fullerton wrote:
at what point does it bed in, coming up to 10k and still got the neck brace on
steve
I think mine took about 2000 miles for the 1-2-3 change to bed in (or me to get used to it). The 3-4-5-6 change was always good. It's now just passed the 12k mark and it's a pretty smooth gearbox, although I don't ride in town/slow moving traffic much.
Both my Thundercat and VFR800 made a loud clunk when they were put into first gear, so it's not unique to the GS LC
mikeyboy wrote:I ride the gs's every day from 80's desert racers to the modern twin cams,they never disappoint ,
Anyone knocking them has either never ridden or can't afford.
Number one for good reason (thumbs)
Yes I have ridden Ktm, s10 superten,triumph ,Honda ,v,strom B)
Or they can't get their leg over one intimidated by their height is the real reason. I think the average German inside leg measurement is greater than most short arses in the UK. Not getting your feet flat on the ground Might be the issue.
misterlaffer wrote:
Or they can't get their leg over one intimidated by their height is the real reason. I think the average German inside leg measurement is greater than most short arses in the UK. Not getting your feet flat on the ground Might be the issue.
Always my issue, but having sat on a few with lowered suspension & seat option some of my fears have been displaced. I now need to actually ride one (thumbs)
I tried one the week before last, a new model R1200GS Adventure TE with all the trimmings.
My last bike was a Kawasaki GTR 1000 which took me all over the country without any fuss, even after a pissed up driver, wiped me out on the way home one night. so that was back in 2002, since then I've spent about six hours on a bike a CB500 and a CG125. So this was a bit of a shock.
Here's how it went! Tall yes it bloody is having donned all my newly acquired riding gear I felt more trussed up than a Knight of old but hay ho lead me to my steed, OK where's the hoist, my good nave.
Poor nave showed me the toys and explained that if I drop it it's a grand and that if I go down the road and take a turning or two after the roundabout, I should find the Twisties. well I've looked on the map of Oxford-shire, since and cant find anywhere called the Twisties!
Anyway yes the bike is tall and very pokey load of low down grunt well it caught me by surprise as I gave it a little bit on joining the traffic from the forecourt it definitely had the wheel up.
the gear box I can confirm is light and selects extremely slickly. the clutch is light oh so light, and that slick shift yep once you get the hang of it is as Rita would of said Simply Divine! a must have.
Maneuverable with those wide bars it is extremely, even for such a huge lump. A bit of a stretch down from the saddle it is to get ones feet on the ground but once its moving oh so comfortable, no wrist ache no pins and needles like I used to get from the Honda's. The riding position is so comfortable, probably too comfortable far to easy to drift of into dreams of the alpine roads and the long dusty trails through Spain. OOOO that's me gone then.
The layout of the controls was good and clear even if there did seam to many of them, more switches and buttons than an Eighties Hi Fi. Still I'll work them out as I go, the important ones are still the same thank god they ditched the old style indicator switches.
The screen caused no buffeting and indeed on the whole rider protection was extremely good. The seat was comfortable and in the end not to high.
Now the ride was in its self progressive without being fractious, more millennium falcon than X wing fighter! the machine was so easy to take from 30mph to 70mph just of the throttle, with little in the way of complaint just a little tremor then the vibes went. Though if you let it drop to 29mph you definitely had to go down a cog but even that was so effortless with the super light clutch and slick gearbox. Nothing at all like the last BMW that I rode but that was in the late 70s but that was an R90S agricultural was probably the best way to describe that in comparison to today’s wizardry. Now getting used to the as described “Das Auto Blipper” was a thing hay last time I changed gear like that I was on a C90 just hold the revs change gear and the bike put its own little rev blip in, can I say that, “oh I just did”.
Any way effortless is the only way to put it.
So I rumbled on mindful of the meager hour of playtime I had with the bike and of course the rather high excess if it got dropped. With the deep exhaust note reverberating across the Oxford Shire countryside as we went.
Hadn't got a clue where I was going but in the end I found my self on the outskirts of Whitney, having traversed the usual classy roads in this area full of crevices, broken tarmac and potholes, I was thankful of the machines surefootedness and surprisingly supple suspension.
Just a little skirt around the out side of this little Oxford-shire town and off down another unrecognizable lane. This time it was a tad wet and the local farming and quarrying industries had been playing their part in resurfacing the lane, slippery was probably a word that could be used to describe it, nervous you bet I was. Gingerly picking my way along the mud slide I followed this route for a while, out in one of the fields I saw a couple of guys who stood up and looked as they heard the bike go by hell it makes a nice noise as you go. Any way as it happened just then I saw a place to pull over and stop for a moment, whilst I pondered my next move. OK I'll give the Sat nav a go so switch it on and program it to take me back to the dealership. Well that was easy enough thought id try the slippery when wet setting on the traction control as well to be fare I didn't notice it made any difference to the bike but then I was impersonating Captain Slow and being ultra careful.
Eventually I found my way back to a proper road and started to relax again smooth and effortless it is even makes a rider like me look competent. Finally picking my way through another little Oxford-shire town I began to really appreciate the bike poise and balance at really slow speeds whilst trickling through the traffic jam that lead back to Oxford at barely walking pace, the bike was remarkably easy to control it's wide bares assisting in it's maneuverability and its torquey engine responding to the slightest input, made it a delight as easy as any middle weight bike I've ever ridden.
You might think that I could find no fault with the Big Beemer but you’d be wrong, it's that relationship between the sat nave control and the indicator every time I went for the indicator it changed the page on the sat nav. It actually became annoying but then I suppose given more than an hour to get used to the bike I'd overcome that issue.
Thanks to North Oxford BMW for the test ride.
Next I want to test the Moto-Guzzi Stelvio
