BMW R 1300 GS – in-depth 8,000-mile review

0:00 | hello welcome to bike social uh we’ve come inside today Steve we tried to video outside it would bit too cold last

0:06 | time yes we are that way

0:13 | [Music]

0:28 | [Music]

0:40 | Steve and I have I wouldn’t say shared You’ done the majority of the riding but this is our long-term loan bike from BMW

0:47 | it’s the r300 GS it was brand new for 2024 replacing or it’s the latest in the

0:54 | long line of incredibly successful GS Adventure bikes isn’t this Steve you to take up the tail how many miles have we

1:00 | done on in total we we’ve had it 10 months we had it we’ve got it in February and we’ve done best part of 8,000 miles is that right yeah just

1:07 | under 8,000 Miles the first few of which you and Mr Simon har did and we did an

1:13 | enormous very in-depth detailed comparison test early in the year with

1:19 | this and 1250 just to try and measure it see the differences see see what was really new um get some thoughts on it

1:25 | and this it’s a it’s a very interesting video it’s a very long video detail um

1:31 | but really worth watching I’ll put the link in in the I’ll put the link to the video in the description and also in

1:36 | that corner thing that people do on YouTube yeah and I think what you really highlighted for me watching that video

1:41 | and just and just seeing how how Under the Skin you got of this bike was what a

1:47 | different bike this is you know it’s it’s called a GS it’s got an r in the front of it it’s easy to think this is

1:53 | some kind of an update but actually this isn’t just an upgrade this is pretty much an entirely new bike in the same

1:59 | way as the original 1 1200 was in 2004 um in the same way as the 1100 G was in

2:05 | 1994 periodically they they pretty much rebuilt it from the ground up and this was that you know the whole the engine’s

2:11 | new the chassis new suspension new electronics most new there’s not a lot left from the existing one and there’s a

2:17 | lot of although it looks very similar you know the engine is the same it’s still a flat twin um it’s still water C

2:22 | it’s still got tever suspension all that stuff that GSS have had it’s pretty much all different now You’ established in

2:29 | that test in knew that that as well as being a lot more powerful it was just it

2:34 | felt very different the genetics are there aren’t they that GS lineage but it was

2:41 | a I was going to say Evolution but it’s more of a revolution as well as an evolution of of of what people have paid

2:47 | good money for in the past and it’s you know 1200s 1250s have always been really high up there in the sales chart but it

2:53 | was astonishing really to see to to ride them back to back um and to really feel the differences and we’ll probably Rec

3:00 | it a bit later about about whether this is a true GS yeah but there’s a there’s a lot of

3:06 | so we’ we’ve achieved quite a lot over the last 10 months and in terms of the testing Haven we you’ve you spent many a

3:12 | mile on the motorway and and this is the the difference between having a bike on a on a twoe road test like we do and

3:19 | compared to a riding launch which is generally much much shorter than that the purpose of having a long-term test

3:25 | bike is that you you just learn those things that you don’t learn in the two we Road what’s it like on on those

3:31 | horrible days where you get stuck on a Motorway and you’re 150 mi from home and and you just need to get home what’s it

3:38 | like with billions which we harder to do on a road test what’s it like on those kind of really big trips what’s the kind

3:44 | of real world kind of running cost of it you know stuff like servicing costs fuel consumption um it’s not the kind of

3:50 | thing that might you might not buy a bike based on whether it does 53 or 51 m per gallon but you might well enjoy

3:57 | having a bike that you can stretch to 60 m to gallon and 250 Mi to attack so it’s those things that you learn um and

4:04 | there’s some gas stuff you learn how robust the handguards are we’ll come on to

4:09 | that because you end up if you do 8,000 miles in a bike you end up with a lot in a lot more situations and circumstances

4:16 | and events that you don’t do on twoe road test for those of you who don’t know Steve lives not around the corner

4:23 | from the office but 130 mil just 147 miles if I come the short way the long

4:28 | ways I’ve got two or three longer way so when I’m testing obviously I can just come on the motorway and it’s 147 miles

4:34 | I’ve got two or three other alternative routes that I do use when I’m testing that are anything up to about 200 miles

4:40 | most of which is Motorway isn’t it uh yeah a lot of is Motorway so in terms of a thorough test certainly with motor spe

4:47 | certainly in terms of comfort economy um ability to filter you you kind of ticked

4:54 | all the boxes haven’t you yeah and in all weathers that that’s the thing because you know we all think of of the joys of motorcycle in summer when you

5:00 | set off at half 5 in the morning and it’s cold you dress for that and then when you’re going home at 5:00 in the

