Deleted account 211025001
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- Feb 3, 2005
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Having cancelled a couple of times I finally got around to a two hour test ride today out of Pidcocks.
I'm gonna bung up a proviso here to put stuff into context;
My current bike is an '05 1200 which I've had from new. It's at 50k miles now and has full fat Wilbers, full exhaust, fuel controller and is generally pretty well sorted 'for me', like a pair of comfy old shoes.
I bought her because I felt it was such a move on (in a direction that worked for me) from the previous oil heads and at last there was a GS that was more or less built for me
I am not into knocking new stuff, actually far from it, as I try to make clear above and have had times where I've been equally non plussed and bored of the constant slagging of 1200's by some peeps as I guess some of you guys may feel of some of the comments about the WC and............because of that...........I nearly didn't write any of what's to come as my overall impression of the bike was one of being completely underwhelmed by it and I don't want to be seen as just another knocker of the bike.
So, please take this as intended; I am being as objective as possible, I have no axe to grind and, probably most importantly, most of my comments are made in the context of what works for me not as an absolute.
The bike was a 3,000 mile TE and ridden through busy Saturday shopping traffic, on fast flowing roads, M-way, fast back roads and knarley gravely back roads. Oh, and some un-metaled tracks (but hardly off roading).
I love the look of the bike, much prefer it to mine. The wheels are I think gorgeous and the exhaust is actually pretty good for a standard set up and sounds lovely. I'd not bother swapping out the exhaust unless it was to sort the whole system without the CAT. On the subject of the exhaust, every time I started the bike there was an initial rasp of the exhaust as if I were giving it a quick blip on start up (except I wasn't). This sounded great to me, anybody else notice that? I did wonder if it was programmed to do that or maybe I just imagined it...............
Build quality - well, I'm not sure what I expected but going by what JB and a few others have said I was expecting something pretty special and a return to the 'glory days of WMB' quality. Well, sorry, I just don't get it. The quality was fine but didn't seem any better than my 1200 (which I have no issues with). Some stuff was better thought out (screen adjustment for example) but better quality
In fact, I did have some quality issues with the WC; some of the welding was I thought pretty poor, especially on the sub frame (eg foot rest hangers and the diagonal spar above them). The indicator switch was horrible, kept feeling like it was gonna break off and hard to get to (too long a reach). The mode button also kept sticking and I had to wack it to get it to do anything. There was also quite a bit of corrosion already evident. More than on my 50,000 mile bike - a few, but not exhaustive examples:
Front caliper hose
Front caliper mount bolts
Exhaust nuts/studs already rusted, why not use stainless/domed?
Quite a few bolts/nuts on the bike were looking like this
Front discs
Riding it - Wow, what an engine
On start up I was very surprised by the mechanical racket. Noisier than my 1200 and any of my Guzzis for that matter, I wasn't expecting that. The engine revs very freely and feels much more like a parallel twin than a boxer. The clutch feels like any other wet multiplate clutch does, I actually wouldn't describe it as lighter than the traditional dry clutch as such though, just more progressive and definitely nicer. The engine is far more tractable and you can trickle along in quite high gears. Pretty much gone is the constant feathering of the clutch in slow moving city traffic - nice
Once out on the open road I switched from Rain to Dynamic and that's where it stayed. The rush of power was, initially very addictive. The way it revs and builds speed, the way it will pull in any gear and the mid range torque is a real step change on from my bike taking it into fast road bike territory. FWIW though I found I got very used to it very quickly and soon felt very comfortable with it. I did find myself wondering if it may become a bit tiresome when out bimbling two up? I guess you'd just switch it to Normal or Rain if that was the case? Anyway, for hooning it was spot on.
The gearbox is clunkier than mine which really surprised me, especially in the lower gears. Maybe it will smooth out with miles as mine did?
Handling - Mmmmmmm, this was the biggest disappointment for me. The bike certainly fitted me well (6ft and seat on high setting) with the bars feeling about right. It defo feels lighter and slightly quicker changing direction at low/normal speeds. When getting a proper move on though on fast flowing roads it needed more effort to get it to change direction than mine. Once you got it to start moving it reverted back to being nice and light and took little effort to keeping it moving a bit more or a bit less.
