2018 gs with TFT display review

[stick]

Why?

Without offending KTM owners , I really wanted to like the 1290 but it was not as good as the BMW for me as its not there yet , close , but its not about the power ,or the grunt, its the way the GS rides.
Ktm will need to find a soul for this bike as , as good as it is , it just lacks that all day brilliance the Gs offers.
#To add , the Ktm is quick , but I found that it feels on / off all the time ( good if you want to give yourself a big smile ) and this does and will becomes wearing.
I rode it with an open heart , but was asked would you change , my answer no as both bikes are brilliant and offer so much but the Gs ,all be it less power. allows you to carry more speed into corners and the handling is ( for me ) better as I so love the Gs front end.
The Ktm can pull like a monster but I still feel the bikes are level , but prefere the polished and proven Gs.
Again I don't wish to offend or knock peoples choice and could go on to add more + and - but I feel this is enough.
Great bike , but no better.
Just alittle add : I read a write up on the Gs , Ktm and the Ducatti but if i remember they said they are similar and all equal , its just what you prefere and what you wish to spend .......

 

[Nutty]

Without offending KTM owners , I really wanted to like the 1290 but it was not as good as the BMW for me as its not there yet , close , but its not about the power ,or the grunt, its the way the GS rides.
Ktm will need to find a soul for this bike as , as good as it is , it just lacks that all day brilliance the Gs offers.
#To add , the Ktm is quick , but I found that it feels on / off all the time ( good if you want to give yourself a big smile ) and this does and will becomes wearing.
I rode it with an open heart , but was asked would you change , my answer no as both bikes are brilliant and offer so much but the Gs ,all be it less power. allows you to carry more speed into corners and the handling is ( for me ) better as I so love the Gs front end.
The Ktm can pull like a monster but I still feel the bikes are level , but prefere the polished and proven Gs.
Again I don't wish to offend or knock peoples choice and could go on to add more + and - but I feel this is enough.
Great bike , but no better.
Just alittle add : I read a write up on the Gs , Ktm and the Ducatti but if i remember they said they are similar and all equal , its just what you prefere and what you wish to spend .......

Fair enough.

I’ve still got my GS, and am a big fan (as you know), but have to disagree about the KTM having less soul & not being able to go into corners as quick as a GS. Once you get used to it, it’ll do everything the GS will do, and more, all with a load more excitement.

It’s just a shame that a test ride will only last a few hours, and some folk won’t have enough time to really explore the bikes potential. I didn’t test ride one before I placed my order, as I wanted to compare the two on a long term basis, and see what all the fuss was about. I’m very glad I did.

 

[Devil]

Anyone know if the software update was released today. (Its was supposed to be )

 

[Rollmops]

Anyone know if the software update was released today. (Its was supposed to be )

No idea, but I sure am looking forward to have it installed ASAP. I sort of expected to be a guinea pig, it's often the case when you are an early adopter, but still, really hope they will get this bluetooth mess sorted quickly.

Yesterday, had a very odd and concerning thing occur to me. On the evening, when I took my bike to go home, the display refused to light up. The bike was powered, and I could see a faint backlighting on the TFT, the Nav 6 was on, and some lights on the dashboard were working, but NO IMAGE ON THE TFT whatsoever.

I power-cycled the bike a couple times to no avail. Eventually had to ride home with the display completely off. When I arrived, I powered the bike off, and tried again a couple minutes after and this time, everything worked normally, and the TFT did not report any error. Guess I will ask BMW service to check the log...

 

[stick]

Fair enough.

I’ve still got my GS, and am a big fan (as you know), but have to disagree about the KTM having less soul & not being able to go into corners as quick as a GS. Once you get used to it, it’ll do everything the GS will do, and more, all with a load more excitement.

It’s just a shame that a test ride will only last a few hours, and some folk won’t have enough time to really explore the bikes potential. I didn’t test ride one before I placed my order, as I wanted to compare the two on a long term basis, and see what all the fuss was about. I’m very glad I did.