5:06 | afternoon and it’s 29 degrees you want to get through the traffic as quickly as possible but but we’ve also done the other things we couldn’t do so so the

5:12 | things we do with this is a long-term test bike we had that original test that you and Simon do I’ve I’ve done miles

5:18 | and miles and miles of computing um Andy shoubridge who’s our Partnerships manager uh B show did the long trip if

5:25 | you like he went to Scotland with a couple of mates in September and I think did 1300 miles in 4 days which doesn’t

5:32 | sound like a massive epic trip but 1300 miles around Scotty back roads anyone

5:37 | who’s done Scottish back roads know it can take some time and there’s a lot of traffic up there just for context as

5:43 | well and he doesn’t live near Scotland he lives near Lieutenant airport and then John Milbank and his wife Helen

5:48 | went and did the a long Pon trip on it I done some short Pon trips which were interesting but we had done a kind of a

5:55 | long trip I see it’s a bit of a bnw family isn’t it cuz shuy Andy Shu has got s000 XR hasn’t he yeah uh and um

6:03 | John’s got the r1250 GSA yeah and used to have an XR and 7 um and I’ve had I’ve

6:09 | got a long history with gs’s I’ve had two 1100s two 1150s of 1200 and nearly

6:16 | bought probably half a dozen others over the years I I hold my hand I am I am a

6:22 | big fan of the GS which is why this has been so interesting for me uh you know I I just I’ve always understood and

6:28 | appreciate that thing that they’re more than some of their parts and you don’t judge them by the spec sheet you don’t

6:33 | look at it and say oh this thing only makes 100 horsepower that will makes 130

6:38 | horsepower therefore that one must be better there’s a thing about GS is there there’s something about the DNA we

6:44 | talked about it before something about how how they they work together as a whole that just captures the imagination

6:51 | of a lot of people and I’m one of them do you remember see when you first got on this and what you thought as a as a

6:56 | GS ficado yeah I I spent very clearly I spent the first 3 or 400 miles really

7:02 | not liking it really really just not getting it it didn’t feel like a GS was the thing we just talked about for me

7:08 | there’s something about gs’s and and this forgive me because this sounds pathetic but there’s something about gs’s that that feels like a puppy or a

7:16 | rescue dog or something they they have this kind of they they have this way of engaging with you and enthus and getting

7:22 | you enthused about biking but it’s completely disproportionate to the power figures the spec sheet anything that you

7:28 | look at and if they they just have this way of making things easy for you it’s kind of whatever situation you get

7:34 | yourself in they somehow get you out of it it feels like it feels like being one of those in one of those Disney films

7:40 | with a kid and his dog and the dog somehow gets him out of trouble you should they should be called scam kind

7:46 | that and and gs’s have always been like that and and this didn’t feel like that this feels much more serious much more

7:52 | grown up much faster much more powerful the engine still got that lovely shift cam thing where it where it just goes

7:58 | through the whole ring just gets just builds power harder and harder and harder but it feels more like I whisper

8:05 | this cuz BMW all like it it feels more like a KTM in some ways it’s got that

8:10 | kind of aggression and that and that kind of sportiness to it the GS has never had and so those first few hundred

8:17 | miles it took me a while and I I I hadn’t read a GS for a while had a flat twin while you always have to reac

8:24 | climatize to the gearbox there’s a scale of gearboxes in in the world of motorcycling and 1990s Suzuki gearboxes

8:31 | are at that end and H day there at that end flat twins gs’s have always been about there um so if you haven’t ridden

8:38 | one for a while it takes a while just to remember how to change gear properly on the GS and and that sounds silly but it

8:45 | does yeah and then I after about 3 or 400 miles I just start to click with it I just start to get it I realized that

8:52 | this isn’t just an ugs this is a sport here it’s a different version of a

8:57 | motorcycle it’s it’s almost it’s almost like a flat twin XR I agree with you on

9:03 | that I think that that even if you are an experienced GS Rider or if you’ve never ridden one before it’s still going to take you a while to get used to this

9:10 | yeah and and you know we are now becoming over the last 10 years more

9:16 | probably uh you’re very familiar with ride or race like like quick shifter and I don’t want to just repeat what you’ve

9:21 | just said but when you step off a one bike with a quick shift and you get onto this you got to bear in mind that it’s

9:27 | the 1300 cc TN two cylinder have big cylinders and shaft drive and then it’s

9:33 | it’s been it’s been equipped with this um call it a quick shift do assist Pro or something and it’s Mega for what it is

9:41 | and I we always talk about Harley are great because it’s a Harley but this is

9:47 | it’s a really really good gear sh and I remember talking with Simon in in that video that we did he was waxing lyrical

