Advice re trail riding with a GSA

[Geoff Crowther]

Hi all
I guess I'm opening myself up to a barrage of sarcasm and abuse, especially from all you off-road gods out there, but here goes anyway.
Bought my new Adventure in Sept last year after 18 enjoyable months on a 1200GS.
Had already done the basic, level 1 BMW off-road course in July last year (riding a 1200GS). Great fun, highly impressed with the bikes capability.
So, no doubts about the bike's ability and reasonably happy with my ability for easier trail riding, BUT, like most novices, I dropped the bike twice on the course; nothing spectacular, very slow, suffered only a slight knee twist.
I'm now being gently pressurised by a pal with a GSA, with no off-road experience, to try a few easy trails. I've done a little here in the Peak district on a Dakar I owned for about 6 months in 07/08.
I must confess that I didn't buy the GSA for off-roading. Bought it cos I love the look, the handling and comfortable mile-crunching ability. I CAN't be the only one.
So, to get to the point, I have a sneaky desire to try off-roading, (and by that I really mean trail riding) and have been considering the World of BMW off-road, Morrocco trip this coming Setember. But my worry is that WHEN I drop it, just how much damage am I likely to do to my precious bike?
You all know how much they cost (mine's got all the extras), and I bought it as a retirement (early) present to myself. No intention, nor financial ability, to replace it. It's got to last me years and years.
I actually dropped the beast from standstill a couple of weeks back , having misjudged a turn on a rough track outside someone's house, (you reading this Carl?), and was amazed how little it suffered; almost imperceptible scratches to enging bars and the plastic corner on a pannier.
I guess I'm looking for a bit of reassurance here; and may be asking for the impossible.
Incidentally, has anyone claimed on their insurance for damage done on a trail. I note my insurance says it won't cover accidental damage done "off-road" but who defines the road, I wonder? Pretty much anywhere you go with the bike in the UK will, by definition, be a road.
Ok, so, given that I'm expecting someone to say, "...should have bought a 1200RT", any sensible comments folks?
Cheers
Geoff

 

[SilverFish]

I've not done much offroading at all, and can sympathise about having to pay to fix damaged parts.

I did just the one Morocco trip - back in 2003 I think. That was on an 1150GS (not A) and the only damage then was me going through the windshield
There's a suprising amount of sand in that Sahara, and its mostly soft to fall on

Joking aside, I think the moto morocco boys have plenty of recommendations and experience of what breaks, or should be better protected so suggest you do a search for some of their threads.

I was thinking improper thoughts about an RT last weekend so did a bit of an offroad bimble to see if I would miss it. The lane started off easy enough (Water Lane near Alton for those who know it), but quicky turned into a riverbed with steps, rocks, boulders, logs, water - eugghhh. Got about 1/3rd of the way up it and had to turn aroudn for fear of seriously damaging the bike on some of the rocks. Thats when I found that due to some ineffable, fated quirk of geology and bike design, the width of Water Lane is *exactly* the same as the length of a 12GSA

Mike

 

[Geoff Crowther]

Thanks for the comments Mike.
Any of you Moto Morocco guys out there wishing to add an opinion?

 

[WindyChuffer]

Hi Geoff - I really don't think you have much to worry about. Dropped my previous '06 a few times on tarmac & easy green lanes. You have crash bars, cylinder head guards, hand guards etc. which bear the brunt of any offs. .

My '09 is going off road proper (starting tonight!) having been shod with some knobblies, and will be ridden London-Beijing in 2010. Time will tell !

The GS's / GSA's that come out of the BMW off road school seem to fair remarkably well mechanically and cosmetically IMHO considering all the abuse they get.

 

[Andy_E]

In my (very limited) experience I acquired damage to rocker cover guards, scuffs on the engine bars and that's about it. I've seen a recommendation somewhere on here to remove the GSA spotlights as the plastic mounting lugs on the casings are a bit fragile and I'd also remove the mirrors, more for the annoyance of having to tighten them up if they come loose after a drop.

Having TKC'd my GSA I'm doing some more trails this year, starting with the Levisham bash on Saturday so I'll let you have a damage report after that event

 

[Deleted account 211025001]

Speaking as somebody who has dropped his off road all too frequently I am amazed at how tough they are!

I have yet to break anything, but, ended up with lots of scuffs and scratches.

Re. insurance, what you need to do is get knocked off the bike on the road and THEN put in a claim - worked for somebody I know

Given you have fully comp (I assume?) then I guess you could claim for damage as green lanes are legal rights of way for which you need MOT/Tax/Insurance so ought to be no different to if you dropped it on tarmac and made a claim. Not sure what it would do to premiums for dirt bikes if lots of people started doing this though

Andres

 

[Geoff Crowther]

Thanks for the posts guys. All starting to make me feel a little less worried.