I put the ESA on Hard (which is where it stayed) which helped but still felt more sluggish to turn than my bike. I like quick steering bikes and was disappointed. I also couldn't get my head around the apparent quick yet slow at different speeds steering
Anybody out there understand what I'm on about or experienced it
I thought the shocks were a big improvement on the usual OEM but not as good as my Wilbers (hardly surprising really), well controlled but lacking some of the subtlety.
Brakes were much of a muchness, a bit less initial bite but a bit stronger when really pulling up sharpish.
Bits'n'bobs - I found, when getting a move on and with the balls of my feet on the pegs that me heel kept getting tangled up with the centre stand.
I got the right peg down a couple of times
, are the pegs a bit lower or does the new bike just handle so much better? 
No storage space under the seat (and if you look closely in the picture the ECU? was starting to corrode
Also, there is now no 'level surface with the panniers' when you remove the rear seat. Something I use a lot when on my own on the bike (strapping down soft luggage across back and panniers). Also, looks like you cant mount the top box where the seat is
Erm, what else..............all the different buttons and modes and......and......and......just don't do it for me, sorry.
So, that's my ramble just about over.
For me to trade up I'd need to sell my GS and find £10k and there is not even a small bit of me that thinks it's worth it when, for me, my current bike is so good.
I've also had a good think about that lovely engine and, at the risk of sounding like some of the dinosaurs on here I'm not sure it's in the kind of GS territory I want it to be in. It's lost that creamy build of power of the oil heads and is more frantic. It's almost moved into fast road bike territory and yet if I wanted a fast road bike I'd buy something with a bit more power and do it properly. On that level I'd rather be done with it and do it properly with a lot more power, such as with the 1190 KTM (test ride in a week and a bit).
I think I was expecting the step change to be similar to the 1150 to the 1200 but what I actually rode was a bike that was faster but was no 'better' for that and in some respects was actually not as good as my 1200
Andres
I'm gonna bung up a proviso here to put stuff into context;
My current bike is an '05 1200 which I've had from new. It's at 50k miles now and has full fat Wilbers, full exhaust, fuel controller and is generally pretty well sorted 'for me', like a pair of comfy old shoes.
I bought her because I felt it was such a move on (in a direction that worked for me) from the previous oil heads and at last there was a GS that was more or less built for me
I am not into knocking new stuff, actually far from it, as I try to make clear above and have had times where I've been equally non plussed and bored of the constant slagging of 1200's by some peeps as I guess some of you guys may feel of some of the comments about the WC and............because of that...........I nearly didn't write any of what's to come as my overall impression of the bike was one of being completely underwhelmed by it and I don't want to be seen as just another knocker of the bike.
So, please take this as intended; I am being as objective as possible, I have no axe to grind and, probably most importantly, most of my comments are made in the context of what works for me not as an absolute.
The bike was a 3,000 mile TE and ridden through busy Saturday shopping traffic, on fast flowing roads, M-way, fast back roads and knarley gravely back roads. Oh, and some un-metaled tracks (but hardly off roading).
I love the look of the bike, much prefer it to mine. The wheels are I think gorgeous and the exhaust is actually pretty good for a standard set up and sounds lovely. I'd not bother swapping out the exhaust unless it was to sort the whole system without the CAT. On the subject of the exhaust, every time I started the bike there was an initial rasp of the exhaust as if I were giving it a quick blip on start up (except I wasn't). This sounded great to me, anybody else notice that? I did wonder if it was programmed to do that or maybe I just imagined it...............
