bmwrover
Registered user
Back in 2002, while I still owned a Honda VFR 750 as the first owner since 1991, my English relatives and a friend and motorcycle journalist from the UK came over for a long weekend with two white vans full of two wheeled toys. One of the bikes had been the by then all new 1150 GSA.
What a difference to the VFR, surely a massive bike, yet the ease of riding and the relaxed seating position left a long lasting impression. In 2005, I sold the VFR after nearly 60.000 trouble-free miles, leaving my wife and myself only with two little Suzuki DR350`s for the local green lanes and the occasional trip to Northern Italy on the back of a trailer. The little bikes kept the desire for a “real bike” at bay for a good while, but the GSA never did really leave my mind.
In 2008, I started visiting the GS forums in Germany and the UKGSer in the UK. Also BMW`s own website received frequent visits, looking into the used bike section or trying out the bike configurator. With some hearty clicks to the additional options list, the 1200 GSA price became scarily high. In fact too high! I didn’t want to buy a bike that is partially owned by the bank. Furthermore the 1150 GSA had been love at first sight, and I wasn’t too sure about the 1200 GSA in comparison. A lot of people must think the same, because the used bike prices for a low mileage 1150 GSA seem to be quite high, where as the 1200 GSA prices seem to come down more quickly, but where both prices meet, it still on high level in terms of money.
My English relatives do own a motorcycle service and tuning shop in Peterborough; BSD Motorcycle Development and Mark advised me to look into the 1200 instead of the 1150 due to the overall weight reduction and better engine. He already had a few R1200 engines on the dyno. And suddenly the typical exchange rate for years being 3 Marks/1.50 Euro to the Pound changed in a way that a bike purchase in the UK became a feasible option.
The object of desire in the for sale section on the UKGSer:
“Flips” GSA 1200 in the Sales section of the UKGSer caught my eye and luckily he mentioned his mobile phone number in the thread, otherwise as a not yet subscriber I would have been unable to contact him. One evening his phone rang and a German bloke with an accent asked if his bike is still up for sale. He probably thought, bloody h…, now the scam artists already call over the phone instead of sending email with “I want to buy your bike via Western Union...”
But it’s good to have relatives who are well known in the trade and a second phone call to the seller and Flips return phone call to BSD proved that I am genuine and in the end I became the proud new owner of a bike that I have never seen in flesh. Matter of fact I never ridden a 1200 GSA before either.
The BSD company van and a good friend and BMW owner, Ron picked up the GSA before Christmas 2008 for me. A test ride had been impractical on that day as the roads were snowy, icy and salty. But what could go wrong on a well kept bike with a total mileage of 4700 miles? A lot if judged by the GSUKer forum rants, but at least not much that could be revealed on a short test ride anyway. It’s a strange feeling to part with such amount of money, while being totally uninvolved in the actual buying and fetching process. Friends are ace, but I’d rather be with them picking up the bike instead of sitting on the couch 900 miles away in Southern Germany.
In his typical banter, Mark called me up and said “This fat German bike takes up the space of three race bikes in the workshop; it will have to live outside until you will pick it up in April 2009!” Luckily that didn’t have to be the case, it can park nice and warm.
It even receives the full expertise treatment of a BSD dyno run session and the fitment of a Dynojet Power Commander together with a Zach exhaust and some other add ons mostly related to me being 6`2” tall and riding the bike straight home early in April 2009.
To convert the bike from UK spec to German spec. only the light unit has to be replaced. According to BMW, the fuel consumption shown in the computer display will stay at miles per gallon, as it can not be changed over into litre per km. I can live with that. In general BMW had been extremely supportive, as I needed the European Certificate of Conformity (CoC) for the bike to be registered in Germany and a short email with the VIN number of the bike sent off to the main email address of BMW gave a reply just about ½ hour later: “Dear Sir, we forwarded your request to the department in charge and you will hear from them shortly, in the meantime please be patient”. I didn’t have to be very patient, next day my CoC had been in the post, free of charge! Top service!
Because the bike is still so young (within the two year period until first MoT) the CoC together with the English V5 document and a purchase contract allows to road register the GSA in Germany, while the actual bike is still parked up in the UK. That is one amazing and great aspect of the EC.
Only the time when the V5 documents were on the postal way from the UK to Germany, I had a few moments of doubt. It took 11 long days for the letter to arrive. I suppose it’s a nightmare to regain V5 documents for a bike that had been officially listed as exported at the DVLA already. But I shouldn’t need to worry, finally the envelope with the documents arrived and I went straight to the German registration office.
