chiefengineer
Puppy
First off I'm a Brit writing about the new GS in the UK so perhaps not entirely applicable to SA.
I bought my wife the brand new 650GS for the launch day simply because she is small and getting a new bike to fit is nearly impossible. She has had a 1000 Raptor which was low enough but binned it two days later - I'll say more about that later. Anyway we read that the new 650 GS could come with a really low option - supposedly around 765mm seat height - for a small cost of course......... So we bought one off the specs alone and picked it up on March 8th. First impressions - larger than it appears in the magazines and even with the low option it wasn't 765mm, although not too far off the mark I guess. Wife could get both balls of her feet down which is better than most bikes. Actually all bikes apart from her CBR400 which is getting a bit long in tooth. Wife is 5'2" by the way. Anyway once she had managed to stop shaking with fear at riding a brand new bike away from the dealer on launch day in front of a few folks she seemed to be fine on it. I rode behind her and after the initial few shaky bits I started to realise that she was going around corners quicker than me and pulling away easily. Hmmmm. Okay I wasn't trying to gas it but I was a bit suprised. I'm riding a Multistrada 1000DS by the way. So we had about 120Km to get home (I'd do it in miles but I'm trying to enter the 21st century) and it was blowing a sodding gale all the way home and most of it a crosswind. I of course was shitting myself in case my wife was blown off her bike but whereas I was going up the road like a drunk driver she seemed to be fairly stable. And like I said, gettting around the corners and roundabouts with startling ease. Stopped for a cuppa half way home and she tells me that it handles really well and that now the initial fear has gone and her shoulders back to normal levels, not above her head, it's the best bike she has ridden. In my mind I'm taking it with a pinch of salt - I also have a ZX10R and have owned Ducati's and Aprilia's - so of course I'm an expert.......We get going again into typically shit British weather and make it home - me being Mr Drunk and my wife being smooth and cool about it. In the drive she has a grin as wide as the Cheshire Cat - she loves the bike and just purrs over it. Insists that I take it out for a ride just to prove how good it is, so I do. By Christ it's good. It handles so well and corners so nicely on the small bendy roads where I live, I'm pretty sure that I'd have a hard time keeping up on my 10 with nearly three times the power. The engine is smooth beyond what I could expect for a twin, particularly a parallel one - certainly it's less viby than any of the Ducatis I've had. It pulls well and even though it's only got around 70hp it's put to really good use. Corners in a very stable manner and turns really quickly - not an easy thing to achieve, especially on Norfolk bumpy and rutted roads. It feels light and the wind protection is pretty good given the small screen - that may have something to do with the fact that you sit "in' the bike rather than on it and the small front fairing is wide enough to obsqure the body from wind. As I said before it was a howling gale but even though a lot of the riding was in a cross wind it was pretty good at not getting blown around compared to me. Okay, I got home and had a good look at it - nice bike and certainly is well made. I much prefer the looks to the old 650 and is definately a better bike by a huge margin. It's more powerful, smoother, better made and still fairly light. Some nice touches such as the power point on the top of the fake tank are useful - although of course it is not the same size as a standard one in a car. We opted for the heated grips - probably not needed in SA but an absolute requirement in Northern Europe if you want to ride for more than three months a year. A couple of downsides. The power socket is smaller than standard so an adaptor would need to be used if you want to use non BMW gear. I bought my wife a heated jacket from BMW (cost a bloody fortune) because it was perishing when we got the bike and whilst it is excellent it is twice the price than other good makes - and I had to because the socket is BMW of course..........ABS is useful but expensive. Heated grips - expensive but needed. Luggage to fit would require a small mortgage from BMW. Should have handguards but they are an option at 120 quid. Ouch. And of course the absolutely shitty useless over engineered under useful difficult BMW indicator switches. Thank fuck they auto cancel. Overall a brilliant bike and better than it's cost and spec would have you believe. For mainly road riding it's better than the 800 GS apparently and I'd certainly believe it. If you are a shorty or have a wife who rides and needs a small bike then give it a go - you'll be well suprised at how good it is. >
