Crazy idea? Any input welcome...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jason P
  • Start date Start date

Jason P

Guest
Hi all,

I'm currently riding a 2001 1150GS, my partner has the 650... she's had a few problems with it recently which has led to me riding it a lot, to and fro dealers etc.

Now I know this may seem strange, but I think I prefer it!! Anyone with any experience of both, or changing 'down' from an 1150 care to comment? i don't want to regret any change I may make.

Whilst I love the 1150's grunt and presence, the 650 just seemed more...fun. I don't do huge M-road distances, and the perfomance of the 650 surprised me. Just pulls and pulls!!

all thoughts greatly appreciated - and if I do jump, would be keen to hear from anyone wanting to do the opposite - would be great to swap with a cash adjustment rather than sell/buy.

Cheers,

Jason
 
well i don't know about a 650gs (apart from that they look very nice) - but i recently had a 650 'scarver' as a courtesy bike - and i didn't like it at all. i know its supposed to be an 'entry-level' BM, but if i'd bought one as such, i imagine i would 'exit' biking very soon afterwards! i found it uncomfortable, noisy, vibey, gutless and poorly designed. for instance, it's aimed at urban riding, yet the indicator switch is postioned in such i shite place that you have to really move your hole hand to reach/cancel it, or grow a reptile-style thumb half-way up the inside of your arm!! when i got my 1150gs back it felt fantastic by comparison (albeit not a very fair one).

i'm sure the GS version is a different animal - but i personally would think long and hard before making the jump.

pr0ne
 
This is a wind up, isn't it? Who put you up to this? Come on. Speak out man. We'll find out in the end.
 
I was loaned a knackered old F650 as a courtesy bike last year.
I flogged it to death for 2 days...hit the rev limiter in every gear...scraped both pegs (and a side panel, oops)...and upset a lot of power rangers...by riding like a complete t**t.

I couldn't wait to give the damn thing back but once I got my nice new shiny bike back and started riding (relatively) sensibly again, I realised how much fun I'd had on it.
 
I have the luxury of owning a few bikes one of which is a Honda Transalp (which I rate much higher than the BMW 650's), and find riding it in town and country lanes is far superior to the Bigger GS due to the GS being a bit "agricultural" round town. For distances over 20 miles or so the Boxer GS wins every time. So it's horses for courses as usual.

regards

AndyT

PS - I also had a Scarver as a courtesy bike and enjoyed it although a few more vibrations than I had expected.
 
Jason P said:
Hi all,

- and if I do jump, would be keen to hear from anyone wanting to do the opposite - would be great to swap with a cash adjustment rather than sell/buy.

Cheers,

Jason

You cannot be serious :shoot: Place an ad virtually Anywhere WI, National Care Homes for the Insane and you get your Arm Torn Off by the Hordes wanting to do that very Deal :confused:
 
I loved my F650......it was a damn fine bike........it could have used a few hundred more revs to be availabale tho, cos i was also bouncing off the limiter a lot........but it was dead easy to ride, and not too bad for a 6 foot 4 fat bastard like me.

Another cylinder would have been nice though

And a few more CC's...shall we say just under 500 more?

oo, and a beak....and.......one of those nice r1150gs stickers....and...and...


:p
 
Had Both

had both owned the GS and then bought a 650 to commute and get dirty without a care rode it for a couple of weeks didnt get on with it, sure it was a good little bike but every time i rode it I would see a GS coming the other way and felt that I was being looked down on even though I had both they didnt know that, sold the 650 and bought a desent jetwash
Adventure boy
 
I went for the 650 GS because I only needed a weekend leisure bike.
I enjoy my 650, but then I only ride it when I'm out to enjoy myself anyway!

I am, however, looking at the prospect of a 150 mile daily commute across the Pennines for 3 years. So will the 650 do?

I'm sure it will cope but I'm even surer that the twin would be a better bike for this sort of use.

I'm going to enjoy my light, sprightly, FUN 650 while I can

:D
 
I had the use of an F650 for two weeks and was glad to give it back. Gutless, horrible seat which has useless over 20 miles ... and every time I opened the garage door and saw it I winced. Funduro Girls Bike shrieked at me .. was I glad to back onto the 1150.