Arrival at building at 11:15 am, dropped off the paperwork at the counter, they assigned my license plate number, I paid the fees, went across the street to make up the license plate, returned and they stuck the MoT and City tax seal stickers onto the new license plate and returned it together with the paperwork to me. I left the building at 11:32, a total of only 17 minutes to receive the German road registration of a former UK registered bike. I had to pay 42,70 Euro for the registration and 15 Euro for the actual plate, not bad at all.
Now the most painful period began, everything sorted bike wise but still January 2009 and seemingly light years away from April 2nd, being the day of flying out the UK to pick up the bike. To distract myself, I purchased various stickers from Humvee Graphics, a new SW Motech electrified tank bag with power supply for a satnav and a Hein Gericke Master V jacket through HG`s own UK eBay shop of returns and warranty claimed items. An autocom Avi Pro 300 at the current ½ price was also a chance not to be missed and Rich from Autocom had been ever so patient with my questions.
Since BSD is one, if not the leading Dynojet centre in the UK, there had been no doubt that a Dynojet Power Commander has to be fitted. It’s the latest spec freely programmable Power Commander III usb.
The GSA on the dyno:
It’s been again an international attempt, I did send a German made “Zach” aftermarket exhaust to Mark and the plan had be to fit it together with the BSD power commander set up. But right after my parcel arrived in the UK the phone rang:
“Ey, what an ugly looking exhaust did you sent over?”
I actually like it a lot, it’s all stainless steel, no rivets, apparently it delivers a great sound, yet being road legal and it’s very small.
“No it looks like a bloody German WWII torpedo, it weights a ton, it is boringly round shaped and with no modern design features”
Its proper Bavarian Engineering had been my weak reply.
“Yeah right, you Germans engineer with no visual taste, where as the Italians design it to be visually tasty with sometimes questionable engineering, but we are in Britain, it needs to be engineered well and look nice” was Marks moody reply. “It better be good on the dyno and sound good, otherwise it goes to the scrap metal dealer”
Well, that’s what relatives are for, to give good advice ;-)
The Zach exhaust fitted:
Time flew by and by now we are in April 2009:
My better half was not so keen on the long ride back to Germany from the UK, but she never hesitated to come along. She wanted to be part of the adventure, so April 2nd saw us boarding the Ryan Air plane while wearing heavy motorcycle clothing and helmets as carry on items. It did look a bit as if we were afraid of flying.
At that time my back was killing me and I really feared the almost 900 mile long ride home, especially since the weather had been exceptionally cold prior to our departure. Writing this part of the story after the trip home, I can only say, I shouldn’t have needed to worry. The bike is a huge beast, a right pig to manoeuvre out of a full garage, so tall that you need a ladder, but once moving, it is a pushbike.
On day I, during the short 125 mile trip to Harwich, the nerves started to rest, the ride was pleasant, the heated grips toasty and the riding position comfy. The grin under the helmet grew wider.
Waiting to get on the night ferry from Harwich to Hoek of Holland
Only one other bike had been on the night ferry to Hoek of Holland, an Ex Pat Brit living in Germany who also just flew into the UK to pick up a former Police Pan European bought through eBay. We met in the bar again and had a few beers on our new bikes together. A short night later saw us in wet and foggy Netherlands and we decided to ride together until Hanover. After a brief welcome rain shower in Osnabrück, Germany, the sun came out and the unrestricted Autobahn saw us cruising at a very easy and relaxing 110 mph mile munching trip towards the East. A quick farewell to the Pan European owner in Hanover and we were on the last leg of the day II trip to the family living in the north. The 350 miles went ever so easy. Day III was the final ride home to the Lake Constance in the southern tip of Germany. It’s been a straight down drive for 400 miles on a Sunday on the Autobahn A 7. First part is mostly restricted to 75 mph, but the hilly and bendy bit around Kassel is still unrestricted going south. The “no speed limit sign” approached and my wife hit me in the side, gesturing “Go for it” and I opened the throttle. Without any hesitation thanks to the Dynojet reprogramming, the GSA just pulls. Despite two riders up and both panniers filled, the speedo sets to 130 miles/hour on the flat bits, the curves were sailed through, due to the high riding position the view went into the distance over the cars in front and the occasional slam on the brakes went ever so easy without the typical dive of the front forks on conventional bikes. Awesome and I recon that the average speed that can be maintained would probably much higher that on a Japanese spoerts bike.
Once at home, I found a Union Jack sticker in the drawer and put that on the pannier so that the bike does not get homesick.
