Words: Séan Hendley
Pics: Deon van der Linde
In my humble opinion this model, through all of its iterations over the years, has to be one of my favourite as well as the most underrated of all BMW’s mid-weight GS’s.
I much preferred the 750 GS to its ‘bigger’ sibling the 850 GS, and this has been true for most of the previous generations as well. The ‘Bigger’ and ‘Better’ quite frankly has been exceptionally underwhelming and fallen far short of all the hype around it…. In my humble opinion. To be fair, I haven’t had the opportunity to ride this generations ‘Bigger’, ‘Better’ siblings as yet, but I can tell you this, I am equally as enthralled with the new ‘Smaller’, ‘less capable’ F800GS as I was with all the previous mag wheel, street tyre shod versions, and here’s why:
It is fun, it makes you want to go out and ride, go explore…. even if it is in your backyard as we did on this test. It is an unassuming machine and as such does not demand far off destinations, or all colour coordinated top of the range adventure suits with matching boots and helmet and all the accoutrements that all goes along with that as some of its more prestigious siblings might. You can just pull on a pair of sturdy old jeans, some old military style boots and a halfway decent jacket – none of it having to match – and a good helmet and go find new places off the beaten track right on your doorstep, just like we used to do when we were kids back in them old days. This bike brings back the purity, the joy, the exhilaration of exploring on a motorcycle again – no airs and graces! Flippen heck…. I had fun today, I want this bike in my garage – LONG TERM!
Let’s not fool ourselves for one minute that starting at just slightly north of R225,000.00 it is not cheap, but if you don’t have the R270K odd for the F900GS or the R365K plus for the 1300GS, then this F800GS does offer a lot of motorcycle for the ticket price. Yes, it does not have spoked rims, but so what? Despite the fact that at the press presentation, this bike was only used on the road, the GS moniker made us take it everywhere and possibly further than where some might take their spoked rim machines, and you are welcome to go inspect this motorcycle at BMW Motorrad East Rand for any damages. Just because some may consider it the ‘baby’ or ‘road’ GS or dare I say the ‘ladies’ GS, so many macho South African egos would walk right past this beauty, which in my humble opinion would be a big mistake.
The Bike
I am not going to bore you with recapping all the spec’s which can be read here, what I will tell you is that it does come with a whole lot of useful equipment, real world useful. The TFT screen controlled by BMW’s Nav Wheel on the left cluster gives you access to fun bits like “Enduro Mode” with varying levels of traction control in the four available modes, and it is also GPS ready. The Quick Shifter works really well both up and down with a throaty autoblip sound, the indicators are self-cancelling.
Even though the suspension is fairly basic, it works really well in conjunction with the chassis and the whole geometry of the F800GS. Yes, you might not be able to go moto crossing, that is not what this machine is designed for, but for as much adventure riding and off-roading as the average man in the street is going to do or is capable of, it is better than ‘good enough’. Stick it on the tarmac, hang on the gas and bang hard through the gears tilting into corners and you will be surprised at how well it holds the line and what sort of lean angles you can achieve on it. Stand it up straight and point it down a straight highway and it will run into its speed limiter at 199 km/h, or at least that is what I experienced, but I will say this – it definitely felt like it had a lot more to give. So, cruising long distances you can easily lock in the cruise control at somewhere between 160 and 180 km/h all day long without putting any untoward strain on the engine.
Aahhh…. But what about comfort and that tiny little windshield at those speeds? Well, I am 2 metres tall, in my mid-fifties and not as fit as I would like to be, and also completely irresponsible when it comes to speed and I did about a 30 click stretch with the 800GS pinned against the stops in top gear, wearing my adventure lid and didn’t experience any undue strain or fatigue from the wind pressure. The rider triangle from foot rest to seat to handlebars is relaxed, although I would have liked slightly higher handlebars when standing and riding off road, but that is an easy enough fix. The sculpted, stepped single seat not only looks flippen gorgeous with its two-tone upholstery and red embroidered GS logo, but it is lekker wide and comfy and that step gives you nice lower back support for those long hours in the saddle. For the shorter rider, the seat tapers closer to the tank, making it easier to reach the deck, it is quite a low bike as it is.
The Ride
As I mentioned earlier, I was already quite excited about this test because I really, really enjoyed all of the predecessor models – sounds a bit strange for a person my size to be excited about riding such a ‘small’, (Phut! – when did 895cc’s become small?), but that is really how good this bike is.
