Articles in the BMW Category
In Part 2 of the Arctic Challenge the BMW F800GS, R1200GS Adventure and KTM 990 Adventure take to the dirt as we try to find the king of the adventure hill, in our survey of the three most asked about adventure bikes for 2009.
Three top-notch adventure bikes, the KTM 990 Adventure BMW R1200GS Adventure and BMW F800GS and it all comes down to the Dempster Highway – seven hundred and thirty-six kilometers of dirt, clay, mud, shale and gravel… The perfect environment for the ultimate adventure comparison.
If the 2009 BMW K1300GT and K1300S have a hallmark over their previous 1200 incarnations, it’s progress. But, trumping the slatherings of electronics, enhanced mechanicals, improved braking, and revised suspension may be… switch gear.
Brapppppp! In the far lane a rider on a R1200GS Adventure (GSA) has just sailed through an opening in rush hour’s waning traffic. Well played sir, but BMW’s F800GS isn’t so easily tossed aside. The GSA may have more guts, but it also has more mass, and the F800GS is proving epee precise and saber effective at slicing its way through the automotive throng.
“Run! It’s the Apocalypse Cow. Horizontally opposed twin udders of flaming destruction! Laser blast foglight eyes! Angry cartoon headlights! Grazing on the carcasses of defeated sportbikes in corners.”
Worldwide BMW has engineered a moto-media furor over the upcoming F800GS, a bike that is flying off virtual showroom floors with a popularity matching air, or water, or coffee. In that hubbub the F800GS’s sibling, the F650GS, has been all but forgotten in the media’s glare. The thing is this unpretentious offering could be BMW’s main event.
Almost every bike has a one defining element, something that differentiates it in a crowded market place. Occasionally that’s luscious looks, cosseting comfort, prodigious power, outstanding handling (okay, I ran out of alliteration there); …
Thrrrazzziiinnnn! The engine spins up, the tach sweeping past 7000-red. What a subtle thing motorcycle design must be? Snic-klink – another clutch-less upshift then back on the throttle. It’s the same chassis, …
Watching the Dakar Rally I know the special gene that urges a man to self-flagellate across a desert for a month is missing in me. I respect these, and other, skilled dirt …
Hurtling through a serpentine of canyons on British Columbia’s Crow’s Nest Highway, I’m shocked. The BMW F800S I’d discounted as having an accountant’s soft, sensible and conservative soul, and I are …
I wonder what’s up that road? It’s rutted, rocked and the soil looks loamy with aggregate mixed in. I’d never attempt this grade on an adventure bike, but standing tall… very …
It’s 5:30AM in the morning and the BMW HP2 rocks to life. Throwing a leg over I’m instantly confronted with the unexpected – I’m 6″2′ and man this thing is tall, I can barely flat …
“It’s going to be the, ‘I rode one of these in the war’ story”, I joke as we watch two elderly gentlemen appraise the three bikes. BMWs it seems are some of the most approachable …
We ascend into Manning Park to the aeronautic thrum of the three horizontally opposed twin engines as the BMW R1200RT, R1200ST and R1200GS Adventure sweep though in single file. April’s rugged meteorological terrain has been …
Gingering BMW’s new R1200GS Adventure onto the gravel I realize the weight that sitting atop of 33 litres of petrochemicals carries with it, such concerns are suddenly blown apart by the explosion of touring and …
Softly, softly… that’s the way those other magazines used to describe the power delivery of the old BMW R1100S. It wasn’t so much that the power/torque figures were bad, it’s just that the bike was …
Second gear coming out of the corner and I hit the throttle; the motor torques past 7000RPM and needle and front wheel go skyward. That comes as a shock. The front end comes down and …
Past the 7000RPM mark the 2006 K1200GT’s engine spins up with a guttural ferocity and a growling primeval engine note serving notice to whatever the posted limit is that it’s about to be thoroughly trounced. …