We can’t wait for the next trip with the most versatile bike I’ve ever owned. Hope you enjoyed the report, as much as I enjoy reading other reports here on the UKGSer forum.
What a difference to the VFR, surely a massive bike, yet the ease of riding and the relaxed seating position left a long lasting impression. In 2005, I sold the VFR after nearly 60.000 trouble-free miles, leaving my wife and myself only with two little Suzuki DR350`s for the local green lanes and the occasional trip to Northern Italy on the back of a trailer. The little bikes kept the desire for a “real bike” at bay for a good while, but the GSA never did really leave my mind.
In 2008, I started visiting the GS forums in Germany and the UKGSer in the UK. Also BMW`s own website received frequent visits, looking into the used bike section or trying out the bike configurator. With some hearty clicks to the additional options list, the 1200 GSA price became scarily high. In fact too high! I didn’t want to buy a bike that is partially owned by the bank. Furthermore the 1150 GSA had been love at first sight, and I wasn’t too sure about the 1200 GSA in comparison. A lot of people must think the same, because the used bike prices for a low mileage 1150 GSA seem to be quite high, where as the 1200 GSA prices seem to come down more quickly, but where both prices meet, it still on high level in terms of money.
My English relatives do own a motorcycle service and tuning shop in Peterborough; BSD Motorcycle Development and Mark advised me to look into the 1200 instead of the 1150 due to the overall weight reduction and better engine. He already had a few R1200 engines on the dyno. And suddenly the typical exchange rate for years being 3 Marks/1.50 Euro to the Pound changed in a way that a bike purchase in the UK became a feasible option.
The object of desire in the for sale section on the UKGSer:
“Flips” GSA 1200 in the Sales section of the UKGSer caught my eye and luckily he mentioned his mobile phone number in the thread, otherwise as a not yet subscriber I would have been unable to contact him. One evening his phone rang and a German bloke with an accent asked if his bike is still up for sale. He probably thought, bloody h…, now the scam artists already call over the phone instead of sending email with “I want to buy your bike via Western Union...”
But it’s good to have relatives who are well known in the trade and a second phone call to the seller and Flips return phone call to BSD proved that I am genuine and in the end I became the proud new owner of a bike that I have never seen in flesh. Matter of fact I never ridden a 1200 GSA before either.
The BSD company van and a good friend and BMW owner, Ron picked up the GSA before Christmas 2008 for me. A test ride had been impractical on that day as the roads were snowy, icy and salty. But what could go wrong on a well kept bike with a total mileage of 4700 miles? A lot if judged by the GSUKer forum rants, but at least not much that could be revealed on a short test ride anyway. It’s a strange feeling to part with such amount of money, while being totally uninvolved in the actual buying and fetching process. Friends are ace, but I’d rather be with them picking up the bike instead of sitting on the couch 900 miles away in Southern Germany.
In his typical banter, Mark called me up and said “This fat German bike takes up the space of three race bikes in the workshop; it will have to live outside until you will pick it up in April 2009!” Luckily that didn’t have to be the case, it can park nice and warm.
It even receives the full expertise treatment of a BSD dyno run session and the fitment of a Dynojet Power Commander together with a Zach exhaust and some other add ons mostly related to me being 6`2” tall and riding the bike straight home early in April 2009.
To convert the bike from UK spec to German spec. only the light unit has to be replaced. According to BMW, the fuel consumption shown in the computer display will stay at miles per gallon, as it can not be changed over into litre per km. I can live with that. In general BMW had been extremely supportive, as I needed the European Certificate of Conformity (CoC) for the bike to be registered in Germany and a short email with the VIN number of the bike sent off to the main email address of BMW gave a reply just about ½ hour later: “Dear Sir, we forwarded your request to the department in charge and you will hear from them shortly, in the meantime please be patient”. I didn’t have to be very patient, next day my CoC had been in the post, free of charge! Top service!
Because the bike is still so young (within the two year period until first MoT) the CoC together with the English V5 document and a purchase contract allows to road register the GSA in Germany, while the actual bike is still parked up in the UK. That is one amazing and great aspect of the EC.
Only the time when the V5 documents were on the postal way from the UK to Germany, I had a few moments of doubt. It took 11 long days for the letter to arrive. I suppose it’s a nightmare to regain V5 documents for a bike that had been officially listed as exported at the DVLA already. But I shouldn’t need to worry, finally the envelope with the documents arrived and I went straight to the German registration office.
