Oli
Well-known member
Had the opportunity for an extended test ride (2 days) a brand new GS this week, prior to collecting my RR following the warranty repair work. So here goes my ~ 600 mile experience onboard a 2018 GS Rally.
A little background, prior to getting my motorcycle licence I started out my 2 wheeled adventure with Enduro and MX bikes. Whilst it?s been a long time since I?ve ridden an ?off-road? bike, I test rode an S1000XR a couple years ago and, whilst the riding position felt alien to me after exclusively riding sport bikes for the past half decade, all was well. As a result, I always imagined that a GS would be a supremely easy to ride couch of a bike. When I first set off from Cannon?s, that bubble was properly burst lol ...
So, with that in mind my initial impression having literally just sat on the bike was how insanely soft the suspension felt. It is like no bike I?ve ever been on, just bobbing up and down before pulling away brought a 70?s Cadillac to mind lol. People say the seat height is intimidating, but in all honesty I really didn?t have a problem with it as there?s so much ?drop? when you get onboard the seat height is somewhat irrelevant IMO. Ergonomically there?s loads of leg room and the bars are extremely wide offering massive amounts of leverage.
So, from the moment I pulled away heading up to the junction at the entrance to Cannon?s, that bubble I was talking about, was burst, because that ride home was the first time I?ve felt genuinely ?uncomfortable? in a not-in-control kind of way on a bike in I literally can?t tell you how long. There was a couple of reasons for this, firstly, I found the spongy suspension made it very challenging to get ?planted? when stationary, I felt very wobbly at slow speed and when stationary due to this IMO. Secondly, I found the pistons on a boxer engine took me by surprise, as not only can you feel the horizontal pulsing from the engine when turning the bike on, but when I normally stick my leg out and in front when coming to a stop, with a boxer engine this is not possible due to the pistons being in the way. This took a little while to get used to and I ended up cracking my shin on the pistons several times lol. Finally, the engine is on a different planet to the S1000, it?s a uniquely different character and so takes a considerable amount of time to get used to IMO.
So, bricking it from the moment I first pulled away I got to the junction and when finally there was a gap in the traffic, clunk, I stalled lol, can?t remember the last time that?s happened before either ...
Eventually I got out of Cannon?s with my MoJo well and truly lost and my first riding impressions being very poor indeed. Getting back to the suspension feel, it?s like nothing I?ve experienced before, in that coming from a superbike, or even a XR, which give the ?solid? feeling of security and road feel that I am now accustomed too, the GS instead wafts along on the big wheels incredibly smoothly, but with absolutely no road feel whatsoever, which felt totally alien to me.
Engine and gearbox:
I found the engine surprising as I was expecting it to be massively refined, but instead it feels quite the opposite, it strangely reminds me of the single cylinder KTM 690 LC4 engine, that pulsing clattering character coupled with massive torque and, to my surprise significant vibration. It seems, in my experience, that all twin cylinder engines vibrate in a characteristic high amplitude/low frequency way that is in my personal opinion far more noticeable than on an i4, which typically display a high frequency low amplitude buzz.
It took me a while to get used to the engine as at first I was riding it like an i4, keeping the revs high in search of top end power that wasn?t really there. Instead, I discovered that to get the best of the engine you surf the low and midrange torque, and when doing so you are not only rewarded with a smoother experience, but also a novel soundtrack. To anyone who subscribes to Royal Jordanian on YouTube and have seen the Africa GS tours that he goes on, it?s exactly the soundtrack from those videos, which I really enjoyed.
The gearbox is really good, shifting both up and down the box is consistently crisp and provides a very ?positive? lever action and engagement feel. I have only two criticisms of the gearbox, firstly when using the quickshifter from 1st to 2nd there is an almighty jolt in the drivetrain, not in a botched shift kind of way, it feels like the gap in gear ratios is huge (probably by design) resulting in a massive and immediate drop in engine speed. It?s not pleasant, so I found myself using the clutch for 1st to 2nd shifts and the shifter everywhere else. The second criticism is when using the auto-blipper from 2nd to 1st, on a couple of occasions it popped back into neutral after what felt like a positive engagement into 1st. This reminded me of the early days with the 15 RR prior to the firmware update. As the big boxer engine has so much engine breaking when it pops into neutral it is alarming to say the least as all of a sudden you loose engine breaking.
Now before I end up in GS fans bad books for life (that?s @JimmyMac @soofsayer and @MacRR to name a few lol), bare with me a little while longer, because whilst when I got home I honestly found the bike horrible ... after riding the bike more and more, something a little strange happened ... I started to get acquainted to the big girl ... and then something even more strange happened ... dare I say, I started enjoying myself!!!