Thanks Nutty , glad you like the Ktm , I'm sure , as you say , given longer the bike would have grown on me , i remember the same feeling riding my first Gs as a young gun (lol) that the bike was different and fully capable .
I would , if i had the spare cash do as you have done , have both. I did this with a 2010 Multi S but still found that i kept the Gs ( i think the Ktm is better than the Ducati by the way) and think the 1290 as a second bike would be perfect .
Take care Nutty and happy parts catchin' ( Ktm owners joke --- i have two off roaders )

 

[russell]

Had mine for 10 days. When I fill tank full Fuel shows 161 miles . When It gets down to 37 miles the reserve light which fills the screen comes on giving me a range of 124 miles before being blinded by huge reserve light.Obviously there's still over a third of a tank left. Took in for 600 mile service and they CAN'T FIND anything wrong so TO THEM it's O.K. Anyone else had this. What does your gauge show when full and how many miles before reserve comes on.

 

[Byronavitch]

Had mine for 10 days. When I fill tank full Fuel shows 161 miles . When It gets down to 37 miles the reserve light which fills the screen comes on giving me a range of 124 miles before being blinded by huge reserve light.Obviously there's still over a third of a tank left. Took in for 600 mile service and they CAN'T FIND anything wrong so TO THEM it's O.K. Anyone else had this. What does your gauge show when full and how many miles before reserve comes on.

When the big red warning flash comes on mine there is around 40 miles shown as left sounds like yours is coming on early

 

[Byronavitch]

Without offending KTM owners , I really wanted to like the 1290 but it was not as good as the BMW for me as its not there yet , close , but its not about the power ,or the grunt, its the way the GS rides.
Ktm will need to find a soul for this bike as , as good as it is , it just lacks that all day brilliance the Gs offers.
#To add , the Ktm is quick , but I found that it feels on / off all the time ( good if you want to give yourself a big smile ) and this does and will becomes wearing.
I rode it with an open heart , but was asked would you change , my answer no as both bikes are brilliant and offer so much but the Gs ,all be it less power. allows you to carry more speed into corners and the handling is ( for me ) better as I so love the Gs front end.
The Ktm can pull like a monster but I still feel the bikes are level , but prefere the polished and proven Gs.
Again I don't wish to offend or knock peoples choice and could go on to add more + and - but I feel this is enough.
Great bike , but no better.
Just alittle add : I read a write up on the Gs , Ktm and the Ducatti but if i remember they said they are similar and all equal , its just what you prefere and what you wish to spend .......

Having just sold a 1290sa and gone back to a GSA for the same reasons I would totally agree (loved the 1290) but dont miss the extra BHP

 

[specs]

Had mine for 10 days. When I fill tank full Fuel shows 161 miles . When It gets down to 37 miles the reserve light which fills the screen comes on giving me a range of 124 miles before being blinded by huge reserve light.Obviously there's still over a third of a tank left. Took in for 600 mile service and they CAN'T FIND anything wrong so TO THEM it's O.K. Anyone else had this. What does your gauge show when full and how many miles before reserve comes on.

Mine has the 161 range show up on start up with a full tank. I think the reserve comes on at about 60ish, can't remember. It was at 55 on my last bike. I feel that I might have to go out and find out about the reserve coming up!

 

[Rollmops]

My issues with the TFT-Combi...

BLUETOOTH:
Not going to rehash what everybody already knows about the bluetooth, Nav 6 into the equation breaks everything, and without it, a non BMW helmet loses some functionnality. my setup displays the same behavior (iPhone 7plus, Nav 6, Shubert C3Pro with SRC pro 1.1).

CONNECTED APP:
While I was trying to get all my bluetooth gear to play nice together, I somehow broke something with the Connected app on my iPhone, now, albeit the iPhone and the Combi are connected and they work, I have no nav, plus the music page doesn't display album cover anymore, and the bike info on the app are not updated anymore, but the trips are recorded, even when I travel by car (which is not a BMW car).

