Does the Wasserboxer need 8 gears?

[roundincircles]

Did a couple of hundred miles today in glorious sunshine to Hunstanton and the engine was a peach with bags of power or as benign as need be.

But I kept searching for 7th and 8th it is so tractable and I had my svelte wife on the back.

Wonder why they did not put an overdrive 7th in that sweet box? The engine power/torque could handle it.......any thoughts amongst the engineers out there?

 

[Nice 'n' Fat]

How could you search for 8th when you couldn't find 7th?

 

[STUBBS]

if they did youd want a 9th

 

[Paul G (BHT)]

I have similar thoughts too

.... If I had to complain, my only issues in the 2,500 miles would be, firstly I feel the top two gears could be a little taller, maybe 5th 0.860 & 6th 0.760 instead of the current 0.943 for 5th & 0.848 for 6th.

 

[Myke Rocks]

BMW in their wisdom?

Always make a total bollocks of their gearing on both cars and motorcycles.
(With 1 exception - the overdrive R1150 - but they soon cured that by fitting the same awful low geared top in later bikes)
You are incorrect about needing another 2 gears. If they took 2 out of any 6 speed box and spaced the rest in between, it would be nicer to ride, with sensible gaps between the gears for road use.
The company have idiots for engineers when it comes to gear ratio choices, and the lunatics gear the bikes for the dragstrip, not normal, everyday use.
Oh- for a nice, high geared, overdrive 6th, which would also do wonders for the fuel consumption.
Myke

 

[AberdeenAngus]

Anyone else think the gearing is aimed at 2 hr blasts on twisties by the journo's rather than long term users ?

 

[morty]

fit an automatic box on it be gone with all this gear malarky & while there at it stick on a reverse aswell.

 

[Fanum]

The company have idiots for engineers when it comes to gear ratio choices, and the lunatics gear the bikes for the dragstrip, not normal, everyday use.
Oh- for a nice, high geared, overdrive 6th, which would also do wonders for the fuel consumption.
Myke

I don't believe that Myke, and I doubt you do either when you sit and think about it

The first thing you pick up on when reading about any GS are words like 'Grunty', 'Torque' and so on......being quick of the line, with lots of low down power, that's what the GS is......

It's horses for courses I guess......if you truly wanted a GS with a long high touring gear, you'd probably have gone for an RT instead....if however you want a bike capable of both street, off-street (Gelanderstrasse) and a good amount of incidental mile munching to boot, you'd have the GS.

I don't think the engineers are idiots at all, or the GS wouldn't be in the position it is in the sales charts.....nor for that matter are the Sales and marketing department....quite the opposite in fact.


They know the niche, they have aimed for it and pretty much hit it dead on, whilst also expanding it to a mainstream bike owner group who they have successfully drawn away from the sports tourer and even sports bike market.


Perhaps it's also that the toilet engine is mapped to feel as if it has a load more to go, but in fact if they had actually pt in a longer ratio in top, it would actually run out of puff

 

[Engineer]

If it will just pull to the redline in top then the gearing is just about right - haven't tried it yet, but it probably will - anything else is overgeared and for granddad Sunday drivers.

 

[Myke Rocks]

Actually I have an RT

I don't believe that Myke, and I doubt you do either when you sit and think about it

The first thing you pick up on when reading about any GS are words like 'Grunty', 'Torque' and so on......being quick of the line, with lots of low down power, that's what the GS is......

It's horses for courses I guess......if you truly wanted a GS with a long high touring gear, you'd probably have gone for an RT instead....if however you want a bike capable of both street, off-street (Gelanderstrasse) and a good amount of incidental mile munching to boot, you'd have the GS.

I don't think the engineers are idiots at all, or the GS wouldn't be in the position it is in the sales charts.....nor for that matter are the Sales and marketing department....quite the opposite in fact.


They know the niche, they have aimed for it and pretty much hit it dead on, whilst also expanding it to a mainstream bike owner group who they have successfully drawn away from the sports tourer and even sports bike market.


Perhaps it's also that the toilet engine is mapped to feel as if it has a load more to go, but in fact if they had actually pt in a longer ratio in top, it would actually run out of puff

After multiple BMWs
I still buy them, but the engineer who chose the ratios is a cretin.
5 and a half speed gearbox for god's sake.
the first 5 ratios are close, and the sixth is so close to 5th it was hardly worth putting in. - And a first, which, if you stop on a hill at traffic lights ( 2 up) you cannot take off without smoking the clutch.
No: 5 gears as they are are plenty to do anything you wish to do, if properly spaced. The 6th should be for cruising, not redlining.
Myke

 

[roundincircles]

I guess my point is that there is so much grunt out of that engine that a taller gear would be great when hacking down through France to the Alps and Dolomites. Also more relaxing on those long stretches across middle France that seems to go on forever.

