So with my RS going in for it’s 40,000km service Donford Cape Town was nice enough to give me a courtesy bike as always and I got a virtually brand new Toddler GS with just about 3000km on the clock.
Let’s admit my ignorance that I wasn’t even aware when I set off that there are two new models in 750 and 850 guise and I thought they had actually found their brain and only introduced one model to cover them all with a new more potent small engine. Instead, they’ve done the same trick as before with the same block being in different states of tune (useless and then less useless). So the first half of my ride was a bit tainted in looking for a bigger bike where there wasn’t any by and large due to all the features throwing me off and expecting this is the top of the range just out of nursery bike.
It’s lower…much lower.
So the first thing I noticed is that I didn’t need a scaffold to get onto the thing and get on my way. The stand is still horrible and makes the bike lean over way too much and is horrible to find once you are on and want to get going. Now having full ESA means you can adjust the preload electronically by pressing a button which is where the height difference stems from mostly I suspect, but the seat could also play into it quite a bit.
I’m guessing this isn’t fully dynamic ESA that adjusts on the fly but just the version with presets for Rebound/Compression that now also includes pre-load to set it up for a single or double rider and in doing so changes the height quite dramatically.
More Power!!!
Setting off the engine immediately seemed a little more frisky than both the F700 and 800’s I rode before. Not that I mean to say it makes more power overall but it just has a more exciting power delivery than the VERY FLAT engines in the older models and the downright useless output from the old 700 especially. I still expect a bigger bike feel from a motor this side which is just lacking.
It’s also paired with a cable clutch which BMW is just terrible at. I missed my hydraulic clutch at every gear change until I decided to try my clutchless shifts and then I was like “Hey….it feels like there is a quick shifter here but I’m not quite sure”. So I tried shifting down which I always do on a new bike regardless of quick shifter or not and to my surprise it happily did it in every gear, but I was still not sure if the gearbox was just very compliant or if there really was a QS because it had none of the drama of the unit on the R1200 boxer motor where it pops and shouts and all sorts of fanfare. Upon stopping at my destination and getting off the bike there was, in fact, a Shift Assist unit which is also quite openly visible as if they want to show it off now.
Unsure if that’s standard spec or you need to pay for it, but if you need to work out for it I’d probably give it a skip in this case.
The engine has the same hunting for idle thing that the previous ones always annoyed me with. Rev counter is constantly up and down when sitting at idle.
Stop you bastard.
To my surprise the front brakes were astounding. Sure it’s a much lighter bike than my own but my memory isn’t that broken that I can’t recall the old models being nothing spectacular in this territory. I suspect it may very well be a difference in suspension setup as well as rider placement that makes a lot of difference here.
The rear brakes would squeal like a nun having her virtue stolen at any given moment in time. Whether you pushed on it lightly or rammed your foot down it would make for a horrendous noise. If I owned the bike I’d probably take the pads out and scrub them on some rough tar or cement to just bed them in and hope for the best.
LCD/TFT fancy toys.
Now, this is probably the past I was most excited about as I haven’t experienced the new TFT 6.5-inch LCD screen fitted to all the new BMW’s and more specifically the built-in navigation.
I have a love-hate relationship with my Garmin GPS unit which just feels like a pre-historic device in every way every time I need to update it or do anything remotely useful with it so I was very keen to see how BMW Connect works with this being a huge fan of Apple’s Carplay in my car and just extending my phone for that purpose.
Firstly the screen is a non-issue. At no point did I have any problem seeing what it has to say due to sun or reflection or whatever. It’s vibrant and clear at all times so the technology is no longer the problem it used to be on bikes.
However, much like my own old school monochrome digital display the Germans just don’t seem to get it design wise with these things and there is a huge waste of space that could have contained useful information at all times and then there are also weird design quirks like a little squiggly detail at the bottom that makes you think there is a menu hiding down there which there just isn’t.
There is either only one layout for the main screen or the way to change it is so incoherent that even this uber-nerd geek rider couldn’t figure it out which means it’s a massive failure in UI design.
Hand in hand with the fancy screen goes BMW’s navigation wheel thing which I’ve never been a fan of for it adding so much reach to the indicator and hooter on my own bike that it feels in the way. That problem isn’t present here but I still feel the wheel combined with the logic of using both it and a separate button to navigate through menus here is just broken.
If I had to design it myself I would simply but four direction buttons with a middle enter/ok button onto the handle bars and be done with it for a much better experience.
Navigation requires loading the BMW Connect app on your phone, of which there is stupidly a car and a bike version instead of just one thing. It allows for offline map downloads which is a real winner right there and tracks your trips and tours and routes etc with even the option to put in photos and I would imagine publish it somewhere etc.
So the app itself is great. The problem comes in that you have no means of text entry on the bike itself so unless you’ve got a saved destination you absolutely have to pull your phone out and tell it where you want to go. This doesn’t work if you are in the basement parking lot with no cellular signal as I found out.
