Do NOT test ride a GS

I tried my mates 1100 for a few miles and liked it and duly found one on internet, we met the delivery driver in Monmouth on a cold February morning 2006 having only seen photos of the bike and did the deal ( it was from a reputable dealer). I rode it round the car park and wondered if I was doing the right thing, so off we set for home "the long way round" about 100miles via Abergavenny, Brecon and LLandovery and got home with a very big grin on my face.


Try one for an hour you'll want to give it back, try one for a day you'll not want to give it back!


:beerjug:
 
I have a test ride booked for next week :augie and...... yes you've guessed it i have a mad bike at the moment.... a ZX10R :eek:.... I'm still going to go for the test and I hope I still leave with the GS!!!! :cool: :)

I went from a ZX10r to a GS 3 years ago, I always changed my bike every 12-18 months and the GS is the only bike I haven't wanted to swop. My main reason for changing was moving to Germany and needing a bike to tour Europe on, I can honestly say I haven't regretted it once, in fact I think of sportsbike riders as being the uneducated :augie, the GS does everything so well it's hard to fault.
 
Do testride!

I am 59, 6' 2" and had a Triumph Sprint with raised bars. I drove it 150 miles to Aberdeen, got off stiff and knackered and didn't want to get back on. Time to give up biking. So I put it up for sale. With no work one day I wondered in to the BMW dealers and road tested a GS 1200. I kept it out two and a half hours.
I bought one on ebay in London, flew down, drove it back 620 miles in 10 hours only stopping for fuel and coffee. I drove back round Loch Lomond through Glen Coe and arrived home at 9.45. I didn't want to stop. Glad I had the test drive.
 
Impulsive or What!!

Went to get my 05 GS Mot'd last Saturday (what's an MOT these days ~ £25) came away with a brand new 2009 GS!!! Picking it up Saturday. Just a cautionary note - beware the sales staff at Southport Superbikes, they know their onions.:bounce1
 
test ride.

Well i test rode a 1200gsa after reading all the scary stuff about dont test ride and believe me this information gave me a better understanding of what i was sitting on, i paid the money and took it away, i admit i strugled alittle in the first few days and even posted on here asking about the side ways wiggle feel when i thrash it, and yes the responces where " chill out " its not a Jap bike and it worked i ride the wave of torque now and i love it. The other day i test rode a KTM 990 just to tease myself. In the first few yards out of the shop i realised i hated the KTM the fuel injection system was just horrific and i struggled to travel at low speeds in slow moving traffic. kept the bike for 1 hour and had enough. fed up with slipping the clutch and the seat was like peice of wood. Dont get me wrong if was entering the Dakar Race then i would opt for KTM or more likley the carb version, but for me the GSA is the dogs Cohooners.....:eek:onyack
 
they have that habit of getting under your skin dont they:D:D:D

the austrians have the same effect but fry your brains as well:D


may your newbeastie give you many miles of smiles

I own also an austrian and indeed they boil your blood out!! :thumb2 Terrific offroad machinery!!

I must confess the story of my GSA acquisition it's worth to listen to: I took, a year ago or so , my old Yamaha TDM to the garage, I don't remember why, but there was a customer with a black GSA 1150. We started talking and I confessed how much I felt attracted to his bike! Well, the guy simply and quickly offered me the bike to test it . I accepted, fell in love with that damned german and since then I wished to own one! Until last June when I finnaly accomplished the wish: to own a grey 1150! GSA
 
I changed from a Blackbird in 2003.I had loved and cherished the bike for 5 years. Swapped to an R1150RT.
On my first proper ride out I thought, "Oh my God what the hell have I gone and done". Due of the huge expense I had to grin and bare it. After a few weeks I got used to the new bike,changed my riding style and learned to love the Beemer. Five years later I swapped for GS without a test ride. I couldnt believe how much better the GS was to the old RT. Throttle response was so much improved and the handling is beyong anything i have ever dreamed of.
I now find I am able to ride it faster and safer then i could the old B.B. but in complete comfort.
The group I go out with have almost given up wondering where the silly old sod on the GS has disappeared to. You know the one without any "Sissy" marks on the tyres which have done 6,000 and look more suitable to a Massey Furguson.
One mate with an R1 has had three sets of tyres in the same mileage.
So dont just talk about it get one,i wouldnt swap it for any other bike except another GS.
 
true grit

Hi all

I've had a few bikes down the years, vmax, exup, tennere (spl?) etc, quite a few 1000+ 4 cyl's. Just bought a GS1150 (2000W) and rode it the 200 miles home (essex to wales). Rained a fair bit, kitted up and dry though. Wow, how civilised does the GS feel! I felt really safe and in control, the riding position engenders confidence and the feedback from controls is excellent. The power is really usable. I just laughed when I put it into 6th (E, overdrive, on gear position readout) at just how low the revs and easy the engine was doing 70-80 mph, sooo many bikes don't have this, always looking for another gear.

I'm sure I'll go on getting to know the character of the bike more and more, and know I'm going to enjoy doing it. The lazy idle and smooth torque from 2K up in just about whatever gear you happen to find yourself in is truly gorgeous.

