I have an HP2 Sport, with its twin cam engine*. I also has a vanilla 1200GSA (06). I have both as they are totally different bikes, both very good at certain things, only.
It is meaningless what engine is in the Sport, even if outwardly (and many of it's inards) may - or may not - appear the same in the new 1200 GS variant. It will all depend on what state of tune / gearing they decide to slot into the engine, not what engine they are slotting into the frame, let alone any other modifications and improvements that may appear. Underseat exhausts, which will save space, but possibly heat your arse, may be one. Built in GPS (BuMW variety, naturally).... who knows? You can bolt a quickshifter onto a vanilla 2009 or earlier GS if you want to. That closes that door.
You can see the same thing happen when Honda bolt FireBlade engines into Hornets... you don't see many Hornets maxing out at 178 mph (not that many FireBlades, either, for that matter).
Of course punters do do engine chops. An 1100 engine in a 750 frame is known as a 7/11 in an amusing twist on the alldaynight stores. Maybe someone will do the same with a full-on Sport engine into a GS to teach BuMW how they
should have done it, instead of going all namby-pamby?.... Though lots of people will no doubt suck their teeth as the oil filler cap IS ON THE WRONG SIDE!
* There is a thread somewhere, where we were told with absolute certainty by a UKGSer that it was impossible to do it in a Boxer engine. I guess BuMW didn't know. We were also told that the 09 HP2 Sport would be a watered down version of the 08 flavour machine, with no carbon fibre, no snappy Ohlins etc. Another certainty that fell into the weeds.
As Fanum (and Eddie) said.... "Do anything you wanna do".
PS The new VFR looks like it could be quite a good compromise between a GS and an outright sports bike, if you want to go down that route. There again, it could be a bag o'shite. We will all know on Valentine's day.