9:53 | about the gearbox and I said well it’s fine for what it is I don’t know what my point is here but it’s it’s still a great system it’s still a great Eng

9:59 | great gearbox and the engineering that’s gone into it as an iteration as a development from the previous gen it is

10:06 | a bit like an XR isn’t it it’s it’s less of an adventure bike and more of a

10:11 | sports tour perhaps and I I get the impression with this this and the GSA

10:16 | have been designed with very different purposes in mind I think if you want the GS adventure bike and I haven’t ridden the GSA you’ve ridden the GSA I get the

10:23 | impression that if you want the adventure version the GSA is very much the adventure version and this is very much the Road sports tour sort of

10:31 | version and and I have to say that again going just going back to the gearbox thing for the last six of those eight

10:37 | months I’ve been riding it I don’t think about it at all I just ride it I love it it took that time to reima it took that

10:43 | time to get familiar with what BMW were built here having done that I absolutely love it and and in all circumstances

10:50 | that’s the interesting thing for me it’s it doesn’t matter whether I’m just just slogging up and down the motorways

10:56 | whether I’m on a Sunday afternoon huray whether I’m laid back from somewhere and

11:01 | and in one of those rides you know we all do them where where you just think I’m not GNA make it I’m not going to

11:07 | make it I’m not going to make it oh I made

11:14 | [Music]

11:24 | it so this is the tramontana spep te yeah it’s a it’s a 23,000 bike isn’t it

11:31 | for what you see here yeah by the time you add up the paint and all the options and the stuff is on it and there’s a lot of this option 719 kit on it isn’t it

11:38 | which is is the kind of the reservoir covers and the levers they look lovely and if you’re one of those people who

11:45 | who can afford that kind of stuff and like it it’s nice to have the option I guess on the flip side the range itself

11:51 | starts from 16 so it’s a big difference with with with the 1300 the base model

11:56 | 1300 Gs versus what we have here and this is about topspec isn’t it there were a few more bits and pieces one can

12:03 | add on we did we didn’t have the acro provic um silences did we and there there’s other bits and pieces but as a

12:09 | machine with all of the electronics and the gadgetry um and one of the highlights are there with this bike it’s got that uh automated um what’s it

12:17 | called the seat height yeah the seat height just which interestingly when when John did his Pion trip uh with

12:23 | Helen and and the plion rides that I’ve had with Julie it’s a really interes device I know it’s been all other bikes

12:29 | I think Harley have had it for a while and this is the first time I’ve experienced it and it really does had confidence because on this with ignition

12:37 | off the bike sits very low when you turn ignition on it raises 10 cm sorry 10 mm

12:43 | I think and then another another 25 millimeters when the bike gets to about

12:48 | 50 mil an hour but that that initial moment when you’re trying to get a Pion on board um with ignition off it’s

12:55 | really low it’s easy for the Pion to get on easier and it’s Ally easier easy for

13:00 | the rider because you’ve got both feet flat on the floor um it’s just you can be really stable as your passenger gets

13:06 | on and it makes a massive difference and you don’t notice in in use you don’t notice the bite rising up and down and

13:12 | the only time you notice it is is on a Motorway some long Motorway slog when you’re when you’re stretching your legs

13:19 | which you do often on this bike and you put your feet down a foot Peg you suddenly realize it’s a long way down

13:25 | and that’s that’s the point where you realize how high up you are yeah even I mean we 6ot tool but even for me I’m it

13:32 | just adds that little that extra bit of confidence when you are coming to a standstill you’re maneuvering slowly or

13:39 | you’re just getting on the bike getting on the off the bike um or even maneuvering around you’re shuffling it around is just adds that extra bit of

13:45 | for confidence doesn’t it and it seems really good we talk talking about L room and comfort what are the key differences

13:51 | between this and the 1250 is that is that that seat adjustment because the

13:57 | whole bike moves up and down your knee position and your the relationship of your you know your kind of your legs to

14:03 | your feet is Remains the Same so on the old bike on the on the previous bikes if you were slightly longer leg you can

14:10 | list the seat into one of its higher positions and you can create a bit more leg room bit more a bit of a less sharp

14:16 | angle for your knee on this you can’t so and it’s is quite a sporty riding position I think you both commented on

14:22 | it in that original test that you know it doesn’t look much when you do that kind of triangle that ergonomic triangle

14:28 | but you are slightly further forward your your knees are slightly more cramped and after about 120 130 mil in

14:35 | the motorway uh particularly in you know in kind of textiles where you’ve got maybe some layers on as well it does

14:41 | starts feel a bit cramp you do get a bit of leg egg that you don’t get in the same way on the on the old 1200s and

