that's what i have called my old 07 GSA and then my 2011 Twin cam GSA. yesterday i took advantage of my bike being serviced at CWs to take a spin on the new GS LC to see how much better it was.
getting out of dorchester, i immediately noticed the lighter steering and how the bike responded to delicate input. nice.
power delivery at slower speeds seemed a bit less grunty than my bike and there was some harshness to it generally. strange kind of "looseness" to the engine. it was almost rattly.when idling the tappets sound like my airhead. TBH i was a bit "meh" about the bike.
leaving dorchester and letting the bike get into it's stride was a revelation though. holy shit! it fecking flies when you open it up a bit. it's like turning on afterburners compared to mine. very impressive indeed. sadly, it was pissing down by then, so any higher speed hooning was out, but there are some lovely back roads around there so headed down to abbotsbury on the kind of gravel strewn back roads i love to ride
i found the ESA a bit of a, er, shock. i've never previously been impressed with either bmw oem suspension, or the concept of electronic adjustment, but this latest version was really rather good. at least one up, it coped very well on difficult roads. a little underdamped for my taste, but certainly comfy without any undue wallowing. the adjustment worked fine and was very noticeably different on the various settings i tried. it remains untested how it would fare two up, fully loaded in a bumpy 80mph bend, but i guess is that it would be ok, but not as good as my wilbers.
what else?
seat was comfy. surely another bmw first. didn't tip the rider onto the tank as previously either. maybe i wouldn't have to buy another sargent?
lovely light clutch lever, and a contra rotating wet clutch that makes the bike pull to the left when blipping the throttle. to a bloke with 35 years of riding guzzis and bmws, that's just wrong
there is so much poke in the midrange, i came to the conclusion that traction control is a good idea. totally unnecessary on the TC if the rider has half a clue.
the bike had been given to me in ROAD mode, which apart from the low speed behaviour seemed pretty good. i tried it in RAIN since it was raining and that smoothed it out a bit but it was a bit dull. late in the day i switched to DYNA which was easily the best of the lot, even on wet roads. it seemed the map the bike was designed for.
some things i didn't like:
the main dip/switch position.
the "conventional" indicator switch. the old system was much better and the new switch is too high to work without shifting my hand.
dash was nice to look at but the speedo and tacho are too small, and the tacho is partly covered by the factory fitted sat nav mount, and just what is the rational of having the most prominent part of the dash devoted to a huge gear position indicator??
so is it the best bike i've ever ridden?
i thought i might be disappointed getting back on my old GSA, but i wasn't. the low speed tractorability was nice and the engine had a creamy quality largely lacking in the LC.
the power of the new bike was fabulous, but i don't need it to ride how i like, it's just an occasional buzz really.
it is a really good bike, but i can see how a couple of folks on here have test ridden them and then gone and ordered a twin cam. i still might spring for an LC when the adventure shows up, but for now i think i'll be very happy keeping the old bike
good god! i think i might be turning into a luddite. the shame of it
getting out of dorchester, i immediately noticed the lighter steering and how the bike responded to delicate input. nice.
power delivery at slower speeds seemed a bit less grunty than my bike and there was some harshness to it generally. strange kind of "looseness" to the engine. it was almost rattly.when idling the tappets sound like my airhead. TBH i was a bit "meh" about the bike.
leaving dorchester and letting the bike get into it's stride was a revelation though. holy shit! it fecking flies when you open it up a bit. it's like turning on afterburners compared to mine. very impressive indeed. sadly, it was pissing down by then, so any higher speed hooning was out, but there are some lovely back roads around there so headed down to abbotsbury on the kind of gravel strewn back roads i love to ride
i found the ESA a bit of a, er, shock. i've never previously been impressed with either bmw oem suspension, or the concept of electronic adjustment, but this latest version was really rather good. at least one up, it coped very well on difficult roads. a little underdamped for my taste, but certainly comfy without any undue wallowing. the adjustment worked fine and was very noticeably different on the various settings i tried. it remains untested how it would fare two up, fully loaded in a bumpy 80mph bend, but i guess is that it would be ok, but not as good as my wilbers.
what else?
seat was comfy. surely another bmw first. didn't tip the rider onto the tank as previously either. maybe i wouldn't have to buy another sargent?
lovely light clutch lever, and a contra rotating wet clutch that makes the bike pull to the left when blipping the throttle. to a bloke with 35 years of riding guzzis and bmws, that's just wrong
there is so much poke in the midrange, i came to the conclusion that traction control is a good idea. totally unnecessary on the TC if the rider has half a clue.
the bike had been given to me in ROAD mode, which apart from the low speed behaviour seemed pretty good. i tried it in RAIN since it was raining and that smoothed it out a bit but it was a bit dull. late in the day i switched to DYNA which was easily the best of the lot, even on wet roads. it seemed the map the bike was designed for.
some things i didn't like:
the main dip/switch position.
the "conventional" indicator switch. the old system was much better and the new switch is too high to work without shifting my hand.
dash was nice to look at but the speedo and tacho are too small, and the tacho is partly covered by the factory fitted sat nav mount, and just what is the rational of having the most prominent part of the dash devoted to a huge gear position indicator??
so is it the best bike i've ever ridden?
i thought i might be disappointed getting back on my old GSA, but i wasn't. the low speed tractorability was nice and the engine had a creamy quality largely lacking in the LC.
the power of the new bike was fabulous, but i don't need it to ride how i like, it's just an occasional buzz really.
it is a really good bike, but i can see how a couple of folks on here have test ridden them and then gone and ordered a twin cam. i still might spring for an LC when the adventure shows up, but for now i think i'll be very happy keeping the old bike
good god! i think i might be turning into a luddite. the shame of it
as fuck.
