I'll be bolting these together when they finally come into our place...

I really do hope they're impressive.

As a historic BMW hater, my new job has opened my eyes up to many things.

They're not as bad as I thought. They're actually really good enjoyable bikes.

Would I take one travelling though.............

NOPE !!!!!
.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

As will i

I have always thought they are fun bikes to ride, not tried them for anything more then a test ride though.

I bet I scratch a screen with my T25 before you do !!

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Joe Dakar (official BMW off road instructor, BMW tour guide and BMW tour guide instructor), is doing the BMW Launch project for the 800 Adventure ... A ride to Magadan ...

The project - JOEDAKAR - MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURE, MEDIA & MORE...



I just spoke to him yesterday about the rims to warn him.

He told me that BMW marketing had already changed the rims to proper ones !

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Does this mean that we will only receive a highly sensored marketing version on how it fairs ???



www.touringted.com

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Joe is a marketing professional ... He has done marketing for Wunderlich and Touratech before and is now associated with BMW ... so there will be some censorship obviously - its his career. But he is blogging it live, so there is a limit to how much you can censor. You cant edit out major problems live ... only minor ones.

If he goes quiet for a week and then restarts in the same place, then you can be pretty damn sure some large details have been left out.

But from all I have seen of the 800GS, having helped a number of people take them to pretty rough places, is that the bike itself is suprisingly tough. Its durable. Its got a pretty bulletproof frame and engine. I have no doubt that the bike will make it. I also have no doubt Joe would rather do it on his X-Challenge, as indeed he was planning to do last year - lead a tour to Magadan all on X-Challenges. I guess when this bike popped onto BMWs radar, they all decided it was best he does the trip in 2013, on the new bike, and not as a public tour.

The five issues that seem to come up a lot with the F800 are (1) its much too heavy for what it is (2) the suspension is poor (3) the wheels are crap (4) many people want more fuel (5) the seat is not comfortable

The Adventure version addresses the last 2 of those 5 issues. Its better than nothing, but it would have been very easy to fix the suspension and rims while they were at it. And score 4 out of 5 for effort.

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The five issues that seem to come up a lot with the F800 are (1) its much too heavy for what it is (2) the suspension is poor (3) the wheels are crap (4) many people want more fuel (5) the seat is not comfortable

I'm just an 800GS pillion but here's my 2 cents. 1.The bike is heavy for what it is and tall. It'll roll over anything but if you are loaded going up a steep dirt track & hit rocks...you might end up taking a dirt nap unless you are super tall & long legged. 2. Can't complain about the suspension. I'm a big girl and we have gone airborne & landed HARD in Kyrgyzstan. We've done lots of gravel, rocks & dirt, bad road & off road and the stock suspension is still going strong. Can't say the same about some of the bikes we've crossed with that had after market suspension. That's a sucky problem to have on a fun road. 3 we have a dent in the front wheel rim but it hasn't affected the tire. That rubber band on the inside of the back tire just disintegrated though. We have also levered the tires off many times & managed to not damage the rims. That said Siberia would probably do them in 4. The tank is small but on a long stretch if you ride conservatively it's fine. We never ran out, even on the 420km stretch in Kazakhstan between stations.(we did carry extra though that we did not use) but that's a major complaint about this bike so lots of people will rejoice. 5. The seat. Ok from me the pillion: it's a plank of wood. This is something I will say hooray that they are paying attention to. If you are going to make a RTW bike that can tackle lots of hairy bits the seat is SO important! My a$$ is as hard as the next chicks but we had to put a giant wooly on that torture device. Yeesh!

Ok I do have to disagree with being able to ride 98% tarmac. There is an unbelievable amount of roadworks across asia. Most places they just tear everything up and make you ride some variation of gravel, dirt, mud, sand...and everything in between. It starts in croatia, albania, turkey where they grade the gravel nicely then all goes way downhill in the stans..Then there are other places where they paved 25 years ago but decades of rains, rockslides, trucks & abuse leaves massive road craters and whole missing sections (Georgia military highway or Assam) A lot of it is fun and the 800GS chomps it up.

Si
(In Malaysia, just passed 50,000km on our RTW ride)

Thats exactly what you will read.

As I said earlier, Joe is a marketing pro. So you will read that its not the bikes fault

You will read that its not cause the bike was too heavy.

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Shame......

It would be nice to hear a possitive travel report about the F800 that you could actually believe one day.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

On that particular bike he is gonna use on his trip or in general?

He is taking two F800GS Adventures From Germany to Magadan, starting June 10th, as a promotional launch trip for BMW. BMW have told him they have changed the rims already.

He gets to use the bike before its launched, because its BMWs promotion of the bike. They are BMWs bikes, not his. His bike is an G650 X-Challenge last time I asked.

In the same way that Joe Pichler (also mentioned above) got the KTM 1190 Adventure to take on a ride down Africa, a couple of months before it was released, as KTMs promotion of that bike.

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