Do NOT test ride a GS

I have not posted on the site before so I hope this is the correct way to add a comment!
I am told by my local dealer that there is a price rise of around £1000.00 on all consignment dealer stock from 1st Jan. For anybody thinking of buying a new one it may be worth a call to your dealer to check this out.


Welcome to the site David :thumb

You'd think in these hard times they'd hold off upping the prices :confused:
 
It's probably one of the few areas of BMW that may be profitable in the coming year. No surprise really!!

I'm happy with my 2008 GSA. Just installed the Touratwat handlebar risers I got from FatherChristmas!!! :thumb but Boy, is it COLD out there!!:eek

Enjoy

P
 
Gotta agree with oldrascal on this.
Myself and the missus currently ride an aprilia SL1000 and a SV 1000 and took a 800gs out for a test ride on saturday..... Ummm gutless is an understatement compared to a 1L V-Twin :(. I was hoping to fall in love with the bike and buy one there and then but just kept thinking how will i cope without all that nice thumping power!

I eventually managed to convince myself that i will like the bike but its gonna take a while to fall in love. The handling and comfort is awesome and im sure in the end ill be able to scratch on the roads pretty well.

The biggest + though was that the missus loved it straight away:) She found it alot more confidence inspiring than the SV (Which is actually a shite handling machine) and if she loves it then guess its a done deal :blast.

So back to the shopping. Ill take 2 F800GS please, 1 bumblebee and 1 grey.
 
good job you didnt test ride a 1100 then, :augie



:clap no truer word spoken, sports bike to GS, way to go:thumb2
 
here here!

Couldnt agree more.

I dont have a gs but ive had 2 sports bikes and decided i wanted something a little comfier, so got bought a yamaha fazer without even trying out.

Im glad i did, as soon as i took it out i thought i had made the wrong decision, didnt "feel" right and the first couple hundred miles were strange. But now its brilliant, have the best off both worlds, handling, enough speed and comfort.

Buy before you try when making the move ;)
 
I've never ridden a bike before i've bought it. I think it takes time to get into a bike. I have tried to explain this to non-biker mates, but they seem to think that its like a car, that you can just jump in and drive......I think bikes are much more personal than that, and to get the best out of any bike, you need to spend time and miles getting to know each other. I'm quite fortunate to have a few bikes, but since i've had the GS I have only ridden the others when absolutely necessary. I ride the GS every day. I just love it....i've put some engine bars on and some spotlights from How Much (these make a huge difference, there is literally 3 times as much light as the headlight alone). Everything about the GS just reminds me of how bikes should be.....easy to service (plug change in 3 minutes, easy oil changes, no chain, no cooling system etc) economical, comfortable, practical.....but really good fun...crank it right over in the bends, get up on the pegs, no messing around with changing gears all the time.......I seem to just leave mine in 3rd around town and 4th/5th on the A roads and wind the throttle on:D:D.
So I agree.....don't test ride...buy one ride it for a couple of weeks and you will love it.
 
I'm right with you all on this - my bike history has been a GPZ 500s, a VFR 750 (carbs), a Blackbird (4-1 race system, stage 2 dynojet etc), ZX12R (again modded), ZX10r (you've guessed it, modded) and a month ago I traded it in for an 08 1200 GS and I can't get enough of the bloody thing! Two mates (blade and R1 owners) just can't get their heads around it, then again, they haven't been out once in the last month and I don't think there's been more than two or three days have gone past without me being out again! Of course it doesn't have the ballistic performance of a litre class bike and sounds like a hairdryer by comparison, but it tramps on rightly, handles like a dream and on any road, in any conditions, one or two up... It's completely re-addressed my perspective on what's enjoyable about biking (in any weather) and every time I'm out has me hankering to just keep going (that'll be me taking another stab at the lottery tomorrow :) ). Of course it'd be great to have a stable of bikes, but to own one which satisfies the majority of biking pleasures with the least amount of compromises is, well, fantastic.