Windy - agree with your point about the off-road school bikes. The 1200s don't have any cylinder protection and just display scarred cylinder heads.

Andy - note your comment about aux lights, just fitted Rugged Roads protectors for precisely that reason. Also, I'm on brand new Anakees at the moment, planning easy trails in the Dales soon (you've seen my other thread) and that'll be on the Anakees. IF I do Morrocco, have already decided the whole trip would be on TKC 80s or similar, I'm not a mad road-rider anyway.

Andres - your mate's insurance thoughts MIGHT be scarily close to someone I know very well .

Thanks for all the comments.

Any more?

Any other guys done Moroccan off-road, with "almost" bugger-all experience?

 

[MikeP]

Any of you Moto Morocco guys out there ever not damaged your bike in some way?

Fixed.

 

[Greg Masters]

My '09 is going off road proper (starting tonight!) having been shod with some knobblies, ...

Oh good!

I'll be on my Husaberg - a bike that I bought specifically for trail riding so that my GS can stay safely tucked up in the garage.

Geoff - your dilemma is surely an excuse to buy another bike!!??



Greg

 

[BurtieBoy]

Hi,
I've been doing trails on my GSA for over a year now and not really had any damage. I don't ride with panniers on though. I have also removed the little air deflectors.

Also off road I ride TKC's at about 18psi.

We ride a few trails in Wales and the Cotswolds and find that slow splills are more usual on the big GSA's as they tend to over balance when going slow - so don't fill her up with fuel ;-)

I'd also practise turning the GSA around in a tight circle and also practise turning the bike round whilst you are standing next to the bike (pushing it back and forwards) so you leaarn how the bike handles this way before you have to do it on the trails to get youout of a bit of bother.

Onthe whole I am really impressed with the GSA off road. I have also softened the suspension front and rear and dropped off some pre-load as well.

If you are notused to off roading put the seat height to the lowest level as well.

Go for it - it is fab. Just avoid mud ;-)

Burtie

 

[pedro]

Throttle Switch Protector

You may want to invest in one of these, I had a very low speed spill with my previous GSA and managed to break the switch in half with my boot. The switch is down on the left side, just above your foot.

 

[Stevie73]

Bertieboy's right, mud is awful!! I haven't done a great deal off road, but so far my GSA has been chucked quite a few times and upside down on a few occasions too But they are bloody tough, and the damaged/dented/scuffed parts are the parts that are supposed to take the brunt in a spill offroad anyway. They're all replaceable at not huge cost. Things like bash plate (mine's bent), cylinder covers (dented & scuffed), spotlights (break pretty easily if the bike lands in a certain way). Panniers actually protect the bike fairly well, and look good with a few dents in, as well as making it easier to pick the bike up, but the GSA with loaded panniers is like riding a sherman tank off road.

I've been amazed at what such a big bike is capable of. They'll ride through pretty much anything. On occasions I've doubted whether the GSA was capable of getting up some lanes I've been on, (only because I'm a novice & still learning) but the bike just takes it all in its stride like a hungry beast!!

Carl fell on Salter Fell.... Remember, if you ain't fallin' off, you ain't tryin hard enough!!

 

[Gaz]

Out of the whole range of possible lanes and weather conditions we get in the UK, on a GSA you'll ride only about 35% of what is available. I offroad all year round in Mid-Wales, North Wales and the Peaks and have had to push several 1200s on the big organised group rides Being a good rider will help a little but weight will get you in the end.
Rock steps, mud, wet stones, deep ruts and steep descents will all cause you grief.

When they do fall over it's rarely terminal, though I knocked my 1200 down to one cylinder once and bought the XChallenge soon after.

So if you are going to get into it make sure you are out with someone experienced who knows that the lanes are GS-able

 

[DollyRocket]

So if you are going to get into it make sure you are out with someone experienced who knows that the lanes are GS-able

I Second that - Did off-roading on the GS, fell-off, picked it up, did more, fell off more - got fed up picking the damn thing up - bought a DRZ.

Complete revelation - More fun, less hassle and cheap as chips to fix. Now chopped it in for a KTM, even more fun, probably more hassle but also means I can keep up with the riders on the GS's for the road bits.

 

[Fanum]

Thanks for the comments Mike.
Any of you Moto Morocco guys out there wishing to add an opinion?

It's actually quite hard to properly break a GSA.

