8 weeks in to ownership - tyres, vibes and comfort

ShadowTD

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Hello everyone. Picked up my 23 plate 719 GS1300 from Cotswold Motorrad at the end of May and I've been pretty delighted with my purchase. I've got a couple of niggles I'd like to try and bottom out, and they may be caught up with each other, so I'll got through the mish-mash of what I've done.

In the first few weeks of ownership, I notice a surprising amount of vibes through both the bars and the seat, especially between 5-6k, which equates to a fast motorway cruise. A quick google pointed the finger at the bar end weights and potentially the seat height/angle, so I purchased the Evotech bar end weights and Wunderlich 10mm upgraded seat rubbers. Bar vibes pretty much disappeared but not the seat ones. I dealt with this by moving my seating position back towards the rear of the seat (after moving the passenger seat back)

At ABR, I had the Tourances swapped out for Dunlop Trailmax Raids. These are the most off-road focused tyres I've ever had, and while they are amazing on anything that counts as vaguely off-road, the on-road manners, especially at higher speeds seem nothing short of awful. I had the Pirelli Scorpion STRs on my 790ADV before, and they were nothing like as bad as this. The bike hunts and shuffles quite disarmingly around any grooves. Changing lanes feels like when you're coming to the end of life on some road rubber and feels terribly sketchy. When you get north of 80 the front feels very wobbly, almost unsafe. The howl is biblical (but I can live with it) and some of the vibes seem to be back, especially through the seat.

So I'm looking for feedback. I'm on the edge of getting the Tourances put back on (had them shipped back to me) as it does feel like the touring capability has been somewhat nerfed. I did 300 miles on the Trailmaxes this weekend and while they feel more predictable at lower speeds if anything the high speed stuff felt worse. I'm also wondering what to do about seat vibes again, as the rear position I now sit in doesn't really let me get my feet down comfortably, so I'm looking for thoughts and options about seat covers/swaps etc.

Thanks for reading through this wall of text and any ideas you may have!
 
Hi ShadowTD
re
bar weights - I have the Evotech all is good for me there, but can't say it was a big issue before I put them on.
seats - have always hated standard seats for comfort but never noticed anything vibey in the past. I have Sargent and think they're ace.
tyres - I have the Tourance Next 2 and feel it's as good as it gets in my experience. Chunky tyres look great but you've got to be doing the off road miles to justify IMO.

Overall never really had an issue with bad vibes on my 2024 GS1300 other than the standard early mileage 'tightness' of the engine running in period.

Hope that is of use.
 
Bought a 2024 1300GS 24th April this year. It had 302 miles on when I got it. It is now at 2809 miles nearly 12 weeks later

No vibes, feels a little more cramped that the 1250 with my kne / leg angle on a standard seat

It came with Michelin Annakee adventures which I wasn't overly happy about but they have turned out to be a fantastic tyre at all speeds

I wear earplugs, so no idea if they are noisy as some people say
 
I saw these to stop you scuffing the hideously ugly hand guards - thinking they'd also look less awful than the mess they come with - I got some, when they arrived they are huge and quite heavy - it should help calm things down a bit too


when I test rode the second 1300GS earlier this year - I got a bit of lift off a rough bit of tarmac and with hard acceleration the forks snapped this way and that when it landed and threw my hand off the bars... astounded it would never have happened on the flexi-fork jokes of the single yoke air-cooled bikes (and of course would just pull the UJ out the top of the 1250s forks) ... I came to the conclusion the triple clamps we always needed have caught BWM out in another way - and we need rubber mounted bars...

makes you wonder what jokers they have as test riders ? or as it appears on youtube, is it just idiots getting free rides, that do all the (terrible) development work and feedback ?
 
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I saw these to stop you scuffing the hideously ugly hand guards - thinking they'd also look less awful than the mess they come with - I got some, when they arrived they are huge and quite heavy - it should help calm things down a bit too


when I test rode the second 1300GS earlier this year - I got a bit of lift off a rough bit of tarmac and with hard acceleration the forks snapped this way and that when it landed and threw my hand off the bars... astounded it would never have happened on the flexi-fork jokes of the single yoke air-cooled bikes (and of course would just pull the UJ out the top of the 1250s forks) ... I came to the conclusion the triple clamps we always needed have caught BWM out in another way - and we need rubber mounted bars...

makes you wonder what jokers they have as test riders ? or as it appears on youtube, is it just idiots getting free rides, that do all the (terrible) development work and feedback ?
Your posts are totally ignorant, but mildly entertaining.
 


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