BMW GS Comparison: Exploring Three Iconic Models

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My first motorcycle was a gas back in 1997. I'm currently on my third one. BMW launched two major updates to their gas line over the past year. Do they still have the soul of the GTS?

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Regular readers of Tank of Coffee will recognize my oil cooled r 1200 gas adventure featured in several coffee rides.

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While it's a bit cliche to see a BMW GTS parked outside of a Starbucks, my gas usually has a layer of mud sitting on it. I've ridden it on ski slopes in the summer. Many dirt roads and trails in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, along with single track trails in Pennsylvania. The sand of the Pine Barrens of New Jersey and even the mid-Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Route covering Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. My current generation GS is the same one featured in the documentary series with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman.

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Long Way Down. It was significantly lighter than the R 1150 GS that it replaced and it was superseded by the water cooled R 1200 GS in 2013. Now I've used my GS as a true adventure bike. Highways are relatively rare. Most of my miles tend to be on either back roads or on dirt. And while there are plenty of riders who use an adventure bike as a comfortable touring bike for completing lots of highway miles.

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My focus for the GS has been a bit more dirt oriented. Even my big GSA with nearly nine gallons of gas is quite capable off road and it's perfect for long days in the saddle. But in the really technical dirt, the weight does show. So I've toyed with the idea of getting something lighter, like the KTM 890 Adventure or the KTM 690 Enduro.

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That could still allow me to ride to the dirt.

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Now I'd written about the new R1300GS when it was announced last year. Visually, it was a departure from the asymmetric headlight arrangement that started with the R1150GS back in 1999. For nearly 25 years, this was the design language of the GS, and so the new GS' X headlight was a bit controversial. It did make an effort to reduce weight from the preceding R1250GS line using sheet metal instead of tubular steel for the frame. Moving the gearbox under the engine and overall slimming the appearance.

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At the same time, power was increased even more to 145 horsepower. Now to my eye, the new GS reminded me more of a Suzuki V-Strom. But as someone who owned the square headlight R1100GS, even the asymmetric headlight was controversial in its day. If we're honest, most adventure bikes aren't all that beautiful anyway. It's more important how it rides than how it looks, and I promised myself that I'd give it a try.

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Then earlier this year, BMW updated their middleweight ADV line. While they've previously had a base GS and an adventure variant, this year they added a third with a more offroad focus and a fresh design.

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The new F900GS also gave up the asymmetric headlight of the F850 and also went on a weight saving diet, shaving off more than 20 pounds and increasing power. A fully adjustable suspension option was available using Showa forks and a Sachs shock. Now, while my first GS was the F650GS once I got my first boxer GS, I'd never really considered any of the F line, even when it switched from the original thumper to the parallel twin.

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But I really liked the look and the more dirt focus, along with the seemingly better reliability of the BMW versus a KTM. Could this be a unicorn for me?

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Now Max, BMW is my local BMW dealer. Besides being one of the largest dealers in the Northeast with four locations now, they've always had a dirt focus. They've hosted several off road events over the years.

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They sent out an email blast to their customers about a GS demo ride recently, and all the various GS line were to be available to try out, including the outgoing R1250GS Adventure.

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The small capacity G310GS and the new flagship R1300GS. But I was keen to also try the new F900GS. I arrived at the sign up in the rider meeting and I got there right when it was getting ready to start and there were already a huge queue of people that were signing up and getting ready. So I wasn't able to get the F900 for the first group ride, but I did get one of the R1300GS models.

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I went over to where all the bikes were parked. I got onto the R1300GS. And I took a little bit of the lay of the land of like, what does this bike actually feel like when you're sitting on it? And the first impression I had was it's much thinner in the seating area.

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And I think this is something that has been talked about in some media. It really does help to slim it down and make it super easy for you to get your feet onto the ground. Now I'm six foot three, so I tend not to really worry about seat height.

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It's not really a problem on most any bike for me, but I can understand that for those who are less tall than I am, this can be a very valuable thing. So as we went through the riders meeting, we got ready to get going. We started and thumbed up the motor. I could see that it was a really very smooth motor.