Swinging a leg over and dropping onto the saddle it feels familiar, capable, lightweight and even nimble and agile as well as really solid. It kinda stirred up memories of my Dad’s old XL 250 when I was in my early teens and bunking school to go exploring the old Jukskei Trail with my mates for the day. That same sense of excitement and anticipation of the adventure into the unknown that lay ahead.
Late winters in Gauteng, sort of the last week of August are sunny, with temps in the mid 20’s Celsius, but it is dry, dusty and usually very beige and brown with a lot of burnt fields and veld. However, new life is starting to make an appearance with a bit of fresh green buds starting to appear here and there, it really is quite glorious.
We are forever looking way beyond our horizons for adventure, but time constraints, mileage constraints on the demo bike and etc had me thinking out of the box. I had never visited a new shopping centre close to our offices and (sadly in some respects), there are a bunch of brand-new tarmac roads laid out in the mealie fields where a new luxury estate is about to break ground. This meant no traffic – our own private race track and fresh, smooth, pothole free black top – YES PLEASE!
I have ridden/driven past a lot of dirt roads over the last 40 years or so heading out of town and always wondered where they go and what’s down there. Once again, I’ve always been in a rush on my way somewhere and modern life just keeps getting in the way. I decided that I needed to go satisfy that curiosity and explore a little bit.
Heading out, a turn off was missed which necessitated a bit of pavement hopping to get onto the Freeway – no challenge for the 800GS. She is light, nimble, easy to turn quickly and does a bit of urban adventuring. On the same note, a bit later in the day, I spied a foot trail disappearing up an embankment from a biggish intersection and curiosity got the better of me. Transitioning from tar to dirt and back to tar… back to dirt… back to tar… yada yada yada is where this machine really comes into its own, even with the street biassed tyres the slippery embankment was no real challenge. I kinda imagined I was 16 again and dodging ‘The Boere’ in their Yellow Submarines and ‘Vet Ses’ Cortina’s – Breaking all the rules like back in the day, putting a big nostalgic grin on my face.
But I digress, I was on my way to do a quick burn down the freeway to Pretoria and back before going to explore those new, empty tar roads. This bike is quick down the freeway and so easy to whip through slower traffic. Clear the traffic, lock in cruise control and enjoy the sunshine as the world flashes by.
Eventually, it was time to turn off and play boy racer on empty new roads. Man, this is a fun bike flipping left to right through corners and around and around traffic circles then shooting off down straight, flat tar to the next twisty section and back again and again and again. It rails through corners like those speed skaters at The Fun Factory Ice Rink laying almost flat through the turns with their hand on the ice.
I reckon this could be a fun machine to really mess with a couple of riders on a track day. Then it was time for lunch and a coke to wash down the winter dust, so off we rode to see what that new shopping centre had to offer in the way of Food & Beverage purveyors. A lekker Portuguese Restaurant grabbed our fancy and after a very lekker Chicken Prego and chips it was time to go see what all those gravel roads had to offer.
Long, sweeping and clad in varying degrees of dust, loose shale and gravel, some small rocks and sand from shallow to thick led me past rolling farmlands, veldt and over streams into kopje’s I had only ever viewed from distant tar roads. The mid weight GS performed admirably even with its street tyres, mag rims and entry level suspension, and I wasn’t hanging around, maintaining speeds easily around the 100kmh mark. Common sense did have me being a bit more sensible in the tighter corners, but along the sweeping bends there was no reason to slack off. Eventually, I spied some single spoor and twee spoor snaking up into the kopjes and couldn’t resist the temptation to follow them.
Again, the BMW did not disappoint. Yeah, because of the tyres I had to be a bit more cognisant of the terrain, so I slowed down a bit, but had I been riding with more purpose oriented off road adventure machines I would not have held them up. I suppose thick sand, sticky mud and big rocks might be more challenging, but that is not the sort of ‘Adventure Biking’ I am into. I want to ride a bike – not carry it, drag it and push it around to show how tough I am… I am quite happy with the size of my… ego… Thank you. I got to the top of the kopje, enjoyed the view, explored a forest and spent a day in the saddle on a good motorcycle in the sunshine – what more could I ask for? By this time, said sunshine was beginning to fade and it was time to head back home.
If your daily commute includes gravel and tar, if your weekend fun wants quiet bush and beautiful countryside then this is the bike for you. Especially if your budget does not allow for the colour coordinated riding suits, boots, gloves and the like.
This is a bike for the average Joe or Joan Soap who just wants to go and ride and enjoy being alive and riding a bike.
Go ride one at BMW Motorrad East Rand or your nearest BMW Motorrad Dealer.
