Weight - it soon adds up!!

Jon P

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Bike - 2007 GS, wet weight is 225kg and gross weight is 435kg which gives me 210kg.

Fitted extras are vario panniers with top box, BMW engine bars, ABS, ASC, heated grips, TPM, Handgurads, Navigator III which all adds up to 40kg.

So now down to 170kg.

I weigh, honestly, far too much (Yes, I'm a fatty!) at 100kg, plus clothes, boots, helmet = at least 110kg + wife suited and booted at 80kg.

Which all adds up to 455kg (this is before we put anything in the panniers or tank bag!). So we are starting at 20kg over the gross weight.

I figure a conservative estimate when packed for a two week trip is that we are 50kg over.

In truth, I figure for the past 25 years of touring on GSs I will have been over weight but just never looked at the number before and have never had any issues.

Are we alone, or are other loaded GSs the same and what implications?
 
I too pondered this once. I am a light 18 stone:eek , a weeks worth of food, water and clothes plus the Redverz tent and I was absolutely well over. I had no issues with handling really, except the headlight pointing to the sky a few times on hard acceleration:augie I have stopped worrying about it now, the GS is pretty much indestructible :thumb
 
40kg seems an awful lot for a set of panniers, top box and those extra bits of on-bike equipment. It might be interesting to take the bike along to your nearest public weighbridge and see how it really tips the scales.
 
40kg - here's the maths.

Top box = 6.2kg
Right pannier = 7.2kg
Left pannier = 6.8kg
Top box mounting plate and hardware = 2kg (estimate)
Pannier mount rails = 4kg (estimate)
BMW engine bars = 6kg (estimate)
ABS = 2kg (estimate)
Other bits and pieces (tank bag, Navigator III, handguards, TPM) = 4kg

Total 38.2kg......almost 40
 
You need to buy her her own bike. :D

Well, yes.....in fact my bride has had a bike licence since 1978 and for her 40th I bought her a new F650.......but it was too big for her and she wanted a sewing machine. After a year I sold the bike and got her a sewing machine! She loves riding pillion.
 
Well, yes.....in fact my bride has had a bike licence since 1978 and for her 40th I bought her a new F650.......but it was too big for her and she wanted a sewing machine. After a year I sold the bike and got her a sewing machine! She loves riding pillion.

Might have been better spending the money on a lowering kit for the F650... :D
 
Might have been better spending the money on a lowering kit for the F650... :D

Fitted that - not the height so much, she felt it was just a bit too big. To be fair her previous bike was a Yamaha YR5.
 
Did a 5536 mile trip round Norway a while back
yep we were overloaded big time
the bike oddly enough handled superb
never let me down
never dropped it
its the perfect bike - don't worry about it :beerjug:
 
No your not - suspect most people overload!

Potential disaster, if you drop it - you'll never get the bugger up again.

Always overloading - here I am with my GSA in the US
 

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