14:46 | 1250s yeah because despite being a little bit further forward the the bars are still the same width aren’t they so you still kind of got that the the width

14:53 | here and yeah and so it’s a it just works slightly different muscles in different ways doesn’t it those miles

14:59 | and it’s better that riding position is is a lot better and a gives you a lot

15:05 | more control when you’re on a when you’re on a typical twisty Road you a nice flowing a road particularly a tight

15:10 | B Road just having that little bit of extra aggression and that just the

15:16 | little you wait a little bit further forward makes you feel much more in control than on the old bike the old

15:21 | bike was kind of more of that wasn’t it and this is just a little bit more like that and that’s the trade-off you know it feels much better on the kind of RADS

15:28 | we all dream of riding um but those kind of long W JS in particular where you’ve

15:33 | done you know you maybe you’ve maybe done two hours without stopping two and a half hours without stopping which you

15:40 | can do when you’re riding a 1250 because it’s got the grunt and it’s got the the the the the bottom end into

15:47 | the mid-range off the twin and it’s got the cam it feels Dynamic enough when you talk about um Road handling and

15:53 | um and sort of performance elements of of a bike like this but then you get on to this and just those light little

16:00 | nuances those that difference between the power where it comes in and that that riding position doesn’t it make it

16:06 | much more engaging bike to ride and particularly in in Dynamic Pro mode it feels very sharp and very responsive I

16:13 | spent the first couple of months I was on it in Dynamic Pro oldfashioned Macho hero in me felt like anything else is is

16:20 | is aditt defeat and which is pathetic I know but I did it and and I wrote that and when I then put it in the other

16:25 | modes briefly I didn’t feel quite as excited by them and then kind of realized what an idiot I was and then

16:31 | spent a lot of time riding around in Road mode just to kind of get used to it and I now find out I have it in Road

16:38 | most of the time do you have it in Road mode though because of those Motorway but because of the commuting that you do

16:43 | yeah just m takes that aggression at the throttle PS yeah a little bit um because again and this is probably very

16:50 | dependent on how I ride in the kind of roads I tend to rideal I do an awful lot of fileld Tri um you know the nature of

16:56 | the road I’m on I do a huge amount of fil through and some of that filtering when you’re in a bike this big with handle bars that

17:02 | wide and you filter into a lot of you know 4x4s and vans with the mirrors are

17:07 | exactly where you don’t want them sorry scuffs on there well I we we’ll come to that in a minute to have a slightly

17:13 | softer throttle response and slightly s those those moments when you’re just where you you’re just trying to thread

17:19 | your way through traffic where you you really have only got a an inch or so either side um it just makes a bit of a

17:25 | difference I think having it just slightly softer powder what you talk about that cuz I’m assuming you’re going

17:30 | to want to talk about adaptive cruise control at the same time does that differ with the mode that you’re in so

17:36 | if you’re in Dynamic Pro or Road mode does the adaptive cruise control react how it reacts to I don’t think so now it

17:43 | it seems like very separate system um it it’s really good I’ve used I’d used it

17:49 | before on an r1250rt the current version of that I’ve been really impressed with it and it’s

17:54 | equally impressive on this it’s the the kind of the doubt C bit is great you

17:59 | know if you if you’re in those kind of long stretches of of average speed cameras and and and you’ve got the kind

18:05 | of attention span of of a BL like me you it helps to just set it at 50 if the

18:11 | speed limit is 50 and just let it do its thing and it and it’s great it slows down really gently it accelerates quite

18:17 | briskly um it’s it’s just it just does exactly what you would hope it would on this bike it’s also got rear radar

18:24 | sensors um so you’ve also got now you’ve got little warnings in the mirror you got a little orange triangl in Mirror

18:31 | the lights up when something’s coming in your blind spot equally if something’s undertaking you it does the same thing

18:36 | um it’s really good the mirrors aren’t bad on the SP you know but in that kind of those split seconds when you’re when

18:42 | you’re riding in an opportunity presents itself for a very quick overtake or change of lay and you you don’t always

18:49 | have time for life so and I’m aware when I’m saying that that’s something you should never said but it’s just it’s

18:55 | handy to just be at a look in mirror and not see an orange triangle and think I’m okay the danger is that you get used to

19:01 | it and you stop looking and you just think if there’s no orange triangle I don’t need to do and and I and I haven’t

19:07 | got to that point yet but I worry that I would if I rode if this is my bike and I rode it for a long time the the thing

19:13 | that comes with that there’s also something called there’s a collision warning system now which is linked I to

19:20 | the rear radar and and the front radar it doesn’t slow the bite down but if if you make them if you make a maneuver and

19:28 | the radar sensors and vehicle in its path it I think it pulses the ABS system