Still, one man's meat etc ... be a dull place if we were all the same ... if the 650 presses buttons that the 1150 doesn't then why not?
 
SWMBO has a 650GS which I have used a couple of times for comuting into central London.

I don't find it particularly comfortable - the pseudo tank is too low for my knees (but then I am 75") and the bike's physical size is not much better than the 1150 for heavy traffic filtering.

For the journey I do, I actually prefer Thunderbird 6!

:moped:

Greg
 
F650GS

I happen to own both the 1150GS Adv and a 650 Dakar, so I am able to make a reasonable comparison. Recently, I purchased a KTM trail bike and thought that I should sell the Dakar, just to keep her-in-doors happy, as she thought three bikes is a bit too much.

The following is a true personal opinion of the F650GS Dakar.

I have owned my Dakar bike for the last three years from new. I first wanted one, after a two day off-road skills training course with the late John Deacon in Wales. I had ridden off-road before, but only with low powered small c.c. motorcycles and I was amazed at what these bikes could do if you knew how to handle them. So I highly recommend the off-road skills course, as most of the skills that you will learn can be directly related to riding these bikes on-road. If you do intend to ride the bike off-road, let me also say that this is no "mud plugger" and will get bogged down if the going gets very heavy. This bike is a large lump to pick up again on your own, but again, if you have been shown how to pick it up, you will be able too. You just have to be fit, if you have to do it several times an hour!

I had a few teething problems to begin with when I first got the bike, in that after a run of a few miles when coming to a halt at traffic lights for instance, the engine would just cut out. On one particular occasion the bike just would not start again, leaving me stranded miles from home. Fortunately, the BMW rescue service took me home and the bike was taken to my dealer. I gather that this was a problem with some early models and the fix was to re-map the ECU with a software upgrade, and the problem has never reoccurred. I cannot fault the build quality of the bike, after more than three years there is no rust to be seen, and apart from servicing, tyres etc; no mechanical parts have had to be replaced, apart from chain/sprockets and swing arm bearings. All the rest is still the original, even though the bike regularly gets a thrashing off-road. Now just over 12,000 miles later I cannot fault it.

You have to be fairly tall to reach the ground with both feet, but lowering kits and a low seat are available. Last year I rode the bike across France to the Pyrenees on a BMW organised trip, all the other blokes on the tour were on R1150GS or K1200 bikes, and I guess that when I turned up at the ferry they must have thought that they would have to slow down to enable me to keep up. However, the reverse was true, the comment that I heard later was that I almost rode the wheels off the thing. There is no doubt that on a straight road, sport bikes will thrash the bike, but on narrow bumpy "B" roads, the bike will soak up the bumps and leave sport bikes in the dust, heh, heh! I can literally throw it round bends, even with knobbly tyres on, as it is very predictable. In traffic, it's a dream to just sail past all the drivers in their cars. You are very much in command with the high up view of the road ahead, and can easily see over car roofs and hedges.

There is only one minor complaint that I have, and that is the front brake can sometimes be overwhelmed at road speeds, with the weight of the bike. But then, I'm comparing it with the hugely powerful brakes on my R1150GS Adventure and the K1200RS that I used to own, and it does take longer to stop than these two bikes.

Since new, I have installed a Remus exhaust system, a K&N air filter, almost every Touratech part imaginable apart from the full Dakar race kit. It now gives better mid range power and is very easy to wheelie, woohoo!

So I'm still VERY reluctant to sell it. It's advertised in the For Sale section, but I'm not too bothered if nobody buys it.
 
Howard Millichap said:
I've heard that the seat on the 650 is diabollockall over longer distances.
Mind you the 1150's isn't up to much, judging by this forum.

Indeed the seat is the most horrible part on my F650 GS. Way too soft and after 50-100 km's I have to stop (ass and back hurts)...
Curious, how the seat of my R1150GS will turn out to be (after a decent break/sit-in time)?
 


Back
Top Bottom