I thought that anyone considering a GS might like read my experiences after 2000miles during which my opinion has gone from crap bike to cracking bike (and yes I did have test rides before I bought mine).
I collected my new 12GS towards the end of July and I must say that, at first, I was not impressed. Being used to a super smooth Jap inline 4 (a blackbird) I did not like the rough engine and the lack of what I can only describe as woosh. The running in instructions to keep below 4000RPM for the first 600miles meant that I only had a usable rev range of 1000RPM as below 3000 the engine would not pull at all. This coupled with the fact I was running it in on holiday with luggage and pillion made riding very boring and not very pleasant and I began to wish I’d never bought the GS. I had the bike serviced at 1000 miles and decided I couldn’t pussyfoot about any more so I gradually started exploring the top end of the rev range and with 2000 miles on the clock the engine has loosened a bit and the bike has become a joy to ride. I am now mightily impressed and am very glad I stuck with it through the acclimatisation of me and bike. I’ve never had a new bike that I disliked so much at first yet liked so much eventually.
Whilst the GS could never match the Blackbird for outright speed it can quite easily match and even beat many sports bikes on sub 90mph roads (i.e. all roads in the UK if I want to stay out of jail!). On a recent run with potentially much faster bikes (e.g. R1) in damp, slippy and bendy roads the sports bikes could not keep up with the GS. The only bike that kept with me was another traily (a Varedero). Getting 100bhp down on the road when exiting a corner is much easier and can be done much sooner that trying to feed-in 150bhp and the GS is just amazingly easy to ride very quick on bumpy bendy roads.
From being distinctly unhappy with the GS at first I have now gone to the other extreme and am truly delighted with it.
I do sympathise with those who have had such trouble with their GSs (final drives, side stands and the like) but so far mine has been superb and I am just hoping these problems are only affecting a minority of owners.
I have a few niggles like the red triangle warning light shows if I start on a hill with the front brake on, even though I don’t touch the brakes until the preride test sequence has finished (as per the manual). This is not always the case and I couldn’t get it to happen at the dealers when I took it for the first service but it’s very annoying as I have to stop, switch off and start again to get rid of the light.
I find the self cancelling indicators to be a real pain, they cancel just at the wrong time such as when going onto a roundabout and would be much better if pressing the indicator switch reset the self cancel distance. I now have to cancel and start again just to make sure they stay flashing and then manually cancel. It’s a pity the self cancel can’t be turned off, it must only be a small program change in the bikes brain.
Oil consumption is noticeable as I’ve seen the oil drop from the top to the middle of the spy glass in the 1000miles since the first service, so it’s used probably less than half a litre in 1000miles and hopefully this will drop further as the break-in continues.
The gearbox is very quiet but spoilt by noisey transmission, when crawling in traffic you can hear the transmission slack being taken up as you let the clutch in and out.
The Dunlop (Trailmaster, I think) tyres seem very good, probably as good as BT020s but it’s difficult to tell without a back to back comparison. The rears are worn to the very edge but the fronts have a small unscrubbed edge of less than half an inch so I guess I can lean it a bit more yet! Certainly the pegs have not been touched down yet.
On sunny days the LCD screen can be difficult to read and the electronics take an age to go through their initial sequence so I am now in the habit of switching on prior to putting on my gloves otherwise everyone else is waiting.
On muddy roads quite a lot of road spray gets on rider and pillion below the knee level but maybe a hugger prevent this. Certainly the little crap catcher/ mudguard at the back prevents a lot of spray coming over the back onto a pillion and I don’t think you can fit a hugger as well as this so there might be an issue there.
Fuel consumption seems to be 190 miles till the low fuel warning and it says another 47 miles after that but I’ve never done more than 210 miles and only ever got 19 litres into the tank. Not sure what that equates to in MPG but then I don’t ride a bike for fuel efficiency!
There is almost no space under the seat, you couldn’t even get a pair of gloves in there and when I put a tyre pressure guage there it made the seat difficult to fit in its lowest setting (with I use dispite being over 6 foot).
So to some it up, this is one hell of a bike which I now ride in preference to the blackbird which I haven’t sold yet (and never intended to, but the GS is so good I think I might).