As the miles increased, I became more and more comfortable with the bike. I started sitting back in the seat more with my posture bolt upright which made the riding position way more comfortable, I started riding in the sweet spot of the engines rev-range and everything started to click. With regards to the handling, the lack of feeling I explained at the start of this review, whilst it never went away, I found that as you press on and start riding based on ?experience? rather than on feel, the bike really came alive so to speak. As you carry more and more lean through the corners that spongy suspension felt like it would suck down to the ground, as if the bike was getting more planted the more you pushed it. It was a really satisfying feeling that encourages you to push the bike further and further. I throughly enjoyed the dynamics of the bike at speed, though it is on a different planet to a sport bike or any performance bike for that matter.
Electronics:
The TC in ?dynamic? mode was still very safe, when opening throttle at lean you can feel the power being fed back in stages as you stand the bike up.
The ABS was excellent and never felt it being overly intrusive at the rear and I never felt it intervene at the front.
I found the dynamic ESA-2 suspension kind of underwhelming though, in that with the auto-preload adjustment set to, well, ?auto?, after trialling booth the road and dynamic suspension settings I didn?t actually feel that much of a difference. The overwhelming characteristic was a very softly suspended ride regardless of the suspension mode. This is in stark contrast to the DDC on an RR, which varies considerably depending on the default mode and/or specific damping settings you use.
One feature I loved, was the keyless ride, it?s one of those features you immediately get used to and then revel in the practicality. It?s fantastic just being able to have the fob in your pocket and then operate the fuel filler cap and ignition without having to fumble around for the key. I really hope BMW include this in the next generation S1000 range.
The bike was absolutely brand new when I got it, prior to the run in service, so I spent pretty much the entire 600 miles on country lanes giving it a proper run-in (that?s a hard run in btw [emoji6]) out of respect to the future owner(s). Luckily the GS doesn?t have the electronic run-in limiter as on the S1000 range, so you really can run the engine in however you see fit.
Whilst I have only limited duel-carriageway experience with the GS, I have no doubt it would be a very accomplished mile muncher, despite the vibration (varies depending on what speed you?re cruising at).
So in summary, if this would?ve been a 30 min test ride I?d have said this was one of the worst bikes I?ve ever ridden. However, I?ve been lucky to have spent an extended period of time with the bike and I can honestly say it?s got to be one of the best all-round motorcycles in the world. It handles incredibly well at speed, only limited by ground clearance (scraped toe sliders several times) and at speed the steering is much slower than on a sport bike. But really those dynamic attributes aren?t criticisms as it is an Adventure bike, not a super bike.
A little background, prior to getting my motorcycle licence I started out my 2 wheeled adventure with Enduro and MX bikes. Whilst it?s been a long time since I?ve ridden an ?off-road? bike, I test rode an S1000XR a couple years ago and, whilst the riding position felt alien to me after exclusively riding sport bikes for the past half decade, all was well. As a result, I always imagined that a GS would be a supremely easy to ride couch of a bike. When I first set off from Cannon?s, that bubble was properly burst lol ...
So, with that in mind my initial impression having literally just sat on the bike was how insanely soft the suspension felt. It is like no bike I?ve ever been on, just bobbing up and down before pulling away brought a 70?s Cadillac to mind lol. People say the seat height is intimidating, but in all honesty I really didn?t have a problem with it as there?s so much ?drop? when you get onboard the seat height is somewhat irrelevant IMO. Ergonomically there?s loads of leg room and the bars are extremely wide offering massive amounts of leverage.
So, from the moment I pulled away heading up to the junction at the entrance to Cannon?s, that bubble I was talking about, was burst, because that ride home was the first time I?ve felt genuinely ?uncomfortable? in a not-in-control kind of way on a bike in I literally can?t tell you how long. There was a couple of reasons for this, firstly, I found the spongy suspension made it very challenging to get ?planted? when stationary, I felt very wobbly at slow speed and when stationary due to this IMO. Secondly, I found the pistons on a boxer engine took me by surprise, as not only can you feel the horizontal pulsing from the engine when turning the bike on, but when I normally stick my leg out and in front when coming to a stop, with a boxer engine this is not possible due to the pistons being in the way. This took a little while to get used to and I ended up cracking my shin on the pistons several times lol. Finally, the engine is on a different planet to the S1000, it?s a uniquely different character and so takes a considerable amount of time to get used to IMO.
So, bricking it from the moment I first pulled away I got to the junction and when finally there was a gap in the traffic, clunk, I stalled lol, can?t remember the last time that?s happened before either ...
Eventually I got out of Cannon?s with my MoJo well and truly lost and my first riding impressions being very poor indeed. Getting back to the suspension feel, it?s like nothing I?ve experienced before, in that coming from a superbike, or even a XR, which give the ?solid? feeling of security and road feel that I am now accustomed too, the GS instead wafts along on the big wheels incredibly smoothly, but with absolutely no road feel whatsoever, which felt totally alien to me.
