bodge it
Registered user
New R1200 gs ride report
There have been lots of ride reports so I thought I would do another one.
Went to Vines today who were very helpful.
I asked for a test ride on one of them new GS LC things and said of course.
I said would you mind if I take it green-laning. They said you have £250.00 excess so you can do what you like with it.
I’ve seen lots of Youtube videos of it off-road and wondered how they did so well on road tyres. The one I was testing had road tyres, I think, photo below.
There are quite a few varying gay lanes around Guildford some easy and some not so easy. I thought I would take it on a couple of easy ones.
As I left Vines I was trying to work out in my head how to get to the easy lanes without going through the slimy boggy bumpy lanes and how to flick through the host of menus on how the bike could be set up.
I left Vines with it in “Road mode”.
Nice light clutch, oodles of power, very nice. Tried to miss my first boggy slimy road and then saw the beginning of it. I thought I’ll try the first little bit and see how it goes. Switch to “endure mode” ( but didn’t realise you have to stop the bike and wait for it to change so went in in “road mode”).
First bit was dry loose gravel, easy peasy, then it changed to cow shit slimy mud on top of wobbly bumpy ruts. The seat is really narrow where your legs are when you stand up and the bike seems like it was designed for off-road riding. Elbows out, look straight ahead and floor it, it just went over everything. I couldn’t quite believe it, my off -road riding had improved overnight.
When I got to the end of the lane I realized I was still in road mode, so switched it to “Enduro mode” . Did a bit of road work in “Enduro mode” and then mucked about with the settings. In “Road mode” it felt a bit lumpy and I must admit I stalled it a couple of times in 4th.
First gear always clunked. The next green lane which was fasters and gravelly with muddy sections. It was now in “Enduro mode” and it was bloody fantastic. It was as much fun if not more than my KTM 400exc and it wasn’t on knobblies.
I didn’t want to take it back. If it had had some knobblies and no £250 excess on it I think I would have been tempted to do all the lanes.
I absolutely loved it.
Unfortunately I had to take it back. It was a bit muddy and was a bit surprised that there wasn’t a “clean the mud off “ switch, I did look through the menus but eventually the rain washed most of it off.
Couldn’t see the need for “rain mode” as it seemed quite happy in “road mode”.
Would I get one.
Well I’m going to try a KTM 1190 before I make up my mind, but what a piece of engineering that BMW is…………..wicked.
Thank you Luke of Vines
There have been lots of ride reports so I thought I would do another one.
Went to Vines today who were very helpful.
I asked for a test ride on one of them new GS LC things and said of course.
I said would you mind if I take it green-laning. They said you have £250.00 excess so you can do what you like with it.
I’ve seen lots of Youtube videos of it off-road and wondered how they did so well on road tyres. The one I was testing had road tyres, I think, photo below.
There are quite a few varying gay lanes around Guildford some easy and some not so easy. I thought I would take it on a couple of easy ones.
As I left Vines I was trying to work out in my head how to get to the easy lanes without going through the slimy boggy bumpy lanes and how to flick through the host of menus on how the bike could be set up.
I left Vines with it in “Road mode”.
Nice light clutch, oodles of power, very nice. Tried to miss my first boggy slimy road and then saw the beginning of it. I thought I’ll try the first little bit and see how it goes. Switch to “endure mode” ( but didn’t realise you have to stop the bike and wait for it to change so went in in “road mode”).
First bit was dry loose gravel, easy peasy, then it changed to cow shit slimy mud on top of wobbly bumpy ruts. The seat is really narrow where your legs are when you stand up and the bike seems like it was designed for off-road riding. Elbows out, look straight ahead and floor it, it just went over everything. I couldn’t quite believe it, my off -road riding had improved overnight.
When I got to the end of the lane I realized I was still in road mode, so switched it to “Enduro mode” . Did a bit of road work in “Enduro mode” and then mucked about with the settings. In “Road mode” it felt a bit lumpy and I must admit I stalled it a couple of times in 4th.
First gear always clunked. The next green lane which was fasters and gravelly with muddy sections. It was now in “Enduro mode” and it was bloody fantastic. It was as much fun if not more than my KTM 400exc and it wasn’t on knobblies.
I didn’t want to take it back. If it had had some knobblies and no £250 excess on it I think I would have been tempted to do all the lanes.
I absolutely loved it.
Unfortunately I had to take it back. It was a bit muddy and was a bit surprised that there wasn’t a “clean the mud off “ switch, I did look through the menus but eventually the rain washed most of it off.
Couldn’t see the need for “rain mode” as it seemed quite happy in “road mode”.
Would I get one.
Well I’m going to try a KTM 1190 before I make up my mind, but what a piece of engineering that BMW is…………..wicked.
Thank you Luke of Vines
