LT is six-cylinder

BMW have just revealed a concept bike at the Milan Show which features a six-cylinder engine that will appear in next year’s LT grand tourer.

BMW hinted that the concept bike itself is something of a red herring, but the 1600cc engine is not – it will appear next year powering their grand tourer. This will compete with the likes of the Honda Gold Wing, Victory Vision and Harley-Davidson Electra Glide.    

The engine is a straight six – so, yes, there are six cylinders across the frame, just like the 1978 Honda CBX1000. But it doesn’t look absurdly wide, presumably because modern manufacturing techniques have let BMW cram each 266cc cylinder close to its neighbour.

BMW say the engine is extremely smooth and torquey and builds on the company’s car heritage of straight six engines.