Once it’s working the navigation is pretty basic with just an indication of what you need to do and in what distance. There is no live map to distract you and many people want that but it’s this kind of basic navigation I’ve always wanted on a bike. You want to explore and get a little lost, you just want to know that you aren’t hell and gone on the wrong road in the middle of nowhere.
The problem comes in that BMW has this as an option for R7450 on their pricing list. Now in SA this may or may not be already included in the standard spec for the bike as is often the case. If it’s NOT included though you would be mental to pay that kind of money for this and you could literally buy a second phone and a cradle to do the job better or if you really wanted to go that route a proper GPS.
Insult to injury would be if you don’t take the option it will forever haunt you in the greyed out menu.
Of course, you can connect a Bluetooth headset to the bike as well to play music and get navigations prompts. I wasn’t able to test this and I’m not sure if the reference to “Rider Helmet” and “Passenger Helmet” in the menu specifically refers to the BMW units or if it would happily work with any third party Bluetooth jobbie.
LED Lights…bloody hell.
I actually forgot this was part of the big sales pitch for the new line of bikes.
Then I pulled into the parking garage at work and the lights came on automatically and I was ASTOUNDED by the difference it makes. It’s not like I’ve ever even had a problem with the lights on my bike but the difference in this case is quite literally night and day.
If this isn’t a standard option it’s the one I would pay good money for having, it just makes that much of a difference.
Luggage
When I was about to leave the dealership I noticed the base plate on the back seems suspiciously similar to my own. Went over to my bike and took off the top box and would you believe it there it bolted right on and I didn’t need my uncomfortable backpack which I usually hate about the bike swapping experience.
Apparently, this is a change with the entire line of bikes where they will all use a uniform setup inherited from the big bikes now, which made sense as I remember being surprised to see my top box fitted to the baby G310 series.
Side cases are a different story though and will be bespoke to this series. Looking around the bike it seems like a very neat setup that hooks into the frame directly instead of using hangers off the sides like most bikes that look horrible when nothing is fitted.
I do believe this is all standard so no added cost there either.
Yes, but how does it ride.
So it needs to be said that I’ve never truly enjoy the GS experience. Not the big 1200 with its weird suspension and not the baby versions either for being utterly boring engine wise and also wallowing all over the show and just generally feeling a little disconnected to me AS A ROAD RIDER. I would take the Triumph Tiger each and every time for having a much nicer engine experience and also just communicating to me better overall. Again as a ROAD RIDER who wouldn’t be taking it offroad.
The G310GS is probably the one that I found myself the most in love with.
I honestly can’t comment on the offroad prowess of any of them.
The best I’ve done is accidentally hit a massive unpainted speed bump with this thing at 60km/h or more and expecting to go arse over head and meanwhile, it didn’t even blink and I didn’t even feel it. So if that counts as an offroad test then it’s amazing.
Staying to the road ride though I genuinely had a good time with handling and comfort. The seat is very sticky so there is no moving off it easily but then there also isn’t any real need to. If anything it makes you want to put your leg out supermoto style rather than get your knee down. You are planted forward and more on the engine giving it a very front biased feel and sharper to communicate back to you.
While I did feel it lacked the power that might be addressed in the bigger brother bike when it comes to in gear acceleration and overtaking, this was really a non issue in open stretched and hitting it over De Waal drive with only minor traffic it made for an awesome fun ride and kept pace happily well beyond the limits on the signs….
You never feel the weight of the bike working against you and the suspension was such that I actually have no comments about it either way which is excellent.
Should you buy it?
So I had no idea what this thing costs when I got on it so there is nothing but objectivity there.
I also have no idea what the standard spec is and exactly what that includes but my suspicion based on the BMW website is that the eye-watering R184 653.00 “from” price actually includes all the fiddly bits like ESA, heated grips, cruise control and possibly even the Shift Assist and Navigation but please don’t take my word for it I’m only guessing here.
As much as I’m out of touch with the cost of things that seems like a ridiculous amount of money to me for what is essentially a “little bike” even one that has pretty much all the features of the big ones now.
Much like the F700 before it I never understood why one would buy that instead of the F800. The same is true here with the F850 offering much more power for only marginally more money so again I don’t understand why this bike exists.
More so if BMW’s website is to be believed you can buy the outgoing R1200RS (my bike) for not much more money and I’m sure a few others make that list to so one has to ask yourself would you rather buy a brand new bike with more fiddly bits and power overall while sacrificing basically just a fancy display…or would you buy the new less of everything option.
There is also a weird something to be said for the 1200 (now 1250) Boxer motor being cheaper to maintain.
Needless to say I’m keeping my RS…
Why? Because regardless of all the above reasons this thing is ugly as sin and I couldn’t live with myself if that was in my garage and I had to greet it every morning.
South African Motorcyclist 