FUEL GAUGE:
Since I took delivery of my TFT Rallye, I too experienced a rather aggressive reserve calculation on my dash. Usually, after a fillup, the bike displays a range of 260 km (never more, looks like a hard coded max value). Range stays at this max value for a while then begin to drop, and reserves shows off way early, usually when I am around the 200 km mark. It seems to get a little better with the time. On my previous BMW, I was getting the reserve warning at around 70/80 km left, now it is closer to 100(1/3 range).

TFT COMBI DISPLAY
Now, what's more disconcerting, and it has happened twice to me so far, is the display not lighting up at all(i.e. not displaying any image, but at night, you can see that the backlighting works, it's not a physical connexion issue is seems). It seems to do the pre-check (but I'm not sure all physical lights are fired up when it happens, have a hunch they do not). Everything works, the ESA is not in limp mode, the fueling is on the same mode I left it. I didn't try to change any settings tho. Happened when bike was stored in a dry / warm place, battery looks fine as the bike still start up first try when this happens.

TFT UPDATE:
TL;DR : My dealership did hook up my dash to their diagnostic computer and no update available as of today, at least in Switzerland. They have no info about an upcoming update either, they have not had any custommer report the same issue I have.

CONCLUSION :
...and it's not a real surprise... This thing is far from mature. Very cool and slick but still a bit rough around the edges. I'm still happy I went for the TFT, and given that Winter Is Coming(c), not too bummed for now... BMW and BOSH have 4 months to get this thing to work as advertised...

 

[Troppo]

Nice and Fat, you are going to catch hell for that post !

Plenty here of this parish, dislike the Missenden Flyer, too geeky, not enough profanity and stupidity for them


I like his work, thanks for posting the link. It does seem, the more you study this, the capabaility of the BMW design completely overwhelms KTM's design.

I also like his work.

 

[Devil]

Update,

my bikes going in tomorrow afternoon for software update. sorry no other info on what's been changed.

 

[Devil]

Update,

my bikes going in tomorrow afternoon for software update. sorry no other info on what's been changed.

Wasted trip, hooked the bike up to the computer, NO UPDATE..

 

[Byronavitch]

Wasted trip, hooked the bike up to the computer, NO UPDATE..

I was in my Dealer Yesterday and they didn't know anything about it ?

 

[Devil]

The android BMW app has been updated, but I had to delete the stored bike, and add as new.

No longer shows Unknown

 

[Byronavitch]

The android BMW app has been updated, but I had to delete the stored bike, and add as new.

No longer shows Unknown

Thats interesting Ill try that have the BMW comms coming hope it all syncs together

 

[Devil]

Also tested iPhone, that now works. But had to delete bike from phone and add as new.

 

[Rudders99]

Mine does the same. Gets down to 2 of the 10 bars and reserve comes on but it takes 14 litres. That implies a 30l tank (1 bar = 3l) but its obviously not. The mileage to empty is not accurate as its based on a range of 160 miles. I was told by the dealer it would reset after a couple of fills but I have now down 2k miles and it hasn’t. Bloody annnoying as you actually have no idea of fuel consumption unless you resort to mental arithmetic. I hope the software upgrade fixes it.

 

[gusser123]

Hey BMW, I am constantly on media page of tft listening to tunes, when it works. Any chance you could add a small rev counter to this page. just got an email from you guys extolling the virtues of the new 400x scooter. Looks good, nice tft, hopefully it will work as advertised by release time!!!
Sorry could n`t help it.

 

[gusser123]

Lol,

BMW Motorrad Connectivity provides real innovation in the class of mid-size scooters. With this ex factory option, you can connect your smartphone directly to your scooter. For the first time, the C 400 X can be used to connect your smartphone to the TFT display and to control it intuitively via multi-controller. Looking for the perfect music for riding through the city? No problem with the ex-factory option Connectivity. What's the quickest route to your favourite restaurant? It couldn't be easier to navigate quickly and safely to your destination with the innovative turn-by-turn arrows on the display. When riding, ask friends where they are? In combination with a BMW Motorrad