Lots of little things happen- Engine crash bars get bent, if you've got BMW OEM foglights they'll simply snap off at the plastic mount base under their own mass/momentum when you hit a good rock/pothole etc, so we usually take those off bikes before we start, indicator lenses regularly get broken, mirrors bent and occasionally broken if the bike hits the ground at the wrong angle (far far more likely to just bend around and need a 6mm Allen key to re-tighten though) and tanks can get dinged if you drop the bike on rocks badly, but you have to be pretty unlucky to have that happen.

Wheels are very strong- unlike the rims made of cheese that the KTM950 and 990s have and fork seals will occasionally let past oil, but with the clever front end, all they do is lube the forks so that doesn't really matter- we just wrap a cloth around the fork leg to stop oil dropping on the brakes and off we go again

If you were to do any deep water river crossings and dropped the bike on the wrong side, it is possible to get water in the airbox- this can be a problem if it goes in the pots but you'll find us all lined up on the banks with cameras shouting 'don't start it!) so unless you do thumb the starter and hydro-lock it, all we have to do with an 11xx is drag it out, pull the plugs, drain it and start it again......a 1200GSA is more dicey 'cos they can suck water straight into the engine and emulsify the engine oil, but again, this is easily dealt with.(EDIT...and it's a simple thing to modify this so it can't happen anyway )



We've had several gear change knobs snapped off with rock impacts, but these are easily drilled out and fixed with a couple of nuts and a long bolt (or as in Speggo's case on the last trip, some creative welding in Imilchil)

The touratec head protectors, or the far nicer ones from Steptoe are a good idea to further protect the cylinder heads, and my bike (1150GSA) has the touratec lobe guards on the tank in case I 'rest' it on some rocks

Other than that, there isn't really much that happens in terms of damage- we've had several terminally ill KTM's but not one GS (and we've had many more of those on trips than GSs.

We carry FPC bypasses , coil packs and usually have an EWS sensor so we can get around that as well, and although much maligned, we've never ever had a canbus problem (Nor can I remember a genuine one being reported on the whole forum TBH- they may be tricky to add kit to without the brain kicking up a fuss but the system is resilient)

The early 12GSA's had problems with the sidestand switch getting knocked by stones and for a long time there wasn't a protector available on the market- it's been a while since we've had a problem with that though and we do know how to bypass them if necessary.

The screens are too big and quite vulnerable, so one common thing is to remove them before we get to the rocky places- they're expensive to replace so it makes sense.

Handlebars can occasionally get moved in their clamps, but this is a good thing as it prevents them from getting bent in an off- it may even be wise to crack off the tension a tiny bit so that although they're secure to stand up on the bike with, they will move in an 'off'.

Handguards bend easily and will then often cause ABS sensor problems but again, as soon as someone has an off, it's something we check.

Can't think of anything else that often goes on a GS TBH.....there are occasionally the odd unusual things but they are remarkably solid and resilient things.

We've had loads of people do our trips with hardly any previous experience Geoff.....you may like to have a read of Garfield's ride report HERE....he had no previous experience but seems to have found it a hoot

It's amazing what a GS or GSA will actually do, and all of the routes we use are do-able on one- we tend to start off on easy stuff then move up as people's confidence grows, and at the end of a trip, you'd probably look back in disbelief at what you can now ride up/down, and be totally impressed by your bike

Give me a shout sometime if you'd like any more detail on our trips

Bill, Moto-Morocco

 

[Fanum]

PS wheels aren't an issue, even the cast ones- we've had one get slightly chipped but they're a lot stronger than you think and we've yet to have any GS wheels 'broken' on a trip (Unlike the KTM's )

 

[SilverFish]

Carl fell on Salter Fell.... Remember, if you ain't fallin' off, you ain't tryin hard enough!!

That trail looks fun - just the sort of off road I'd enjoy!

 

[Geoff Crowther]

Many thank to all of you lot for very practical, and positive replies. Further testimony to the value of this excellent forum.
Cheers all
Geoff
PS Further contributions always welcome!

 

[(RIP) Tunneruk]

Wet mud on road tyres is to be avioded, If you're on fast open gravel tracks or dry surfaces then the GSA will eat them up with it's ample travel suspension,
Get on the wet slippery stuff and all that weight will just plain kick you in the nuts

 

[WindyChuffer]

Well my '09 survived some pretty knarly stuff tonight, courtesy of Greg Masters. Stacked it once trying to get out of gloopy ruts, too much throttle and span it 180 degrees and low sided. All fine. Just needs a damned good wash.

Boy it turns well, helped with a handful of throttle + TKC80's. But what a handful compared to a DRZ400E / G450X. Fun though !