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In fact, I had to kind of do a little bit of a double check of is it even on because it was so quiet, especially compared to my R1200GSA that I had ridden to the demo ride on. So this was a very, very quiet and smooth motor and especially with the water cooling, which is going to create a little bit of dampening around that engine note. But I have to say as though that thinner area in the seat area was part of it. It really felt quite cramped to me. Now, it turned out I was on a low seat model, which makes sense. Why?

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But then when I sat on a regular seat model after the demo ride, I found that it was only slightly better. In fact, it felt as cramped as my S1000R, which is really a sport bike. So it. It was not the most comfortable to me just getting on to there. But anyway, we started getting going, ready to start our ride, and it was very clear that this bike had plenty of power. And if I think of the the difference between my current GSA, which is the last of the oil cooled generation, it had 110 horsepower as its max horsepower and the new one with 145. And then my S1000R has 160 horsepower. This really did split the difference in terms of power. It felt very linear in terms of what it could do, in terms of power. didn't feel like the engine was strained at all to get going. So if you want something that has a sporty feeling, I could see it being a really good option the route that we took and this again leads into what I said with Max BMW being very dirt focused. We did hit a bit of a dirt section along the demo ride, which is something that I really appreciate with with this dealership. And I did try standing on the bike, but I still felt like I needed to really bend over. It was the rider triangle was just much, much smaller on this particular bike than on my current GSA and that was something that was really surprising to me. Now, it was fine in terms of the electronics. I would whomp on the throttle, try to see if I could get the rear end to break loose, moved it over into enduro mode as well. And the electronics definitely do keep the spin of the rear wheel in check. So if you're a newer dirt rider, this can be a phenomenal, phenomenal option for you. But the thing that kept running through my head as I was riding this bike, through this demo ride and it was about a 45 minute to an hour demo ride, I had actually test ridden a couple of MotoGuzzis about a month earlier. I was really wanted to take a look at the MotoGuzzi V7, which I loved. It has such an amazing engine character. It's outstanding. And while I was there, I said, Oh, let me just also try the V100 Mandello And it's funny, like some of the dealership people were like, oh, yeah, you're really going to love this bike, because I came on my s 1000 to that demo, ride? And I got onto that bike and I started riding.

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I was like, Oh my God, this bike is boring. And it was this thing where the engine just had no character whatsoever. It had been so quieted compared to the V7 that there was no vibration in the motor. And certainly it was quick. It accelerated really nicely. It turned really well.

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It was it was a very competent bike, but that was what was going in my head as I was riding the R1300GS. It just reminded me of V100 Mandello. It felt like an appliance. It was competent, certainly quick handled really well. As I said, for for my height, it felt cramped, but I could see if you wanted to go on long highway rides that having a smooth motor like that would be appealing because it wouldn't be as perhaps exhausting as something that had a little bit more character or vibration into it would be. But it really had no character. Now, the other thing is, even though the 1300 GS has gone on a big weight savings effort over the preceding R1250GS, when we compare to my R1200GS, which was the oil cooled variant, that was really the sweet spot for the GS line in terms of the lightest weight. The 1150 that preceded it was much heavier by about 50-60 pounds and then the water cooling actually added weight back in. So even though they've cut the weight, it's not as significant as one would hope.

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So the regular GS that I was trying out with a five gallon tank was only 30 pounds lighter than my nine gallon GSA, and that's really mostly due to the water cooling. Now keep in mind my GSA has massive amount of crash guards on it that came stock from it. It has all of the tubular mounts for the hard aluminum panniers onto the side.

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I mean, that alone is probably 20 pounds of just tubing. So the bike, the current, GS, it's kind of porky. Even though it looks svelte, it looks thin, but it's kind of porky compared to my GSA.

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So I got off the bike and I talked to the dealer's rep when I was there. And I kind of shared I was like, Yeah, I don't think it's for me, it's not the kind of bike that I really liked.