I bought my wife the brand new 650GS for the launch day simply because she is small and getting a new bike to fit is nearly impossible. She has had a 1000 Raptor which was low enough but binned it two days later - I'll say more about that later. Anyway we read that the new 650 GS could come with a really low option - supposedly around 765mm seat height - for a small cost of course......... So we bought one off the specs alone and picked it up on March 8th. First impressions - larger than it appears in the magazines and even with the low option it wasn't 765mm, although not too far off the mark I guess. Wife could get both balls of her feet down which is better than most bikes. Actually all bikes apart from her CBR400 which is getting a bit long in tooth. Wife is 5'2" by the way. Anyway once she had managed to stop shaking with fear at riding a brand new bike away from the dealer on launch day in front of a few folks she seemed to be fine on it. I rode behind her and after the initial few shaky bits I started to realise that she was going around corners quicker than me and pulling away easily. Hmmmm. Okay I wasn't trying to gas it but I was a bit suprised. I'm riding a Multistrada 1000DS by the way. So we had about 120Km to get home (I'd do it in miles but I'm trying to enter the 21st century) and it was blowing a sodding gale all the way home and most of it a crosswind. I of course was shitting myself in case my wife was blown off her bike but whereas I was going up the road like a drunk driver she seemed to be fairly stable. And like I said, gettting around the corners and roundabouts with startling ease. Stopped for a cuppa half way home and she tells me that it handles really well and that now the initial fear has gone and her shoulders back to normal levels, not above her head, it's the best bike she has ridden. In my mind I'm taking it with a pinch of salt - I also have a ZX10R and have owned Ducati's and Aprilia's - so of course I'm an expert.......We get going again into typically shit British weather and make it home - me being Mr Drunk and my wife being smooth and cool about it. In the drive she has a grin as wide as the Cheshire Cat - she loves the bike and just purrs over it. Insists that I take it out for a ride just to prove how good it is, so I do. By Christ it's good. It handles so well and corners so nicely on the small bendy roads where I live, I'm pretty sure that I'd have a hard time keeping up on my 10 with nearly three times the power. The engine is smooth beyond what I could expect for a twin, particularly a parallel one - certainly it's less viby than any of the Ducatis I've had. It pulls well and even though it's only got around 70hp it's put to really good use. Corners in a very stable manner and turns really quickly - not an easy thing to achieve, especially on Norfolk bumpy and rutted roads. It feels light and the wind protection is pretty good given the small screen - that may have something to do with the fact that you sit "in' the bike rather than on it and the small front fairing is wide enough to obsqure the body from wind. As I said before it was a howling gale but even though a lot of the riding was in a cross wind it was pretty good at not getting blown around compared to me. Okay, I got home and had a good look at it - nice bike and certainly is well made. I much prefer the looks to the old 650 and is definately a better bike by a huge margin. It's more powerful, smoother, better made and still fairly light. Some nice touches such as the power point on the top of the fake tank are useful - although of course it is not the same size as a standard one in a car. We opted for the heated grips - probably not needed in SA but an absolute requirement in Northern Europe if you want to ride for more than three months a year. A couple of downsides. The power socket is smaller than standard so an adaptor would need to be used if you want to use non BMW gear. I bought my wife a heated jacket from BMW (cost a bloody fortune) because it was perishing when we got the bike and whilst it is excellent it is twice the price than other good makes - and I had to because the socket is BMW of course..........ABS is useful but expensive. Heated grips - expensive but needed. Luggage to fit would require a small mortgage from BMW. Should have handguards but they are an option at 120 quid. Ouch. And of course the absolutely shitty useless over engineered under useful difficult BMW indicator switches. Thank fuck they auto cancel. Overall a brilliant bike and better than it's cost and spec would have you believe. For mainly road riding it's better than the 800 GS apparently and I'd certainly believe it. If you are a shorty or have a wife who rides and needs a small bike then give it a go - you'll be well suprised at how good it is. >