I've never had a non Japanese bike before, but already it's portraying characteristics of our 4 wheeled old family workhorse (a BMW 525 touring TDS that's done a good few miles and still keeps going, passing MOTs and letting me fix her as easy as you like). Which is one of the reasons I thought the GS would be a good path to take - looking good :thumb:thumb:thumb :bow:bow:bow
 
I have been riding for about 25 years now and used to own a couple old R80 and R100 heaps when couriering as a 20 year old in Glasgow in the 80's but had never got the bug then for the bikes as they were the means to earn a living and i had a race tuned RD250 as a road bike.

Move on 20 years and after a procession of sports bikes that got stupider and faster as the years went on i ended up on a ZX636 B1H which is a completely mad little revvy thing and basically a race bike with mirrors and lights :augie

I had been looking at GS's a couple of years back and made the fatal mistake of borrowing a mates one for half an hour aand just laughed my socks off at how easy it was to ride quickly through some twisty roads :thumb2

Cue a divorce, 4 years later and a girlfriend who loves going pillion on the mad little bike but refuses point blank to consider one of "those bloody ugly huge german monstrosities" :ronno but i talk her into a test ride 2 weeks ago......................DOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:blast

After 30 minutes she is raving about the comfort, how smooth it feels and how everything just happens with no effort etc etc etc. .............. my cunning plan worked :JB

We are now the owners of a GS1150 (apparently its not my bike its our bike.........yeah whatever ) and she is even getting used to the "bloody gopping" Yellow colour


So the OP is correct.................DONT test ride a GS
 
......................

Try one for an hour you'll want to give it back, try one for a day you'll not want to give it back!

:beerjug:

+1. Gotta agree with this. Did a test drive on a new GSA and hated it. Huge bike (and I have had 3 Pan Euros), torqe reaction on down shift, weird switchgear.

A few months later I orderd one as I needed more (than my brilliant new Tenere) carrying capacy for an RTW trip. I've now had it for 2 weeks and love it. So far only commuting and the lumpy gearbox has smoothed out and I now do not notice the weight or torqe reaction.

The switches however are a real pain. Far too much work for the throttle hand to do. On exiting roundabouts it is difficult to bring the thumb back to cancel the indicators whilst trying to smoothly accelerate away. Please tell me I will get used to it !!

What does eveyone else do - wait till it turns itself off or struggle with it ?
 
"The switches however are a real pain. Far too much work for the throttle hand to do. On exiting roundabouts it is difficult to bring the thumb back to cancel the indicators whilst trying to smoothly accelerate away. Please tell me I will get used to it !!

What does eveyone else do - wait till it turns itself off or struggle with it ?
Today 04:50 "


I just moved over from a Varadero to a GSA (did a testride and loved the german straight away)
The switches gave me the same feeling as you describe.
I mean that the right hand should only consern about the throttle and the brake (on a motorbike that be) :augie

However after more than 7000km i am starting to get used to the switches. But i have several times pressed the off switch instead of the right indicator....:blast
I mean this system can cause dangerous situations (if you are used to the common system), and i think BMW should give that fact a tought.

After all most bikers are used to the left hand multiswitch. Well that be so far..if the BMW sucsess proceeds....:ronno...who knows in the future..maybe the BMW sytem is the most common :eek
 
I have just spent the day on a borrowed brand new Honda Hornet 600 and even after a week of GS ownership have spent today pushing the horn to turn left and even pushed the sodding starter button once to turn right :comfort

And i do agree that on quick changes of direction on busy roundabouts while trying to crack on a bit its a apin in the arse to try to find the cancel button while winding on the throttle quickly
 
And i do agree that on quick changes of direction on busy roundabouts while trying to crack on a bit its a apin in the arse to try to find the cancel button while winding on the throttle quickly
Self cancelling indicators.:nenau
 
Self cancelling indicators.:nenau

Wondered when you would turn up ;)............. give me a break as i didnt know they self cancelled after riding it for 2-3 days. I am paranoid about leaving indicators on in case some twat pulls out in front of me so always look for the cancel switch .

<wanders off to look for time delay on self cancel>
 
From what i have read the newer R1200GS that Adam has and you rode is fitted with self cancelling jobs, but my 03 1150GS isnt................back to the right thumb ballet for me ;)
 
Yeah, I am aware of that as stated above, but 200m (or whatever it is) is far too long on a busy road if you know what I mean.

Wouldn't know. Having prehensile thumbs I can turn mine off just fine. ;)

(See I could understand the thumb problems if you were ex monkey Rob, but snowdrop? :nenau )

I know it's not long enough on a slip road approach tho. :blast
 
As my biking goes back to the days when indicators were something on cars which flipped up from the side pillar I think I have tried most systems and when I bought my GS I thought I would never get used to it - but after a couple of days it's brilliant and all bikes should do it that way.

OK so its more work for the right hand but it involves moving my thumb a couple of centimetres to either cancel or turn right. No big deal and now when I ride with Jap style switches I hate them
 
:blast:blast:blast ferchrists sakes get over the feckin switches and enjoy your bikes:blast

the more you think about them the worse you make it , just go with the flow and it will soon seem natural:thumb2

if not buy another bike :pullface:pullface
 
the more you think about them the worse you make it , just go with the flow and it will soon seem natural:thumb2

I take it you missed the post a few above that said i was aleady hitting horn and start buttons on Jap bikes after 2-3 days of GS ownership.......... so from that i would say its getting natural already and despite your suggestion i wont be buying a different bike but thanks for the recommendation anyway
 


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