19:34 | so so what as a rider you feel it it feels like it’s slowing down you suddenly lose power if you’re if you if

19:39 | you’re arm in fluffle it’s it doesn’t accelerate like you expect it to and nine times out of 10 it doesn’t do it

19:45 | anyway half of the one time that it does do it it’s it just kind of it looks very

19:51 | panicky it flashes up an enormous red space invader logo type car on the dashboard and and kind of lets you know

19:58 | that it’s grumpy but every now and then it does just it does just have an impact it does just slow you down and it tends

20:05 | to be if you slide gently and smoothly into you know between lanes doesn’t do it it knows what you’re doing it’s

20:11 | absolutely fine if you just happen to turn so you’re slightly more your angle slightly more towards the car you feels

20:19 | it goes nuts and color and it just it feels like it’s stopped the by right at the moment when you’re trying to make a

20:25 | maneuver and do a really delicate subtle piece of of motorcycling and and it throws you every

20:31 | time and it’s happened a few times if you consider the amount of times the amount of miles I spend filtering the

20:36 | amount of times it happen is very small but every time it happens it throws you and on one occasion um it really did

20:43 | throw me and and I kind of the bite wobbled and my kind of foot came off the foot page because I felt like I had to

20:48 | make a dab of some description and and I ended up kind of leaning and knock it

20:54 | into the mirror of ironically an enormous BMW Adventure car type thing um

21:00 | I not the mirror off this car and felt really bad about it because I was in a situation where I couldn’t stop and apologize if I wanted to so I kind of

21:06 | demolish this person’s mirror Without You demolish that water a minute without

21:12 | being able to do anything about it um and you know and and just and no control and that really that kind spooked me for

21:19 | a bit the only good bit about it was it was this that took the impact

21:24 | and it’s scathed free it felt like a real CL and you know and and felt like

21:31 | far more serious than it probably was I know Cal is a designed to bend and come off and I didn’t get a chance to see

21:37 | whether it just whether what the damage was so if you’re watching this his name

21:42 | is Steve Ro okay yeah so that’s I wouldn’t say it’s

21:47 | a negative or or an issue or a criticism but it’s something that that that one should be aware of I I I’ve got to be

21:53 | honest I I I love the cruise control and I love the wngs and the mirrors and everything else if I could turn the

21:59 | Collision system off independently which I thought you could I would do it but having thought I turned it off um it

22:05 | still come on aons everyone everyone anyone who’s ridden a GS recently have

22:10 | always going to talk about the lack of illuminated switch gear so we probably best up breezing over that because we know it’s an issue and so is everybody

22:17 | else yeah yeah the switch gear the and it’s not unique to BMW there are plenty of bikes with very complicated switch

22:22 | gear clusters now that still don’t have backet switch gear I think the simple answer to question is no there have been

22:28 | some issues with the bike it’s it’s a brand new bike as we said there’s a lot of new stuff on it there have been some issues with it over the year but I think

22:34 | BMW have fixed pretty much all of those as quickly and professionally as you would expect them to do key ones there

22:40 | were lots of kind of warning lights flashing up on dashes and lots of code and lots of of sensors that that needed

22:45 | fixing software updates they theyve all been fixed I think pretty quickly um pretty effectively the luggage was a bit

22:51 | of a problem the luggage was launched at the same time as a bike there were some issues with that that’s taken longer that we now have top box I think there

22:58 | are now Piers available for some customers but not everyone’s got them this is easy for me to say cuz it’s not my bike I didn’t pay for it they felt

23:05 | like teething troubles and they felt about the kind of teating troubles that that you do get on a new bike but there

23:10 | clearly were were quite a lot of things that that came to light after the bike went into production I think most of

23:15 | those have been sorted now now it’s been sorted I don’t think people are having problems and and and the systems work

23:21 | really well once they’re sorted the most interesting thing for me was the only problem I’ve had with this one was an a

23:26 | sense that went with the suspension that year a and for a while that was disappointing because it took a while to fix but I have to say the new Esa system

23:34 | that’s on this is so good that I genuinely and again with the caveat that

23:39 | it’s not my bike I didn’t pay for it genuinely forgive it pretty much anything all those promises we had about kind of sembly active suspension for all

23:46 | all the years all those things that we really hoped it would do it really does so well on the road it it’s it just

23:53 | you’re completely unaware of it all the time you’re riding it and that’s the biggest comprehend you can pay the road holding on the bike is amazing the way

23:59 | it responds to bumps and and deals with things is just is incredible and there’s one particular ride I had on it when it

24:06 | was it had been it was one of those weird storms where the storm is is really heavy uh but it wasn’t moving so

