About me, I’m 60 and don’t ride like knob. My Mrs is 55 and steady rider, adequate progress and rarely more than 5-10mph over speed limit if at all. When I ride behind her roll off engine braking takes care of most slowing down other than a touch of front brake for give way and stop signs.
The problem arises if I’m on my own or riding with mates, we’re not talking 100+ mph on a cross country jaunt but perhaps 70-80 mph on the odd occasion but not aggressive or dangerous. The problem is that when you have to shed say 30 mph for a corner the brakes on the GSA are woeful at least perhaps even borderline dangerous. Using front brake only is terrifying, bringing the back brake into play improves things a touch but not enough to inspire any confidence.
First GSA landed when bike was first introduced and its brakes were dire so after 6 weeks and BMW dealer swearing blind I was the only owner to experience any problems the bike was traded for a new one. This also proved to be hopeless so I had a trusted and experienced race mechanic look into the problem and it turned out new bike straight out the showroom was struggling to get mot pass readings on the rollers. Yes , I know, it ought to have been handed back and rejected but new pads improved the job a little so we gave the bike a chance. Within a month or so things were back to crap so we commissioned a pair of custom made discs from the company that supplies them for our classic (1980’s) race bikes. These new disc arrived two weeks back and were due to be fitted in next week or so.
Things took a surprising turn week past Saturday when while bemoaning the situation with our local dealer he surprised me by offering a very good trade in deal as BMW were offering a big discount/customer incentive to encourage sales. Given relatively small price to change I thought why not.
New bike arrived yesterday and today I’ve gone Chester to Oxford and back using A roads only. Bikes in garage here having done 350miles and showing 52mpg consumption so hardly a breakneck journey speed.
Apologies for long winded rant. New discs are here and will probably be fitted in next week or so. If it solves the problem I’ll be a happy tosser otherwise I’m off to Ducati for a multistrada! I’ve been on GS & GSA’s since the 90’s so this will hurt. If anyone has any thoughts (good,bad or sarcastic!) please post them. I’m not precious so you’ll not offend me but there might be something glaringly obvious I’m missing.
Cheers in advance.
Derek.
The problem arises if I’m on my own or riding with mates, we’re not talking 100+ mph on a cross country jaunt but perhaps 70-80 mph on the odd occasion but not aggressive or dangerous. The problem is that when you have to shed say 30 mph for a corner the brakes on the GSA are woeful at least perhaps even borderline dangerous. Using front brake only is terrifying, bringing the back brake into play improves things a touch but not enough to inspire any confidence.
First GSA landed when bike was first introduced and its brakes were dire so after 6 weeks and BMW dealer swearing blind I was the only owner to experience any problems the bike was traded for a new one. This also proved to be hopeless so I had a trusted and experienced race mechanic look into the problem and it turned out new bike straight out the showroom was struggling to get mot pass readings on the rollers. Yes , I know, it ought to have been handed back and rejected but new pads improved the job a little so we gave the bike a chance. Within a month or so things were back to crap so we commissioned a pair of custom made discs from the company that supplies them for our classic (1980’s) race bikes. These new disc arrived two weeks back and were due to be fitted in next week or so.
Things took a surprising turn week past Saturday when while bemoaning the situation with our local dealer he surprised me by offering a very good trade in deal as BMW were offering a big discount/customer incentive to encourage sales. Given relatively small price to change I thought why not.
New bike arrived yesterday and today I’ve gone Chester to Oxford and back using A roads only. Bikes in garage here having done 350miles and showing 52mpg consumption so hardly a breakneck journey speed.
Apologies for long winded rant. New discs are here and will probably be fitted in next week or so. If it solves the problem I’ll be a happy tosser otherwise I’m off to Ducati for a multistrada! I’ve been on GS & GSA’s since the 90’s so this will hurt. If anyone has any thoughts (good,bad or sarcastic!) please post them. I’m not precious so you’ll not offend me but there might be something glaringly obvious I’m missing.
Cheers in advance.
Derek.