A happy new year to you all! :aidan
 
I've been reading this thread with interestand thought I'd add my thoughts/experience just to give a different point of view.

Back in 2005 I was riding a Triumph Sprint (one of the older carb models) and had intelectually decided that a big enduro was the way to go. I fully intended to test ride the V-Strom, Triumph Tiger, the then new Triumph Sprint and the GS.

One sunny Saturday in June me and my girlfriend found ourselves taking out a GS on a test ride from our local dealer. Well I/we absolutely loved it and a week later we were riding out on a brand new yellow 1200GS. Its probably as close as you can get to an impulse buy when getting a new bike and I haven't regretted it for one second. I've now covered 44,000 miles in three and a half years and still love it.

I've toured on it, been to the Harz mountains in Germany and last year went through Germany to Prague, then back into Southern Germany to the Austrian border. It takes the Sunday afternoon B road blast and the 2 up continental tour in its stride.

When i go to the Bike Show, or look at the bikes on Poole Quay on a Tuesday evening I look at the bikes there and think this or that's nice, but I don't covet any of them.

I accept that coming from a Sprint I was already used to a more upright riding position and wasn't used to the power of the big sports bikes and that test riding a GS when you're used to one of these would probably feel very different, but for me it was the test ride that clinched it.

Happy New Year. Ride Safe.
 
Great post Rick, way to go :)

You are, of course, absolutely right to have tested a GS because you wanted to and your decision to buy a giant trailie like the GS needed a practical demonstration to clinch the deal.

My point in starting this thread was to instil a note of caution in superbike riders particularly. Lets face it, if you are coming of a 180bhp/180mph semi-racing bike, and if you are even considering changing to a GS, something else has altered in your biking lifestyle.

Probably creeping senility :rob and the realisation that, if you were to carry on hooning around in your Power Ranger suit for too long, the Grim Reaper may have found his next guest. :rose

It is specifically in that context that, having watched Euan and Charlie conquer the world with such ease and look so cool doing so, a superbike rider who decides to move into the GS world should resist the temptation of a test ride, as the result is unlikely to provide the answer sought after.

As they say in computing circles RIRO - "Rubbish In, Rubbish Out". In other words, the said sports bike rider will be asking the wrong questions of the GS during the test ride and getting skewed answers as a consequence. The GS language is so alien to most sportsbike riders that the answers are meaningless.

In your case, and as you mentioned, you were already coming from a less manic and more upright biking style so you already spoke the dialect of the GS.

Great result though. :beerjug:
 
new bike

Great post Rick, way to go :)

You are, of course, absolutely right to have tested a GS because you wanted to and your decision to buy a giant trailie like the GS needed a practical demonstration to clinch the deal.

My point in starting this thread was to instil a note of caution in superbike riders particularly. Lets face it, if you are coming of a 180bhp/180mph semi-racing bike, and if you are even considering changing to a GS, something else has altered in your biking lifestyle.

Probably creeping senility :rob and the realisation that, if you were to carry on hooning around in your Power Ranger suit for too long, the Grim Reaper may have found his next guest. :rose

It is specifically in that context that, having watched Euan and Charlie conquer the world with such ease and look so cool doing so, a superbike rider who decides to move into the GS world should resist the temptation of a test ride, as the result is unlikely to provide the answer sought after.

As they say in computing circles RIRO - "Rubbish In, Rubbish Out". In other words, the said sports bike rider will be asking the wrong questions of the GS during the test ride and getting skewed answers as a consequence. The GS language is so alien to most sportsbike riders that the answers are meaningless.

In your case, and as you mentioned, you were already coming from a less manic and more upright biking style so you already spoke the dialect of the GS.

Great result though. :beerjug:
thank you.i enjoyed reading youre report.havent test rode a gs yet but maybe this year.think you might go to a harley-davidson after this bike?
 