24:12 | so it just been raining intensely over this period of kind of Eastern England for about an hour and a half and I by

24:17 | the time I got on the M11 and the M25 there was sort of two inches of standing water you were watching things just kind

24:23 | of AC plating in front of you it was like being one of those sci-fi films where exploding cars are going over head in slow motion the whole thing was just

24:30 | chaos and horrific and the spray com off the Trin and me and the GS were just

24:36 | kind of gliding through it in this Serene otherworldly way feeling completely unstressed absolutely calm

24:44 | you know nothing wrong at all just just we’re going to be home soon and it was it was the most for me it’s the most

24:50 | interesting illustration of how good Esa is you know and I guess all the other systems as well that are that are

24:56 | looking after you yeah Esa par with t the new systems it is such a classy bike

25:04 | to ride it’s it’s um it’s so comfortable the bit the bit of time I spent with this bike I was riding it almost daily

25:11 | and in in in in many different situations weather but also the different types of roads and you’ll see

25:16 | in that video as well what the types of stuff that that Simon did we made sure that we were testing it in all conditions and then I got to keep the

25:22 | bike for for a while afterwards but the way in which it what’s the irons the road isn’t it really it just makes

25:29 | everything so smooth it’s but it’s it’s notable I said it’s notable noticeable

25:34 | how good it is how how how calm everything seems and then when you add in the electronics such as the adaptive

25:41 | cruise control and then the modes and then heated things if it’s on a cold day you just think this is just was

25:48 | incredible bike yeah and the wind protection is is is noticebly better than their previous Jes I I guess a lot

25:54 | of it is down to this isn’t these little deflectors here yeah it’s these turn aside and and if you look at the 1250 by

26:00 | comparison I know we shouldn’t just compare the 1250 with the 1300 because there are so many other Rivals out there

26:06 | but if if you had the 1250 here and you were looking at it from this way on it’s it’s it’s a very streamlined version but

26:12 | it’s so effective at what it does and you tou earlier I wrote the GSA recently and again the 1250 GSA the 1300 GSA and

26:21 | it’s such a difference and do you know what actually the the difference between the 1250 and the 300 GSA

26:28 | is is is not night dat but there’s a big difference between it but there’s also a big difference between the GSA the 1300

26:35 | GSA and this the GS there’s a big difference between those two bikes as well yeah but that’s for a different video the only other thing I wanted to

26:42 | mention really is the how sometimes it’s a little bit fiddly with the switch gear when you because you’ve kind of got a

26:48 | favorite button haven’t you there you can change it it’s not too bad when you get used to it it’s okay but if you

26:53 | wanted to let’s say you wanted to move the windscreen and also then change the

26:59 | heated settings of the settings on your your handlebars it just it takes you focus off the road and I think that

27:04 | that’s that would be a concern yeah I think with a lot of this stuff and it’s the same with I think it’s the same with

27:10 | all modern VI isn’t it you’ve got so many menus now to weigh through and the old system you know certainly when I on

27:16 | the 1250 GSA while this was being fixed um you know just having heated grips on

27:21 | the on the switch is there again was just was just so much easy um and it’s

27:28 | must be difficult because you know you’ve got all these functions they want to build it and actually you know that magic button thing is it’s it is it’s

27:34 | great when you get used to it but you’re right it just take your attention away from the road want to mention two of things uh firstly the first time I think

27:42 | I wrode in the rain somehow I don’t know how I think when I came to a stop and then I started again some hours later

27:48 | the mirrors were filthy how on Earth has rain come you when you you I know how

27:54 | gravity with FX and and and and mutant and alls but how didn’t understand how how the mirrors could be filthy since we

28:02 | got into winter whenever I’ve cleaned it um in Winter you notice the front end of the bike takes a lot less cleaning than

28:08 | the back end of the bike front end looks really quite quite good to say you just didn’t in the recent case i’ just done

28:15 | 300 miles in in kind of wet miserable you know wet leaves and all the kind of stuff that’s on the ground at the moment

28:21 | FR end looked pretty good the back end looked absolutely hanging it it just you know it took for three or four four

28:28 | times as long to clean the back end of the bike as it did to clean the front end of the bike I don’t understand why there’s clearly something about the airf

28:34 | flow or something that goes around the bike or whatever B yeah really interesting he does those beautiful gold

28:40 | wheels yeah um and the other thing I wanted to touch on as well same with the GSA as it is on the GS I wasn’t

28:48 | massively uh enamored with the distance of the the headlight so when riding at

28:53 | night is how how much of the road ahead it it lights up with Mass so if you wanted to see what’s going on

