Adventure Bike Rider Forum

Hello all
I am after advice on a potential bike change in within the next year or so and so, in the hope that it doesn’t become just another “what bike” thread, I will give some info on what I have, the probable change in situation and what I will then want to do with any new bike.

I currently have a BMW 1200GS LC, which is and has been a great do-almost-all bike. We tour two-up, go two up on local rides and I go for shorter day rides myself. I am considering doing some light trails with it. The main reason for choosing this bike – over, say a smaller capacity ADV - was the two-up element (I’m 6ft 2, wife 5 ft 9) and the bike is great for that. It’s probably overkill for just me (although I like the comfort and torque at low revs) but having said that, the weight of smaller capacity machines is creeping ever heavier.

Shortly we may not be going for long two-up tours and therefore I’m looking to see whether I could change for something versatile, but with different priorities to the current ones.

I am likely to be limited to shorter trips, I want to do more trail riding, but would like to maintain the ability of carrying a pillion in comfort for a longish day. I’m 32 years old, physically strong but limited off road experience to date. I would also love to do something like the EDC’s trip to Morocco. Ideally I would still only have one bike (a job to justify two so wishing to avoid!). I’m not a particularly fast rider – NSL cruising with reserve to overtake is enough – and I try to avoid motorways.

Hopefully, you’re still with me. The top priorities are therefore that I’m looking for mainly a solo machine but comfortable enough with pillion, which has a mix of on and off road capability (in relation to the tasks I will ask of it as mentioned above).

I have a few ideas – have read a great deal of long threads on this site and others - but won’t put them down as am looking forward to seeing some suggestions without influencing you. Budget would be age and how-long-I-would-keep-it dependent but I would expect my next bike to be cheaper than my GS! Mine is probably worth around the £8.5 - 9k and I wouldn’t want to put much towards it.

Hopefully this focus of what I want the bike for will not make the thread too general and boring for you!
Thanks

F800GS:

On the BMW ORS course I found it much easier to handle and far more capable than the 1200's off-road. As a tourer it is almost perfect bar the seat and gearing but these are easily sorted.

I did a 6, 000 mile two-up tour on mine and it was more than up to it, including an all-time day stretch on the autobahn at 100mph.
On the back roads it was incredibly nimble and flickable, despite two of us and all the camping gear.

They say the F800GS Adventure is even better but I haven't ridden one of those.

Food for thought?

ditto to previous post

Took mine on EDC last year with no problems. Comfy on motorway at speed and confidence inspiring on trails and greenlanes.

should be good deals to be had with F850GS being released this year.

just keep what you have the gs will do the lot .just change the tyres , a small light bike is great off road and will travel at 70 mph so what will be the gain ? you dont feck up your road bike , there is no one bike that will do it all .

What they said but if you can bring yourself to look at KTM then all the big ones will be better off road than the BMW.

I'm with Herman on this have a look at the big KTM adventure 990 may even be able to get a decent well sorted 1190 for your money.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

I had a pretty long list written out before posting. The BMW 800 GS was on it but the 1190R certainly wasn't, so that's interesting. The biggest stumbling block for me in looking to downsize was that by the time you fuelled them up and put crash protection on them, there didn't seem to be a huge advantage in weight reduction.

The 800GS comes in at 207kg wet but would need crash bars and a bashguard on top of that. A sizeable reduction of about 30kg over the 1200GS. The rest I looked at - Honda AT, Tiger 800xc(x), larger KTM's, 800GSA (although most increase would be the fuel and the crash protection) etc come in at around 230kg, so if weights are accurate, not much in it from what I have now.

I looked at the Yamaha xt660z as that seemed popular with the EDCers but I'm not sure I would pick that over the 800GS as they are the same weight. Any reason to do so?

Basically, I don't want to feel that any new bike would stop me from tagging along with 6-800cc bikes on sensible trail rides. I'm prepared to put in the practice and invest in the training (Sweetlamb sounds good) but want the right bike. Test rides, I know(!), but first hand experience from users off road is helpful as tests are likely to only be available on road.

As for the suggestions, as I say, the 800GS was on the list as was the KTM 1090R (as opposed to the 1190R) as I felt the hp may be more manageable and it's slightly lighter, and some might be available SH later on in the year within budget. Although clearly a very good off road bike (seemingly better than all the other litre ADV bikes), can it be limiting for trail riding/Morocco type stuff which I would love to include in future plans?

The upcoming T7 and KTM790 both sound interesting for my needs but I'm not sure of the weight or price they will come in at.

Completely open to suggestions and appreciate that the question of compromise is often discussed, so I appreciate your patience!

Thanks

This one...
https://adventurebikerider.com/forum/vi ... 27&t=45590

qcnr wrote: ↑Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:12 pm This one...
https://adventurebikerider.com/forum/vi ... 27&t=45590

The 690/701 is on the (very) long list and would climb significantly up it if pillion accomodation not needed. Basically we're looking to start a family and it may be just me riding for a whil, but I'm just trying to see how close I can get to that type of bike but maintaining some flexibility, from people's experience with theirs.

I doubt you'll go wrong with a 1090 R or an older 990...