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did the same.see one. bought one. rode it home loved it. selling me later this so i can get another one..:D:D:D ps i have a 94 1100gs
 
You're right, Oldrascal. No use in testriding the 12GSA.
It was love at first sight, period.
I saw it first at the dealers in -06. But the finances wasn't to good at the moment, so my '78 Kawa Z650 "Pink Panther" had to keep up apearances for a year more. But it said goodbye in the beginning of may -07. Burnt it's third coil in a year. I bet it had heard that the dessert animal was ordered for delivery end of may :augie.
Winter -07, finances allowed ordering a brand new 12GSA. The local dealer could'nt get one, but the dealer i Oslo had ordered two in december -06, and hoped they showed up before the end of may. I could have one of those if I decided today he said on the phone. "OK, I take it, but I wat it end of may." My club, Senior MC, chapter Trondelag, was going to Sweden, trackdriving the first weekend of june, and I wanted to go with them.
But when the Panther broke down, I was whitout a ride, so one of the guys in the club borrowed me a -03 Triumph Bonneville, and also offered me to use it at the track if I did'nt get the GSA i time. Himself he drives a Kawa z14 or something, and his wife was then driving a Buell Ulysses, which she traded in a Triumph Tiger this year. Nice toy, got to admit that :toungincheek
Anyway, friday the dealer in Oslo called, "I got your bike from Berlin now, it's on the shopfloor, we are doing the final assembly now". Me, stuffing the riding gear in bag, helmet in hand rushing to the airport in a beatiful summer day, looking forward to nice ride across eastern Norway, across the border to Sweden and the track in Älvdalen, Dalarne, Sweden where we were going to drive saturday. Arriving in Oslo it poured, cats, dogs, old hags, you name it. I'm born and bread at the north Norwegian coast, and acustomed to the most of what the weather gods give us, but this was by far the worst rain I ever have experienced. Had to call the dealer, "I'm at the airport, hopefully I reach you before you close". "We'll wait for you" he said, and a quarter to closing time I showed up, then dessert animal standing outside, the dealer inside, ready to sell me a coverall rainsuit and a second hand GPS. Which I needed, going in to uncharted terrain across the border. Starting my life on a new bike, twice as big as anything I had driven on two wheels before, in that rain was'nt the pleasure I had hoped for. But it was a challenge I had to stand up to, my clubmates was waiting at the hotell at the track, expecting me. They had been driving down on friday, and I had halfway said I would go with them on Jan's Triumph.
The GPS wasn't mounted, I had it in the tank bag, three litres of gas in the tank, and my luggage in the two Hepco & Becker "Gobi" boxes. The topbox hadn't showed up in time to go on the first trip. Oslo isn't my cup of tea, and I ended up driving south on E6 instead of northeast, with the rain still pouring cats, dogs, old hags and whatever, making visibility like zero. Had to find a cas station, found one and a map sent me in the right direction. Half way to the border the rain gives in, and I can start to try out the bike and it's potential (Which I haven't found by now, anyway). Norwegian speedlimits isn't made for bikes who has an average work speed around 120 km/h, which I know, but I didn't know how well the GSA handled at speeds above the work speed of the Panthers 95 - 100 km/h. And behind that big screen, it was a new world of biking :JB
Tried to get a friend to help me mount the GPS, but nope, he was busy, my charms failed :nenau
I had to make a new stop at a gas station to get the GPS mounted, Swedish backroads in the dark could be a bit more interesting than I like. And it was getting dark. Biking in the south has it's disadvantages, one of them is that you see stars in the night midsummer, and that's not right :( But the dessert animal have better headlights than the Panther, so we drove on through dark backroads with a big hope there were no elks crossing in front of us. Which there wasn't. On my 42 K km I have only got one elk crossing the road, and a handfull reindeers. And it's not a pleasant experience on loose gravel when a reindeer jumps out form the forrest whitout knowing which side of the road it will bee on.
Back to topic. Riding a bike like GSA for the first time is a bit awesome. But somehow it fit me. It was on it's first service (1000 K km) inside the first fortnight I had it. And the better part of those 1000 K kms was driven that first weekend. And before the -06 seasons end it had 19 K km on the meter. And it's all been said in the previous posts. Don't testride a 12GS Adventure, by it and drive it. It's the ultimate driving machine.
But it's got one drawback, it's to heavy for wintergames :tears
 
When i go to the Bike Show, or look at the bikes on Poole Quay on a Tuesday evening I look at the bikes there and think this or that's nice, but I don't covet any of them.