28:59 | over there or you know rabbit’s jumping out or deer over there or what’s in by the side of you fine cuz you wi this

29:06 | fine but it it didn’t seem to offer much distance it was fine for 20 30 ft in

29:11 | front but I want to look 100t i’ I’ve noticed the same thing di beam is okay um but main beam isn’t isn’t

29:19 | sufficiently different and even this morning you know it’s it’s half five this morning so it’s pitch black on the

29:25 | roads first few miles of my my journey and and I had just that I was kind of

29:30 | thinking you I need more than this and for some reason I was convinced we had spotlights on this bike and it doesn’t have spotlights on um so I spent about

29:39 | 30 seconds in the dark obviously because the switch give is lit just randomly pressing around hoping to find something

29:45 | that might have been a spotlight switch only when I go I remember that we don’t have spotlights on but yeah it’s I again

29:51 | you think for a for a bike that’s disc capable as a Touring bike for a bike that you would hope to be a real allrounder for a bike you could hope you

29:57 | could be doing mountain passes on in the middle of the night um headlight is slightly disappointing and I know you

30:02 | know there probably isn’t a GS out there that hasn’t got auxiliary lights fitted the other thing I wanted to mention and

30:08 | and you’ll have um much more an opinion I’m sure or or or some telling data more

30:13 | likely um is the its range because as a if you want to call it a sports tour if

30:19 | you want to call it a Torah an event to bik the uh warning light the pet the fu

30:26 | gas warning light it comes on about 150 miles just a little bit north you’re talking about you and Simon well who are

30:34 | and and and again in the same way as there’s a scale of gearbox quality there’s a scale of of economy and I

30:41 | partly because I do a lot of mway mils partly because I have a very different approach to riding I’m much more of a utility Rider these days than I am a a

30:48 | kind of a ledger Rider I I take great pleasure in trying to trying to get the

30:53 | highest average speed I can over a journey and also the highest mpg it’s the I’m not a natural geek but this is

31:00 | one area where I where I get very geeky and and so you know I think a lot about that whole idea about making progress

31:06 | that whole idea about maintaining speed so my fuel consumption figures are John Milbank for example I know he’s at the

31:13 | kind of you and Simon end of the scale so so typically I’m getting mid-50s high 50s MPG from this

31:20 | on on a Motorway Journey which is about 230 M well from the tank for and so just

31:27 | under 200 mil before the light comes on that’s not you know that’s not me riding really economically if I if I really

31:34 | wanted to I reckon I could get 250 miles quite easily which which interesting it’s still only about what BMW claimed

31:40 | for it I think I think BMW claimed was it mid-50s yeah something like that and

31:45 | you were getting about 40 late 40s yeah yeah we certainly got to I’m certain

31:51 | that when we tested it we we rmed the tank and we we weren’t tooo excitable with our we certainly wasn’t Motorway

31:58 | Jour this all the way but we got it all the way down I think it’s 150 Mi the light came on the reserve got light came on uh and it indicated I think You’ got

32:04 | sort of 40 50 more miles and it just crept over to 202 I think it was before

32:10 | it it died I’m sure that if I’d have you encouraged it a little bit more might

32:15 | got two three more miles a that’s not the point but good well in that case and kind of scrub my um my issue with its

32:22 | range and and and ride more like you well I think if you you know if you in t mode if you were if you were going

32:28 | somewhere and and you were doing you know 300 mile days I think you could you

32:34 | could easily do a Tang full of petrol fill it up you know 50 mi from your hotel and know be ready for the next

32:40 | morning you’d have to be riding it in a very particular way day after day after day to be you know to be disappointed

32:46 | with how what the fuel range was on a long tour long hway from where I’m stood I’m just switching subject now from

32:52 | where I’m stood that top box which was not available when I was Ring the it’s very narrow can you get much in it you get four yes it’s it’s a it’s part of

33:01 | the varo system luggage so actually so it goes up and down I see um I can’t remember the I think looks like it’s on

33:07 | the high setting yeah it’s on the high setting now I’ve got quite a big laptop and I can’t get my laptop in in my Rook

33:13 | sack inside that and you know i’ like to have a laptop in swimm swim VI rotating

33:19 | vibration because you know you’ve seen the state of my lunch B come come to have that in the top box I’ve had a a

33:26 | full face shy helmet in a helmet bag in there there wasn’t a lot of room for

33:31 | anything else right right so it’s it’s sort it’s okay un likee all these if you pack carefully you can get quite a lot

33:38 | of stuff in it just not very long things um is there anything else that you want to talk about while we’re on

33:44 | the final thing for me with this and this is again this is a thing with long-term testing is you get to the end of that and you go would I buy one it’s