I go on three long tours per year and the GS excels in the mountains and other twisty roads. Why can't we have an overdrive for comfort and fuel consumption........and an armchair too

 

[batman1]

Ahh! If it only had a chain you could fit a bigger front sprocket!

 

[gateway77]

I have to agree - really loving the bike so far, but keep looking for another gear to change up. Also noticed quite a buzzy/vibey feel about 70mph / 4k rpm - anyone done any long motorway stints yet?

 

[Wreford Miles]

It's horses for courses I guess......if you truly wanted a GS with a long high touring gear, you'd probably have gone for an RT instead....if however you want a bike capable of both street, off-street (Gelanderstrasse) and a good amount of incidental mile munching to boot, you'd have the GS.

And looked at from that view point, it would seem BMW have got the gearing right...

I've never found myself looking for a higher gear off-street on a GS in fact over the weekend I could have done with a lower 1st - But I'm happy with the compromise

 

[Tim Cullis]

It's a long-standing moan of mine that BMW and others put in relatively close-ratio gearboxes when what's really needed is wide ratios.

When I had a 1200GS I tried to track down a way to put in the low first gear from the police-spec R1200RTP which apparently you can ride at walking pace with the clutch fully out. And yes, sixth gear should be a really high overdrive.

Although one of my early bikes (Honda 400/4) had a six-speed box, most were four speeds.

 

[mcinlb]

Top gear on the 2013 GS appears to be the same as my old TC, though without the bit of roughness at about 4600rpm.
This gearing does feel low, maybe just because of the smoother engine, but does make lazy top gear overtakes a doddle........

 

[Little-Brit]

Did a couple of hundred miles today in glorious sunshine to Hunstanton and the engine was a peach with bags of power or as benign as need be.

But I kept searching for 7th and 8th it is so tractable and I had my svelte wife on the back.

Wonder why they did not put an overdrive 7th in that sweet box? The engine power/torque could handle it.......any thoughts amongst the engineers out there?

Nope! They got it spot on. I've just done 700 miles over the weekend. It included 300 motorway miles with the rest done on Normandy's superb roads and that included some serious hooning.

Brilliant bike and it did 58 mpg cruising at a sat-nav 70 mph in the pissing rain all the way home from Portsmouth to Bedfordshire.

 

[Captain Beaky]

I did like the overdrive 6th on my 1150.
Also, my r1200r had nice long gearing, 70 was 3000 rpm, which felt about right.
If you wanted to really pick up the skirts, you had to knock her down to 4th ( or third if you were feeling really fruity) and open her up.

Problem was, with fully loaded panniers, if you did drop it to 3rd and go full throttle, the front wheel would be pawing the air at 70...

It depends what you want the bike for. If it's out and out performance, you want to rev out in top - top speed at top revs, with all the other gears spaced out in between.

But the gs is a dual purpose bike, supposed to go scratching and have longer legs for touring - so the performance gearing isn't perhaps the best option.

Very few cars reach vmax ( top speed ) in top gear. Especially the 6 speed manuals. 6th is nearly always the overdrive gear, with top speed in 5th.
My transporter is doing something like 2100 rpm at 70 in top gear (7th) redline at 5000 rpm, yup, that's definitely overdrive ( lets face it, it won't pull to 150mph intop!)
No one seems to bitterly complain about this - it seems to be accepted that the cruising gear is too long for good acceleration and top speed, but gives a relaxed and economical cruise, and drivers frequently drop from 6th to 4th to pull out on motorways.

It does seem like BMW have left the top gear a bit long on th 1200 gs.

Someone stated that bme know what they are doing - well, we are the customer...

 

[Nutty]

I've done a fair amount of motorway riding on the bike coming back from Italy this weekend, and once you get used to the bike on motorways, there's no need for any more gears. The pick up after 90mph in 6th is very impressive, and it will pull all the way off the clock (on the right roads, of course)

 

[roundincircles]

I've done a fair amount of motorway riding on the bike coming back from Italy this weekend, and once you get used to the bike on motorways, there's no need for any more gears. The pick up after 90mph in 6th is very impressive, and it will pull all the way off the clock (on the right roads, of course)

You're saying it has performance in top gear after 90 mph (and lower speeds I guess ) and that's fine. What some of us want is less revs when cruising for a relaxed time long distance. On the other hand a 'do it all bike' has to be a compromise!

I am off to Sarf of France in a few days so will get a chance to understand how the bike is when cruising and fully loaded sans wife and 36 pairs of shoes in the top box.