QUOTE]

Exactly :D.

When I'm riding mine there is no question in my mind - the bike I'm riding is simply the most complete motorcycle there is.
 
gs test drive

hi everyone, bought my gs for christmas present , never test drive it, but was more than shure i got the right think, after first day out on it i didnt stop thinking about the bike for the next 3 days, just love every minute on bike, and every minute knowing its there in garage waiting for me to take it out for ride any time:JB If you thinking to buy one and you have the chance dont think twice;)
 
I just bought an 1150 GSA without a test ride - picking it up on Thursday and will ride it 250 miles home.
But I *did* have a test ride on a 1200 GSA a year or so ago, and wasn't bowled over - I think ut was just the very different suspension and mirrors which put me off (previous bikes have been K100RS and K75RT). It's taken me this long reflecting on that test ride to realise why the suspension is better and how the handling actually will suit me better - and my old K75 dying of multiple terminal faults (electrical and mechanical) - to pluck up the courage to ask for finance and get me a new(er) bike.
And now it's time to join the forum (browsed a bit before, but as a K owner didn't quite feel it was my place...)
 
Great post!

I only got my GS a couple of weeks ago - it was actually delivered to me as I was too ill at the time to enjoy collecting and riding it home, so the dealer kindly dropper her off and I put her in the garage.

I can tell you it drove me mad not being able to get out on it whilst I got well enough to go out on it.

I bought my GS without even test riding it.

Anyway, the day I took her out for the first time, I have to admit I actually didn't like it at all at first and wondered if I had made a huge costly mistake. It took about 4 or 5 hours of riding it and I can honestly say I now absolutely love it. These things are class! You just know when you're on it that its built to keep going and going for a heck of a lot of miles.

If you are in any doubt, don't be, just get one. They are fantastic.

:bounce1
 
From test to GS

I was 40 in 2008 and decided to get my bike licence. I had not ridden a bike since 1981 - an Suzuki RM80 that was great till the Dids nicked it, so my bike skills were pretty much non existent. Did the direct access test in October last year on a Yamaha 650 "something" and went straight to a GS1200.

Bit hairy for the first couple of 100 miles, but have now covered over 3500. My other bike (an Audi a5) sits forlornly on the drive while I take out the GS on what ever trip I can. The miracle of the big GS for me is how friendly people are when they see you on it, even more so if its fully panniered up. My brother sums up it by telling me that simply going to the shops turns in to an adventure.

I never realised that bikers were so friendly either and have had to get used to nodding at all 2 wheeled road users (except scooters, couriers and pizza delivery riders) as they pass. This is very novel for a dedicated car driver like me who has always seen motor bikes as a menace, or a bit closet gay (leathers, tight restrictive clothing, facial hair and secret nods).

Riding the GS has reinforced the old saying "it's better to travel, than to arrive"
 
I didn't bother with the test ride either, i just knew i'd love my 1200GS, even coming from a Blackbird.
I had however previously owned a R1100S, so i knew i'd love the engine.
Great bikes, i'd not swap it for anything, well, other than a new GSA :D
 
Mick

I have a test ride booked for next week :augie and...... yes you've guessed it i have a mad bike at the moment.... a ZX10R :eek:.... I'm still going to go for the test and I hope I still leave with the GS!!!! :cool: :)
 
I have a test ride booked for next week :augie and...... yes you've guessed it i have a mad bike at the moment.... a ZX10R :eek:.... I'm still going to go for the test and I hope I still leave with the GS!!!! :cool: :)

Welcome to the site Mick, you know it makes sense;) give me a ring after the testride.

See you soon, Rob.
 


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