Arrival at building at 11:15 am, dropped off the paperwork at the counter, they assigned my license plate number, I paid the fees, went across the street to make up the license plate, returned and they stuck the MoT and City tax seal stickers onto the new license plate and returned it together with the paperwork to me. I left the building at 11:32, a total of only 17 minutes to receive the German road registration of a former UK registered bike. I had to pay 42,70 Euro for the registration and 15 Euro for the actual plate, not bad at all.
Now the most painful period began, everything sorted bike wise but still January 2009 and seemingly light years away from April 2nd, being the day of flying out the UK to pick up the bike. To distract myself, I purchased various stickers from Humvee Graphics, a new SW Motech electrified tank bag with power supply for a satnav and a Hein Gericke Master V jacket through HG`s own UK eBay shop of returns and warranty claimed items. An autocom Avi Pro 300 at the current ½ price was also a chance not to be missed and Rich from Autocom had been ever so patient with my questions.
Since BSD is one, if not the leading Dynojet centre in the UK, there had been no doubt that a Dynojet Power Commander has to be fitted. It’s the latest spec freely programmable Power Commander III usb.
The GSA on the dyno:
It’s been again an international attempt, I did send a German made “Zach” aftermarket exhaust to Mark and the plan had be to fit it together with the BSD power commander set up. But right after my parcel arrived in the UK the phone rang:
“Ey, what an ugly looking exhaust did you sent over?”
I actually like it a lot, it’s all stainless steel, no rivets, apparently it delivers a great sound, yet being road legal and it’s very small.
“No it looks like a bloody German WWII torpedo, it weights a ton, it is boringly round shaped and with no modern design features”
Its proper Bavarian Engineering had been my weak reply.
“Yeah right, you Germans engineer with no visual taste, where as the Italians design it to be visually tasty with sometimes questionable engineering, but we are in Britain, it needs to be engineered well and look nice” was Marks moody reply. “It better be good on the dyno and sound good, otherwise it goes to the scrap metal dealer”
Well, that’s what relatives are for, to give good advice ;-)
The Zach exhaust fitted:
Time flew by and by now we are in April 2009:
My better half was not so keen on the long ride back to Germany from the UK, but she never hesitated to come along. She wanted to be part of the adventure, so April 2nd saw us boarding the Ryan Air plane while wearing heavy motorcycle clothing and helmets as carry on items. It did look a bit as if we were afraid of flying.
At that time my back was killing me and I really feared the almost 900 mile long ride home, especially since the weather had been exceptionally cold prior to our departure. Writing this part of the story after the trip home, I can only say, I shouldn’t have needed to worry. The bike is a huge beast, a right pig to manoeuvre out of a full garage, so tall that you need a ladder, but once moving, it is a pushbike.
On day I, during the short 125 mile trip to Harwich, the nerves started to rest, the ride was pleasant, the heated grips toasty and the riding position comfy. The grin under the helmet grew wider.
Waiting to get on the night ferry from Harwich to Hoek of Holland
Only one other bike had been on the night ferry to Hoek of Holland, an Ex Pat Brit living in Germany who also just flew into the UK to pick up a former Police Pan European bought through eBay. We met in the bar again and had a few beers on our new bikes together. A short night later saw us in wet and foggy Netherlands and we decided to ride together until Hanover. After a brief welcome rain shower in Osnabrück, Germany, the sun came out and the unrestricted Autobahn saw us cruising at a very easy and relaxing 110 mph mile munching trip towards the East. A quick farewell to the Pan European owner in Hanover and we were on the last leg of the day II trip to the family living in the north. The 350 miles went ever so easy. Day III was the final ride home to the Lake Constance in the southern tip of Germany. It’s been a straight down drive for 400 miles on a Sunday on the Autobahn A 7. First part is mostly restricted to 75 mph, but the hilly and bendy bit around Kassel is still unrestricted going south. The “no speed limit sign” approached and my wife hit me in the side, gesturing “Go for it” and I opened the throttle. Without any hesitation thanks to the Dynojet reprogramming, the GSA just pulls. Despite two riders up and both panniers filled, the speedo sets to 130 miles/hour on the flat bits, the curves were sailed through, due to the high riding position the view went into the distance over the cars in front and the occasional slam on the brakes went ever so easy without the typical dive of the front forks on conventional bikes. Awesome and I recon that the average speed that can be maintained would probably much higher that on a Japanese spoerts bike.
Once at home, I found a Union Jack sticker in the drawer and put that on the pannier so that the bike does not get homesick.
We can’t wait for the next trip with the most versatile bike I’ve ever owned. Hope you enjoyed the report, as much as I enjoy reading other reports here on the UKGSer forum.
