About this time last year I decided that I'd had enough of the reliability issues with my 2012 Multistrada so started looking for something as a replacement. At that point I knew the 1290 GT was going to be released this year because I'd been to Kiska in Austria and sat on it Easter last year, I had 2 test rides on an S1000 S and I'd sat on an XR at the bike show so I knew roughly what I'd be getting with that bike but neither would be available in time for my summer trip to Germany so what to do? Easy, I had a test ride on an 1190 Adventure S and instantly liked it so I struck a deal on a brand new 2014 model and that was that.
I'm pretty well convinced that at some point I'll be buying a 1290 GT either next spring or (more likely) the following one because I loved the engine on the SD version and no way will I ever buy another Multistrada though the S1000 engine makes anything with it fitted guaranteed to make me laugh.
The downside of my impetuous purchase of the 1190 was that shortly after buying it I had a lot of problems with my shoulder and hardly rode a bike last summer so I could have kept the unreliable Multistrada another year and probably got one of the first GTs in the country