Edgar Jessop
Registered user
Hello good people and this is my first post here so please be gentle
I've been researching bikes to take on a long ride next year, lasting about 4 months and covering 20,000 miles starting and finishing in the UK. I'll be doing mostly blacktop but there will be a fair bit of dirt road and sandy desert thrown in, so i need an "Adventure" style bike, not a 250 trailie and definitely not a lumbering boxer. It seems to me the F800GS Adv ticks quite a lot of boxes - big tank, 'adventurised', enough grunt to handle the distances but nimble enough to be usable on the rough. I've even located a 2015 model with a handful of miles on it for a price I can afford.
What worries me though is that there do seem to be quite a lot of reports of reliability issues. What I don't know is how many of these are historical and can be regarded as not a problem on the later models, and which could come to bite me on the road. My idea of adventure riding does not stretch to replacing tanks, fuel pumps or suspension mounts on the road...
So could I pick your minds, as people who presumably are a great source of information and knowledge on the model. Please don't just say "I love mine and nothing's ever gone wrong" because happy as I may be for you, it doesn't really give me anything. What I'm after is warts and all insights. Do they still have issues? What are they and what should you do about it for such a long trip? Is it really the bike to be taking places miles from a BMW dealer? What would you do to prepare and what spares would you take?
All advice welcomed! (unless it's buy a boxer/Honda/C90)
I've been researching bikes to take on a long ride next year, lasting about 4 months and covering 20,000 miles starting and finishing in the UK. I'll be doing mostly blacktop but there will be a fair bit of dirt road and sandy desert thrown in, so i need an "Adventure" style bike, not a 250 trailie and definitely not a lumbering boxer. It seems to me the F800GS Adv ticks quite a lot of boxes - big tank, 'adventurised', enough grunt to handle the distances but nimble enough to be usable on the rough. I've even located a 2015 model with a handful of miles on it for a price I can afford.
What worries me though is that there do seem to be quite a lot of reports of reliability issues. What I don't know is how many of these are historical and can be regarded as not a problem on the later models, and which could come to bite me on the road. My idea of adventure riding does not stretch to replacing tanks, fuel pumps or suspension mounts on the road...
So could I pick your minds, as people who presumably are a great source of information and knowledge on the model. Please don't just say "I love mine and nothing's ever gone wrong" because happy as I may be for you, it doesn't really give me anything. What I'm after is warts and all insights. Do they still have issues? What are they and what should you do about it for such a long trip? Is it really the bike to be taking places miles from a BMW dealer? What would you do to prepare and what spares would you take?
All advice welcomed! (unless it's buy a boxer/Honda/C90)