GG
Race Dog
I have just returned from an unreal 1500km ride in Spain, from Barcelona (wow what a city) and through the incredible Pyrenees for 6 days and back to Barcelona. I had a recommended route and hire bike from IMTBike Tours. But the ride report is coming seperatelly!
My bike a 1200GS LC with 20 000kms on it. Panniers and top box and wife pillion. My current bike a 1190 R with 4000 km's on it of which about 1500 have been with full panniers and camping gear and same wife as pillion. This was through the Tankwa Karroo and more recently to Hoedspruit via Pilgrims Rowers pass etc. And before the R I have a 1200 GSA with 115000 km's a lot with same wife and panniers etc.
So I was excited about the LC I had heard so much about it. My first ride was thorugh 9 am traffic in Barcelona learning to ride on the right hand side of the road. I requested a GS because i was so familiar with it i could ignore getting used to the bike while I concentrated on right side up and right hand side riding.
My positives about the bike first, great engine, pulls to 190 km/h (on GPS) in the twisties with ease. I chased two superbikes through a pass and they could not pull away from me... The speedo is dead accurate compared to the 1190 which is up to 10 % inaccurate. In fact I would venture that the GSLC will sit a bikes length behind to 200, (real speed) thereafter the KTM just keeps accelerating. the power is smooth but it has a lot less torque than the KTM so you use gears more to get there. 1190 you can accelerate in the high gears much quicker. I rode it in street mode but very quickly moved to Dyna which just instantly changed the bike to a more responsive lively machine.
Thorugh the corners its incredibly nimble, and there were lots and lots and lots of razor sharp corners. Bike slips through, in fact I scraped my boots more than once on tight twisties and i have never done that which implies to me that the bike flcks around more fluidly than one realises!
Mirror's were great amazing you can see out of them. Seats great (probably to be expected). I found the R seat for driver as comfortable but my wife preffered the GS pillion seat. Screen really lekker, i'm 6.2 and I sat comfortably with the screen on low wearing a peaked helmet, its also a joy to adjust. The little side windprotection jobs also work well on any side buffeting.
What I hated in order of hate .... side stand.... you may as well lay the bike down on its side! its too low and when loaded lifting it to centre is flipping hard and i'm fairly strong. The KTM side stand is too high but i prefer this by far. Old GSA side stand perfect, wtf happened?
Then gears oh man its the clunkiest hardest gears i've ever used... i thought it might be this specific bike... but when i took it back the hire guys who only have Bmers said nope everyone complained. Mated to a terrible clutch I flinched everytime I had to changed from 1st to 3rd or visa versa!
Then the weight and size of the pots clinched the negatives for me.... it is heavy, and it feels heavy (even when unloaded and without a pillion) and once you have panniers and a pillion you really notice it at slow speeds. If at a robot you step forward as you pull away you kick the hell out of your shin...the pots seem to my shins to stick out much more than the old one!
Fan kicks in a lot and is quite loud, we were in 34 - 37c weather and you feel the hot air blowing on you if your'e at a robot when the fans kick in. i've never noticed the fan coming on, on the KTM though?KTM has an umcomfortable heat coming off the rear under your thigh so on this one they probably equal!
I took it down a short gravel road up a twisty pass to get a feel for offroad and turned after about 5km's because I felt uncomfortable.. so this I cannot really comment on but be that as it may, I rode the KTM through sand and rock for a couple of hundred km's in the karroo with Sue on the back carrying clothes, food tent etc and felt very comfortable. I'm no slouch on a big bike offroad so I'll stick my neck out and say its been designed for tarred pyrenees (European) roads and is no match on the old GS / GSA offroad. I'll leave the R out of this comparison. ;D
At high speeds if I deaccelerated hard i got a vibration from the shaft, not sure if its this specific bike but I got the same vibration on my GSA at 30000km's before the shaft went!!!
Overall I was not impressed by the GS LC primarily due to its weight and gearbox, if they fix the gearbox which guaranteed will be part of improvements (like the steering damper) it will be a nice tar tourer with a little gravel driveway and some potholes now and then, it is not a dual sport bike! Maybe they must name it the gS >
Would I buy one (note the emphasis)? Never it is not an improvement on the old GS as a dual sport bike. If I wanted to tour two up and I was not going anywhere offroad then maybe, but then why not get a tourer? I struggled to understand the concept and how BM will define the so called dual sport options vs on road tourers as the line between them shrinks....