Build quality - well, I'm not sure what I expected but going by what JB and a few others have said I was expecting something pretty special and a return to the 'glory days of WMB' quality. Well, sorry, I just don't get it. The quality was fine but didn't seem any better than my 1200 (which I have no issues with). Some stuff was better thought out (screen adjustment for example) but better quality
In fact, I did have some quality issues with the WC; some of the welding was I thought pretty poor, especially on the sub frame (eg foot rest hangers and the diagonal spar above them). The indicator switch was horrible, kept feeling like it was gonna break off and hard to get to (too long a reach). The mode button also kept sticking and I had to wack it to get it to do anything. There was also quite a bit of corrosion already evident. More than on my 50,000 mile bike - a few, but not exhaustive examples:
Front caliper hose
Front caliper mount bolts
Exhaust nuts/studs already rusted, why not use stainless/domed?
Quite a few bolts/nuts on the bike were looking like this
Front discs
Riding it - Wow, what an engine
On start up I was very surprised by the mechanical racket. Noisier than my 1200 and any of my Guzzis for that matter, I wasn't expecting that. The engine revs very freely and feels much more like a parallel twin than a boxer. The clutch feels like any other wet multiplate clutch does, I actually wouldn't describe it as lighter than the traditional dry clutch as such though, just more progressive and definitely nicer. The engine is far more tractable and you can trickle along in quite high gears. Pretty much gone is the constant feathering of the clutch in slow moving city traffic - nice
Once out on the open road I switched from Rain to Dynamic and that's where it stayed. The rush of power was, initially very addictive. The way it revs and builds speed, the way it will pull in any gear and the mid range torque is a real step change on from my bike taking it into fast road bike territory. FWIW though I found I got very used to it very quickly and soon felt very comfortable with it. I did find myself wondering if it may become a bit tiresome when out bimbling two up? I guess you'd just switch it to Normal or Rain if that was the case? Anyway, for hooning it was spot on.
The gearbox is clunkier than mine which really surprised me, especially in the lower gears. Maybe it will smooth out with miles as mine did?
Handling - Mmmmmmm, this was the biggest disappointment for me. The bike certainly fitted me well (6ft and seat on high setting) with the bars feeling about right. It defo feels lighter and slightly quicker changing direction at low/normal speeds. When getting a proper move on though on fast flowing roads it needed more effort to get it to change direction than mine. Once you got it to start moving it reverted back to being nice and light and took little effort to keeping it moving a bit more or a bit less.
I put the ESA on Hard (which is where it stayed) which helped but still felt more sluggish to turn than my bike. I like quick steering bikes and was disappointed. I also couldn't get my head around the apparent quick yet slow at different speeds steering
Anybody out there understand what I'm on about or experienced it I thought the shocks were a big improvement on the usual OEM but not as good as my Wilbers (hardly surprising really), well controlled but lacking some of the subtlety.
Brakes were much of a muchness, a bit less initial bite but a bit stronger when really pulling up sharpish.
Bits'n'bobs - I found, when getting a move on and with the balls of my feet on the pegs that me heel kept getting tangled up with the centre stand.
I got the right peg down a couple of times
, are the pegs a bit lower or does the new bike just handle so much better? No storage space under the seat (and if you look closely in the picture the ECU? was starting to corrode
Also, there is now no 'level surface with the panniers' when you remove the rear seat. Something I use a lot when on my own on the bike (strapping down soft luggage across back and panniers). Also, looks like you cant mount the top box where the seat is
Erm, what else..............all the different buttons and modes and......and......and......just don't do it for me, sorry.
So, that's my ramble just about over.
For me to trade up I'd need to sell my GS and find £10k and there is not even a small bit of me that thinks it's worth it when, for me, my current bike is so good.
I've also had a good think about that lovely engine and, at the risk of sounding like some of the dinosaurs on here I'm not sure it's in the kind of GS territory I want it to be in. It's lost that creamy build of power of the oil heads and is more frantic. It's almost moved into fast road bike territory and yet if I wanted a fast road bike I'd buy something with a bit more power and do it properly. On that level I'd rather be done with it and do it properly with a lot more power, such as with the 1190 KTM (test ride in a week and a bit
).I think I was expecting the step change to be similar to the 1150 to the 1200 but what I actually rode was a bike that was faster but was no 'better' for that and in some respects was actually not as good as my 1200
Andres
offer them as an extra as there are various extras though nice are far from needed,thinking of my bike TPS,white led indicators etc