33:50 | harder with a twoe road test because you’re doing very specific things on a twoe road test where you’re trying to with you know said before you’re trying

33:57 | to compare to this bike or that bike or you’re trying to put it in the market put its position in the market long-term

34:02 | test I think you get a much clearer picture of would you buy one and two occasions during the summer I’ve been on

34:08 | aut Trader looking at price of of Nearly New X demonstrator gs’s that’s kind of

34:14 | that’s the position I got to it so I think I think the answer is yes I would the the reason I would buy one is

34:20 | because I genuinely think you could buy it to do everything I think you could you know we’re a one car family and I

34:25 | could quite happily have this instead of a second car and I would ride it every day to working back I would ride it

34:30 | weekends I would go shopping on it if I could I would take it for you know for fun take it abroad if you’re going to do

34:36 | that with it and use it then I think actually the price you pay for them for one bike that will do all that so well

34:42 | is is actually not too bad but the ones I was looking at were X dealer demonstrators couple of thousand miles

34:47 | in sort of te spec or or standard spec but with a few of the you know a few of

34:53 | the desirable options on the and they were about 60 16 and a half 17 grand and

35:00 | and for me I would spend 17 grand on that specker bike knowing I’m going to

35:05 | do 25,000 miles on it a year and and knowing that you know at the end of

35:11 | three years it’s not going to be worth a lot but youd have a hell of a time I’ve owned a few GS as I said at the

35:16 | beginning I think this will probably be my next one at some point what do you

35:22 | ride the GSA will that kind of affect your decision do you think knowing what you know about it at the moment I’m

35:27 | curious divid it because of what you said about that show um I’ve never I’ve never bought GSA or any of the GSS I’ve

35:33 | had because the the extra bulk the extra height the extra just the extra weight

35:40 | always puts me off them I I’d rather have a smaller tank at less weight yeah and I was going to touch on the fact that with the tank size being probably

35:47 | re more relevant to you uh and and the type of riding that you do but I just warned all car drivers out there that

35:53 | the engine bars are pretty wide on that GS yeah tank ranges it’s sort of important because I like to be a go home

35:59 | without filling up at least but actually the reality is is it’s you nip as what I understand but when you get when you get

36:05 | to my AG bladder range is it actually what determines how regular you stop not tank range I would like to answer my own

36:11 | question as well and just say that it’s not that I’ve never been a fan of a GS but a GS has never I’ve never I’ve never

36:19 | grasped or fully understood the be yearning for uh its popularity and why

36:25 | the the rly sold this has changed that for me because it’s such a different

36:30 | bike to what I’ve experienced on 1150 12 1250 um in in in my me riding history

36:37 | this 1300 is a very very different bike and it’s right up my street I think because of the tech and because of its

36:46 | dynamism um from the engine character from the road holding just how

36:53 | beautifully smooth that uh suspension is it’s spacious and and you said it it’s

36:59 | it’s kind of your one bite fits all doesn’t it it it it does everything that I would want so if I wanted to go to

37:06 | Scotland I could if I wanted to go to Capital Park I could and yeah uh I’m all over I think it’s

37:14 | wonderful and then I read I read the GSA which is which is awesome but uh anyway

37:22 | I think we said all that we need to say and we’re running out of tape aren’t we I think probably there’s nothing else that we need to add here before before

37:27 | if switches off we should mention Bennetts thank Bennetts because they they allow us to do this and they have

37:32 | all kinds of things that allow everybody else to get more from motorcycling to whether that be by social membership whether it be all the stuff that they do

37:39 | to try and be as as good competitive and and Brilliant at insurance as as they can be and they pay our wages exactly

37:47 | that which means we don’t have to do adverts we don’t have to be you know take Filly at links we don’t have to do

37:52 | any of that kind of stuff we should just be independent I’d like by Seal membership by the way is 100 50

37:58 | different types of offers and discounts and rewards and brilli good things that you really need in your life as a

38:04 | motorcyclist and if you ensure your bik directly with Bennett’s access to bike social membership is free uh if you

38:12 | don’t ensure your bike directly with bennit or if you’re not with Bennis at all then in fact if you don’t even own a bik You’ still be a member and and reap

38:19 | the rewards at6 a month or £60 a year um bike club is our new community online

38:25 | place to search bike social bike club um uh the Facebook group is bike social on

38:30 | Facebook uh so come and join us all there we’re we’re on there daily all of us all of us from bik social but uh for

38:36 | those of you who have stuck with us until now thank you very much for joining us and let us know if You’ got any questions or comments or thoughts

38:43 | about uh this or any other GS see you soon thank you

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40:02 | okay that was turn not even four a minutes yeah right