Cheers JG
I collected my new 12GS towards the end of July and I must say that, at first, I was not impressed. Being used to a super smooth Jap inline 4 (a blackbird) I did not like the rough engine and the lack of what I can only describe as woosh. The running in instructions to keep below 4000RPM for the first 600miles meant that I only had a usable rev range of 1000RPM as below 3000 the engine would not pull at all. This coupled with the fact I was running it in on holiday with luggage and pillion made riding very boring and not very pleasant and I began to wish I’d never bought the GS. I had the bike serviced at 1000 miles and decided I couldn’t pussyfoot about any more so I gradually started exploring the top end of the rev range and with 2000 miles on the clock the engine has loosened a bit and the bike has become a joy to ride. I am now mightily impressed and am very glad I stuck with it through the acclimatisation of me and bike. I’ve never had a new bike that I disliked so much at first yet liked so much eventually.
Whilst the GS could never match the Blackbird for outright speed it can quite easily match and even beat many sports bikes on sub 90mph roads (i.e. all roads in the UK if I want to stay out of jail!). On a recent run with potentially much faster bikes (e.g. R1) in damp, slippy and bendy roads the sports bikes could not keep up with the GS. The only bike that kept with me was another traily (a Varedero). Getting 100bhp down on the road when exiting a corner is much easier and can be done much sooner that trying to feed-in 150bhp and the GS is just amazingly easy to ride very quick on bumpy bendy roads.
From being distinctly unhappy with the GS at first I have now gone to the other extreme and am truly delighted with it.
I do sympathise with those who have had such trouble with their GSs (final drives, side stands and the like) but so far mine has been superb and I am just hoping these problems are only affecting a minority of owners.
I have a few niggles like the red triangle warning light shows if I start on a hill with the front brake on, even though I don’t touch the brakes until the preride test sequence has finished (as per the manual). This is not always the case and I couldn’t get it to happen at the dealers when I took it for the first service but it’s very annoying as I have to stop, switch off and start again to get rid of the light.
I find the self cancelling indicators to be a real pain, they cancel just at the wrong time such as when going onto a roundabout and would be much better if pressing the indicator switch reset the self cancel distance. I now have to cancel and start again just to make sure they stay flashing and then manually cancel. It’s a pity the self cancel can’t be turned off, it must only be a small program change in the bikes brain.
Oil consumption is noticeable as I’ve seen the oil drop from the top to the middle of the spy glass in the 1000miles since the first service, so it’s used probably less than half a litre in 1000miles and hopefully this will drop further as the break-in continues.
The gearbox is very quiet but spoilt by noisey transmission, when crawling in traffic you can hear the transmission slack being taken up as you let the clutch in and out.
The Dunlop (Trailmaster, I think) tyres seem very good, probably as good as BT020s but it’s difficult to tell without a back to back comparison. The rears are worn to the very edge but the fronts have a small unscrubbed edge of less than half an inch so I guess I can lean it a bit more yet! Certainly the pegs have not been touched down yet.
On sunny days the LCD screen can be difficult to read and the electronics take an age to go through their initial sequence so I am now in the habit of switching on prior to putting on my gloves otherwise everyone else is waiting.
On muddy roads quite a lot of road spray gets on rider and pillion below the knee level but maybe a hugger prevent this. Certainly the little crap catcher/ mudguard at the back prevents a lot of spray coming over the back onto a pillion and I don’t think you can fit a hugger as well as this so there might be an issue there.
Fuel consumption seems to be 190 miles till the low fuel warning and it says another 47 miles after that but I’ve never done more than 210 miles and only ever got 19 litres into the tank. Not sure what that equates to in MPG but then I don’t ride a bike for fuel efficiency!
There is almost no space under the seat, you couldn’t even get a pair of gloves in there and when I put a tyre pressure guage there it made the seat difficult to fit in its lowest setting (with I use dispite being over 6 foot).
So to some it up, this is one hell of a bike which I now ride in preference to the blackbird which I haven’t sold yet (and never intended to, but the GS is so good I think I might).
Cheers JG