My bike a 1200GS LC with 20 000kms on it. Panniers and top box and wife pillion. My current bike a 1190 R with 4000 km's on it of which about 1500 have been with full panniers and camping gear and same wife as pillion. This was through the Tankwa Karroo and more recently to Hoedspruit via Pilgrims Rowers pass etc. And before the R I have a 1200 GSA with 115000 km's a lot with same wife and panniers etc.
So I was excited about the LC I had heard so much about it. My first ride was thorugh 9 am traffic in Barcelona learning to ride on the right hand side of the road. I requested a GS because i was so familiar with it i could ignore getting used to the bike while I concentrated on right side up and right hand side riding.
My positives about the bike first, great engine, pulls to 190 km/h (on GPS) in the twisties with ease. I chased two superbikes through a pass and they could not pull away from me... The speedo is dead accurate compared to the 1190 which is up to 10 % inaccurate. In fact I would venture that the GSLC will sit a bikes length behind to 200, (real speed) thereafter the KTM just keeps accelerating. the power is smooth but it has a lot less torque than the KTM so you use gears more to get there. 1190 you can accelerate in the high gears much quicker. I rode it in street mode but very quickly moved to Dyna which just instantly changed the bike to a more responsive lively machine.
Thorugh the corners its incredibly nimble, and there were lots and lots and lots of razor sharp corners. Bike slips through, in fact I scraped my boots more than once on tight twisties and i have never done that which implies to me that the bike flcks around more fluidly than one realises!
Mirror's were great amazing you can see out of them. Seats great (probably to be expected). I found the R seat for driver as comfortable but my wife preffered the GS pillion seat. Screen really lekker, i'm 6.2 and I sat comfortably with the screen on low wearing a peaked helmet, its also a joy to adjust. The little side windprotection jobs also work well on any side buffeting.
What I hated in order of hate .... side stand.... you may as well lay the bike down on its side! its too low and when loaded lifting it to centre is flipping hard and i'm fairly strong. The KTM side stand is too high but i prefer this by far. Old GSA side stand perfect, wtf happened?
Then gears oh man its the clunkiest hardest gears i've ever used... i thought it might be this specific bike... but when i took it back the hire guys who only have Bmers said nope everyone complained. Mated to a terrible clutch I flinched everytime I had to changed from 1st to 3rd or visa versa!
Then the weight and size of the pots clinched the negatives for me.... it is heavy, and it feels heavy (even when unloaded and without a pillion) and once you have panniers and a pillion you really notice it at slow speeds. If at a robot you step forward as you pull away you kick the hell out of your shin...the pots seem to my shins to stick out much more than the old one!
Fan kicks in a lot and is quite loud, we were in 34 - 37c weather and you feel the hot air blowing on you if your'e at a robot when the fans kick in. i've never noticed the fan coming on, on the KTM though?KTM has an umcomfortable heat coming off the rear under your thigh so on this one they probably equal!
I took it down a short gravel road up a twisty pass to get a feel for offroad and turned after about 5km's because I felt uncomfortable.. so this I cannot really comment on but be that as it may, I rode the KTM through sand and rock for a couple of hundred km's in the karroo with Sue on the back carrying clothes, food tent etc and felt very comfortable. I'm no slouch on a big bike offroad so I'll stick my neck out and say its been designed for tarred pyrenees (European) roads and is no match on the old GS / GSA offroad. I'll leave the R out of this comparison. ;D
At high speeds if I deaccelerated hard i got a vibration from the shaft, not sure if its this specific bike but I got the same vibration on my GSA at 30000km's before the shaft went!!!
Overall I was not impressed by the GS LC primarily due to its weight and gearbox, if they fix the gearbox which guaranteed will be part of improvements (like the steering damper) it will be a nice tar tourer with a little gravel driveway and some potholes now and then, it is not a dual sport bike! Maybe they must name it the gS >
Would I buy one (note the emphasis)? Never it is not an improvement on the old GS as a dual sport bike. If I wanted to tour two up and I was not going anywhere offroad then maybe, but then why not get a tourer? I struggled to understand the concept and how BM will define the so called dual sport options vs on road tourers as the line between them shrinks....
