Am I missing something? - F800GS

[MarkR11S]

Quick question before heading off for the Indy MotoGP (Woohooo)....
I just had the opportunity to see the F800GS for the first time. I had heard the seat height was pretty tall but WTF! The dealer said it was nearly the same as the GS Adventurer! I wanted to sit on the thing but as with the Adventurer wouldn't have been able to lift it off the sidestand. I figure I am pretty average at 5'9" It seams that they are going to exclude alot of riders with such a tall bike. Will they eventually make a lower seat for this monster? Any thoughts?

[Guest24]

The arian race is very tall. lol The lowering kit will prolly cost you your first born.

[AZ-Twin]

I agree, I saw one and was surprised how big the bike was. I was expecting something the size of a F650GS, maybe a little bigger, but the bike seemed huge.

[motoyoyo]

I had an opportunity to ride a brand new F800GS on Monday and was very impressed with everything about this bike. Yes, they have a low seat option available for the 800 but the regular height felt perfect for me. The 650 will be a smaller bike in general with different suspenders and wheels. I was not sure what to expect going into this ride but this bike is so well refined and everything about it just works so nice. I could definitely own one of these bikes. Good job BMW

[chewie]

There's two seat configs available:

880mm
850mm

I was flat footed at 880mm and I'm 6'

[chewie]

Originally Posted by motoyoyo

The one I gandered at was the grey one - this colour scheme is the go, much more GS like...to me anyway

How was the power delivery????????????????????

[motoyoyo]

It has a nice quick reving bark to the exhaust and the power pulls nicely through a close ratio 6 speed trans. It always felt like it was accelerating hard whenever you wanted it. It could be left in a gear from low to high revs or short shifted without lagging. Nice, really smooth fuel injection with no surge or flat spots. I was concerned that the long travel front suspension was going to give me fits after being used to the telelever under braking. Luckily the front brake was super easy to modulate and the front end dive could be easily controlled with a light touch on the lever. The ABS was not very effective on a couple of short jaunts on dirt roads but there is a switch to turn it off for the dirt.

Oh, another big surprise. The fuel tank which is nicely placed under the seat and side panels only holds 4.2 gallons according to the specs. However, I had 175 miles on the odo and the fuel gage still read 1/4 full and no reserve light yet. This thing must get some pretty impressive fuel economy.

Did I mention 392 lbs dry weight? Yes, it felt light on the road and well balanced too.

[chewie]

That's what we wanted to hear! Taah! It looks to be an impressive machine.

I wonder what might happen in the 1200GS market? I speculate that some 1200GS owners might want to get onto the 800 and possibly the price of the big girl might drop a little, if the market has an abundance. Also would be 12 buyers, maybe myself included going for the 800, could affect the 12GS market. I'm a big guy and I think I could mostly handle the big girl, but the 800 makes more sense every time I read about it and the fuel tank was my only eyebrow raiser and it seems it's a miser, which is great news! It can be mapped to run on 91 octane from the shop as a no cost option.

Still interested/wonder what sort of side cases/bags it will have, I see the top case listed as an option but no side thingies as yet.

PS
My specs sheet says 16l fuel tank (useable) which I make to be, um 16 div by 4.5 is, um - not quite 4 gall, more than 3 1/2

[AZ-Twin]

Jon,

I like the F800GS.......have you looked at the KTM 690 Enduro? I have not seen one in person but I am thinking about ditching the DR650 for this girl.

[lightfighter]

rob, i met a kid from one of the MI units on post last month, he has a 690 set up for SM, i guess he is planning on getting dirt wheels for it, and wants to go hit the hills with us some time.

[AZ-Twin]

Originally Posted by lightfighter

rob, i met a kid from one of the MI units on post last month, he has a 690 set up for SM, i guess he is planning on getting dirt wheels for it, and wants to go hit the hills with us some time.

Let's go!! I would like to see it in action.

[lightfighter]

hopefully he gets it done. but damn i dont need to want anything new!!! i keep stareing at the DR and thinking there must be 40 lbs somewhere on that bike that i can cut off.

[lightfighter]

Originally Posted by chewie

There's two seat configs available:

880mm
850mm

I was flat footed at 880mm and I'm 6'

but whats your inseam?

[chewie]

Originally Posted by AZ-Twin

Jon,

I like the F800GS.......have you looked at the KTM 690 Enduro? I have not seen one in person but I am thinking about ditching the DR650 for this girl.

Hey Rob,

Yeah I saw one at the dealer the other day and he (naturally) was very stoked about the bike, it seemed pretty cool, but then I went and sat on some 2 stroke thing and got distracted...

[chewie]

Originally Posted by lightfighter

but whats your inseam?

Brian, um, I just looked at some Levi jeans and it says 32, but I have skinny legs and am a little bow legged so in some weird way I may be perfectly suited to higher bikes lol. My uncle used to say he was so bow legged he couldn't stop a pig in a passage (hallway).

I have the photo to prove my flat footedness on the 800GS, so there!

[chewie]

Just got the Mrs to measure me...34" with my shoes on, the same shoes I wore when sat on the bike

[hirsty]

The F800 motor in the S and ST is reportedly very economical, I'd expect decent range from the small-ish tank on the GS.

Somehow it's lacking for me though, I sat on one at the UK dealer launch when I picked up my R1200S back in March & it's just a bit "meh" for me.

[wood-d]

Originally Posted by motoyoyo

Oh, another big surprise. The fuel tank which is nicely placed under the seat and side panels only holds 4.2 gallons according to the specs. However, I had 175 miles on the odo and the fuel gage still read 1/4 full and no reserve light yet. This thing must get some pretty impressive fuel economy.

Someone in my local club got one ~2 weeks ago. He put a bunch of miles and reported 52MPG.

Here's a link to his post. You need a Yahoo account to read it.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mac-pac-rdrs/message/79488

32" inseam with low seat works.

[on2wheels52]

I spent some time on the standard model (like the red one) which is maybe an inch lover than the 800. No trouble keeping it upright, even with loaded cases. Would say it had a lower cg than my Dakar by a lot.



Jim

[slowrider]

I got mine a couple of weeks ago. I'm only 5'10" and its about as tall a bike as I'd ever get. I might consider ordering a lower suspension link at some point if they offer it. For now, I'll see if its something I can get used to...

If I had no intentions of taking it off road, then the seat height would be a non issue, but I've already seen the results of poor footing and a tall seat can produce