Engine and gearbox:
I found the engine surprising as I was expecting it to be massively refined, but instead it feels quite the opposite, it strangely reminds me of the single cylinder KTM 690 LC4 engine, that pulsing clattering character coupled with massive torque and, to my surprise significant vibration. It seems, in my experience, that all twin cylinder engines vibrate in a characteristic high amplitude/low frequency way that is in my personal opinion far more noticeable than on an i4, which typically display a high frequency low amplitude buzz.
It took me a while to get used to the engine as at first I was riding it like an i4, keeping the revs high in search of top end power that wasn?t really there. Instead, I discovered that to get the best of the engine you surf the low and midrange torque, and when doing so you are not only rewarded with a smoother experience, but also a novel soundtrack. To anyone who subscribes to Royal Jordanian on YouTube and have seen the Africa GS tours that he goes on, it?s exactly the soundtrack from those videos, which I really enjoyed.
The gearbox is really good, shifting both up and down the box is consistently crisp and provides a very ?positive? lever action and engagement feel. I have only two criticisms of the gearbox, firstly when using the quickshifter from 1st to 2nd there is an almighty jolt in the drivetrain, not in a botched shift kind of way, it feels like the gap in gear ratios is huge (probably by design) resulting in a massive and immediate drop in engine speed. It?s not pleasant, so I found myself using the clutch for 1st to 2nd shifts and the shifter everywhere else. The second criticism is when using the auto-blipper from 2nd to 1st, on a couple of occasions it popped back into neutral after what felt like a positive engagement into 1st. This reminded me of the early days with the 15 RR prior to the firmware update. As the big boxer engine has so much engine breaking when it pops into neutral it is alarming to say the least as all of a sudden you loose engine breaking.
Now before I end up in GS fans bad books for life (that?s @JimmyMac @soofsayer and @MacRR to name a few lol), bare with me a little while longer, because whilst when I got home I honestly found the bike horrible ... after riding the bike more and more, something a little strange happened ... I started to get acquainted to the big girl ... and then something even more strange happened ... dare I say, I started enjoying myself!!!
As the miles increased, I became more and more comfortable with the bike. I started sitting back in the seat more with my posture bolt upright which made the riding position way more comfortable, I started riding in the sweet spot of the engines rev-range and everything started to click. With regards to the handling, the lack of feeling I explained at the start of this review, whilst it never went away, I found that as you press on and start riding based on ?experience? rather than on feel, the bike really came alive so to speak. As you carry more and more lean through the corners that spongy suspension felt like it would suck down to the ground, as if the bike was getting more planted the more you pushed it. It was a really satisfying feeling that encourages you to push the bike further and further. I throughly enjoyed the dynamics of the bike at speed, though it is on a different planet to a sport bike or any performance bike for that matter.
Electronics:
The TC in ?dynamic? mode was still very safe, when opening throttle at lean you can feel the power being fed back in stages as you stand the bike up.
The ABS was excellent and never felt it being overly intrusive at the rear and I never felt it intervene at the front.
I found the dynamic ESA-2 suspension kind of underwhelming though, in that with the auto-preload adjustment set to, well, ?auto?, after trialling booth the road and dynamic suspension settings I didn?t actually feel that much of a difference. The overwhelming characteristic was a very softly suspended ride regardless of the suspension mode. This is in stark contrast to the DDC on an RR, which varies considerably depending on the default mode and/or specific damping settings you use.
One feature I loved, was the keyless ride, it?s one of those features you immediately get used to and then revel in the practicality. It?s fantastic just being able to have the fob in your pocket and then operate the fuel filler cap and ignition without having to fumble around for the key. I really hope BMW include this in the next generation S1000 range.
The bike was absolutely brand new when I got it, prior to the run in service, so I spent pretty much the entire 600 miles on country lanes giving it a proper run-in (that?s a hard run in btw [emoji6]) out of respect to the future owner(s). Luckily the GS doesn?t have the electronic run-in limiter as on the S1000 range, so you really can run the engine in however you see fit.
Whilst I have only limited duel-carriageway experience with the GS, I have no doubt it would be a very accomplished mile muncher, despite the vibration (varies depending on what speed you?re cruising at).
So in summary, if this would?ve been a 30 min test ride I?d have said this was one of the worst bikes I?ve ever ridden. However, I?ve been lucky to have spent an extended period of time with the bike and I can honestly say it?s got to be one of the best all-round motorcycles in the world. It handles incredibly well at speed, only limited by ground clearance (scraped toe sliders several times) and at speed the steering is much slower than on a sport bike. But really those dynamic attributes aren?t criticisms as it is an Adventure bike, not a super bike.
)........ I aware everyone is different and I suppose nothing will feel as good as the rr..... I am going to test ride one and have a look.....am still leaning towards the super duke ....
. 
