WayneD
Guest
Finally took delivery of my HP2 (ordered many months ago) and took it for a maiden run yesterday. I was keen to see how it performs off-road having just completed the UAE Desert Challenge on my Honda 450x (2,500 km's of sand over 5 days in the Empty Quarter), and to compare it to my 1150 and 1200 GS's. No doubt it is a very competent and exciting bike to ride - way superior to the 1150 and 1200. Power is brutal but controllable – several hundred meter power slides are a breeze and that air canister soaks up just about anything you throw at it….
However there are a few problems. The front forks are way to soft and don’t seem to respond to compression or rebound changes; it tends to tank-slap on rough gravel sections at around 70Km/h (I suspect this is related to the bad fork set-up); the gear-shift lever is way too far in, so that with knee protectors and big riding boots on you can’t get to it easily; the slack in the shaft-drive is very excessive and clangs away continuously; the supplied Karoo tyres are no good in soft desert sand (have just ordered Michelin Desert’s to correct this).
This weekend I will replace the fork-oil with a heavier weight (it is supplied with 10w) and will find a way to extend the gear-shift lever. The fork set-up is really weird – never seen anything like it before. One fork controls rebound and linear compression, and the other takes care of progressive compression… go figure that? The BM mechanic here in Dubai recons the wheel slap is normal so will have to wait and see if anything breaks. It is more excessive than my other beemers and much louder ….
Aside from these hopefully fixable issues I am really happy with my new toy …. Just need to get a bigger tank, screen and some panniers and then I can go power-touring…
However there are a few problems. The front forks are way to soft and don’t seem to respond to compression or rebound changes; it tends to tank-slap on rough gravel sections at around 70Km/h (I suspect this is related to the bad fork set-up); the gear-shift lever is way too far in, so that with knee protectors and big riding boots on you can’t get to it easily; the slack in the shaft-drive is very excessive and clangs away continuously; the supplied Karoo tyres are no good in soft desert sand (have just ordered Michelin Desert’s to correct this).
This weekend I will replace the fork-oil with a heavier weight (it is supplied with 10w) and will find a way to extend the gear-shift lever. The fork set-up is really weird – never seen anything like it before. One fork controls rebound and linear compression, and the other takes care of progressive compression… go figure that? The BM mechanic here in Dubai recons the wheel slap is normal so will have to wait and see if anything breaks. It is more excessive than my other beemers and much louder ….
Aside from these hopefully fixable issues I am really happy with my new toy …. Just need to get a bigger tank, screen and some panniers and then I can go power-touring…
