Hi All
I totally understand that inherently Forums are used to talk through lots of issues and how to fix them, with useful advice etc coming from all over this and other Forums.
However, sometimes I think it is good to have some threads which reminds us just how good x y z bike is, else people can inherently think “oh wow those bikes have tonnes of problems!”
So I’ll start and feel free to add yours;
Friday to Sunday booked for a nice long weekend to near Luxemburg and back.
Cue around 475kms from my house to the hotel by Friday night. In part rain. On Friday late at night I receive a text from the wife, daughter has to go to hospital. So it’s 475kms on Saturday back home for me (with an apologies to my biking group but luckily it’s 6 of us), in October cold ish weather.
Journey done returning back home on Saturday, I then have lots of driving around as you can imagine. So I end up doing 950kms on the bike in 2 days and then some driving around on Saturday night at the end of those 2 days…
My BMW 1200 GSA (2012) with 56k miles on the clock did an incredible job. In short, that kind of thing is exactly what our bikes are made for. I filled up right at the start of the return trip and didn’t fill up until I was on the UK side of the journey, which enabled me to hammer the miles on the French / Belgium side. The protection we get while sitting on our big GS/A bikes means the cold was easier to cope with and more importantly, I just wasn’t as tired as I should be.
That doesn’t mean I was ready for a football match on Saturday, but it does mean that after a quick shower to warm up I was ready to go, something that would have been doable but totally exhausting after any of my previous bikes.
I am sure people may also be considering proper tourers as well as our bikes when buying - what I would say is that the GSA enables me to do touring, while also being fun at the windy roads and able to do dirty trail roads (no way am I saying motocross trails by the way). Another big plus is “ease of entry”, we don’t have lots of panels covering everything, so we have easier entry. Being the 1200 GSA from the 2010-2012 period means my bike benefits from extra hp, torque, twin cam and a host of reliability improvements. It’s not “Japanese Bombproof”, but it’s not bad and when it needs work, it’s far far cheaper than the new host of GS/A out there.
For my long 110 miles in a day work commute mixed with one off long miles weekend trips, I struggle to find a bike better for the job. Although if I still did a track day here or there, then this is totally unsuitable let’s not kid ourselves. Still, for my kind of riding now this really is a difficult package to beat. I reckon it’s here to stay for a while yet.
Feedback welcome.
I totally understand that inherently Forums are used to talk through lots of issues and how to fix them, with useful advice etc coming from all over this and other Forums.
However, sometimes I think it is good to have some threads which reminds us just how good x y z bike is, else people can inherently think “oh wow those bikes have tonnes of problems!”
So I’ll start and feel free to add yours;
Friday to Sunday booked for a nice long weekend to near Luxemburg and back.
Cue around 475kms from my house to the hotel by Friday night. In part rain. On Friday late at night I receive a text from the wife, daughter has to go to hospital. So it’s 475kms on Saturday back home for me (with an apologies to my biking group but luckily it’s 6 of us), in October cold ish weather.
Journey done returning back home on Saturday, I then have lots of driving around as you can imagine. So I end up doing 950kms on the bike in 2 days and then some driving around on Saturday night at the end of those 2 days…
My BMW 1200 GSA (2012) with 56k miles on the clock did an incredible job. In short, that kind of thing is exactly what our bikes are made for. I filled up right at the start of the return trip and didn’t fill up until I was on the UK side of the journey, which enabled me to hammer the miles on the French / Belgium side. The protection we get while sitting on our big GS/A bikes means the cold was easier to cope with and more importantly, I just wasn’t as tired as I should be.
That doesn’t mean I was ready for a football match on Saturday, but it does mean that after a quick shower to warm up I was ready to go, something that would have been doable but totally exhausting after any of my previous bikes.
I am sure people may also be considering proper tourers as well as our bikes when buying - what I would say is that the GSA enables me to do touring, while also being fun at the windy roads and able to do dirty trail roads (no way am I saying motocross trails by the way). Another big plus is “ease of entry”, we don’t have lots of panels covering everything, so we have easier entry. Being the 1200 GSA from the 2010-2012 period means my bike benefits from extra hp, torque, twin cam and a host of reliability improvements. It’s not “Japanese Bombproof”, but it’s not bad and when it needs work, it’s far far cheaper than the new host of GS/A out there.
For my long 110 miles in a day work commute mixed with one off long miles weekend trips, I struggle to find a bike better for the job. Although if I still did a track day here or there, then this is totally unsuitable let’s not kid ourselves. Still, for my kind of riding now this really is a difficult package to beat. I reckon it’s here to stay for a while yet.
Feedback welcome.
) :
