snerkler
Registered user
I've had a couple of GS's in the past, a 2005 R1200GS and a 2010 R1200GSA and loved them both, however I had to give up biking for 7 years following a nerve injury and begrudgingly sold my GSA. 18 months ago I got back into biking and was going to buy another GSA, however my wife persuaded me to buy a Harley Road King as she thought she might start coming out on the bike with me. One trip out and she realised she hated it so it's always been in the back of my mind that I could have just bought the BMW that I wanted.
All this being said, to say I was never a Harley rider I really love the Road King, it's comfortable with a great riding position, and obviously sounds amazing (I have the Vance and Hines Twin Slash slip ons). The reason for considering moving back to the GS is two fold. Firstly I only go out on the Harley if the weather is 'prefect' as all that chrome is high maintenance. Secondly I do sometimes commute on my bike and whilst I do commute on the Harley it's clearly no the best bike for it.
First of all I need to make sure I'm going to be doing the right thing, I would REALLY miss the sound of the Harley. If I decide that I do want to change then it's a question of which bike?
I would definitely want a 1250 model, and really like the Rallye (especially the HP, or is that the same thing?) colours so it would probably be one of these, but would the GS or GSA be better (how many times has that been asked ). Being honest I prefer the look of the GSA, I like that it looks like a tank that could bash anything out of it's way (always felt like that when I rode me GSA too) but the truth is I have no intention of doing any off road greater than a farm track or flat field, and that would be extremely rare. I don't need the extra tank range and I remember a fully fuelled GSA feels a little top heavy, especially picking it up off the side stand (is it still like this). Apart from the extra fuel there wouldn't be much difference in weight as I'd add the engine crash bars and upper fairing crash bars too.
Based on this the obvious choice buying with my head would be the GS, however how good is the GS at soaking up potholes and uneven road surfaces compared to the GSA? Living in Derbyshire and travelling to Sheffield twice/week I think we must have the worst condition roads in the UK Size isn't an issue as I'm 6'4" and used to have the high seat on my GSA.
Talking of height, I always found the screens on the GS's a nightmare. Turbulence didn't bother me, but the noise was insane. The GSA was better, but still bad but adding the Touratech screen spoiler did at least make it bearable. I see the screens have changed a bit, but have they made them better? I've seen some youtube clips with a really small screen, I would imagine these would cause less noise turbulence?
Last thing, when I had the Vario luggage on my 2005 GS I couldn't fit my full face helmet into the top box, can you do this with the new vario luggage or do you still need the big aluminium case/top box to be able to fit a helmet in?
Any help and/or thoughts would be appreciated.
All this being said, to say I was never a Harley rider I really love the Road King, it's comfortable with a great riding position, and obviously sounds amazing (I have the Vance and Hines Twin Slash slip ons). The reason for considering moving back to the GS is two fold. Firstly I only go out on the Harley if the weather is 'prefect' as all that chrome is high maintenance. Secondly I do sometimes commute on my bike and whilst I do commute on the Harley it's clearly no the best bike for it.
First of all I need to make sure I'm going to be doing the right thing, I would REALLY miss the sound of the Harley. If I decide that I do want to change then it's a question of which bike?
I would definitely want a 1250 model, and really like the Rallye (especially the HP, or is that the same thing?) colours so it would probably be one of these, but would the GS or GSA be better (how many times has that been asked ). Being honest I prefer the look of the GSA, I like that it looks like a tank that could bash anything out of it's way (always felt like that when I rode me GSA too) but the truth is I have no intention of doing any off road greater than a farm track or flat field, and that would be extremely rare. I don't need the extra tank range and I remember a fully fuelled GSA feels a little top heavy, especially picking it up off the side stand (is it still like this). Apart from the extra fuel there wouldn't be much difference in weight as I'd add the engine crash bars and upper fairing crash bars too.
Based on this the obvious choice buying with my head would be the GS, however how good is the GS at soaking up potholes and uneven road surfaces compared to the GSA? Living in Derbyshire and travelling to Sheffield twice/week I think we must have the worst condition roads in the UK Size isn't an issue as I'm 6'4" and used to have the high seat on my GSA.
Talking of height, I always found the screens on the GS's a nightmare. Turbulence didn't bother me, but the noise was insane. The GSA was better, but still bad but adding the Touratech screen spoiler did at least make it bearable. I see the screens have changed a bit, but have they made them better? I've seen some youtube clips with a really small screen, I would imagine these would cause less noise turbulence?
Last thing, when I had the Vario luggage on my 2005 GS I couldn't fit my full face helmet into the top box, can you do this with the new vario luggage or do you still need the big aluminium case/top box to be able to fit a helmet in?
Any help and/or thoughts would be appreciated.