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It was I preferred the character of my own GS. So as I was getting on to the next demo ride where I was going to now try the F900GS dealer rep that I've worked with for many, many years. I actually bought my original GSA from him.

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He said to me, he's like, He thought I would really like this one. He's been loving it. He's been riding it for the past few weeks. Another sales person that I spoke to said that they traded in their R1250GS for the F900GS.

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So a lot of the team at Max BMW personally love the F 900 and as I said, they have a lot more of a dirt focus. So I was very excited to sort of try this out.

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Now I got onto the bike and yes, it doesn't have quite as many electronics as the 1300 GS does.

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The 1300GS, of course, has the electrically adjustable windshield. This is just a very static windshield that's on the F900GS. So much simpler. The screen is the same, but I don't believe it has quite as much options for changing things around. Certainly you can't change the suspension on the F900GS through the electronics like you can on the 1300GS.

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There's physical controls that you can use to adjust it. So just sitting in the cockpit, it was a simpler bike compared to the other one. and in spite of it being a simpler bike, the the ergonomics for me were perfect.

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It was like I just got on this bike and it just everything fell to hand. It was super comfortable. I didn't feel cramped. My legs were able to have a nice stretch to them. I was able to get to the pegs and not feel that they were tight and cramped. I didn't feel that my knee was bent so tightly. It really just felt really good and as I thumb the motor on, it had a nice rumble to it. This, you know, a 270 degree crank that it has just I mean, It's now the like standard. Everybody on the parallel twin tries to do this because it does add a little bit of character to an engine configuration that generally is not known for having character.

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And so we started the ride. We begin going and I can actually feel like, wow, the bike actually has a little bit groove.

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It's definitely not as quick as the 1300GS is. but it's also lighter by a decent margin versus the 1300GS. And being that lighter bike, to me, it felt sportier. this really it was so nimble. I mean, it really was because I rode them back to back. I am on the same exact course. I was able to actually see like, Hey, wow, I can basically get through corners a lot easier with the F900GS than I could with the 1300GS without as much effort because it was a lighter bike. Doesn't mean the 1300 GS is not a good handling bike. It is, but you can't fight, you know the nature of weight that much. So a heavier bike is not going to handle as well as a lighter bike. And that was very clearly evident with the F900GS.

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the funny thing about it is the power that is on the new F900GS is almost the same as on my R1200GS. It's a 105 horsepower on the new F900GS and 110 horsepower on my GSA. But the F900GS is 80 pounds lighter than my bike and I'd ridden my GSA coming up so I was all within the span of an hour and a half of one another, I'd ridden all three bikes. The thing that kept coming to my mind when I'm riding the F 900 GS was This is a fun bike. And I thought of it afterwards because it just kept resonating for me. This was a really fun bike, It's going to give a lot of comparison to some other bikes that have been, quite frankly, moving in on to the middle weight space for BMW.

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I think they did a great, great job with it. I really enjoyed it.

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And it's it's sitting in the back of my head of like, hey, maybe this is something that eventually we do swap out my GS for. So it's something that's very much there.

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So let me kind of wrap this up a little bit and I'll talk about some of the things that really stood out to me between that 1300 GS and that F900GS. And then, of course, my current R1200GS adventure. My R1200GS Adventure is a 2012 model. So it's the very last model year before they started building the water cooled bikes.

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But I missed out on the two water cooled generations that were between my oil cooled R1200GS and the R1300GS. So those were never something I'd really considered, mostly because I just looked at the specs and they were so much heavier. There wasn't really a motivation for me, and I already had an S1000R, so the power cool, nice, but not really critically important for me. And and I'm probably a little bit of an exception for most boxer GS riders as I do take my bike on dirt now I got the GS that I bought back in 1997 originally because I'm tall and the GS was built for tall German riders and that's why I've had so many BMWs over the years, because it just fit for my size. But it feels like with the new 1300GS, they're really trying to cater to a wider demographic who maybe is not so much on the extreme ends of height. And it does it did feel to me more cramped. You can look at it. You can say, Wow, it's got all this horsepower.

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It's something that is always handled. BMW has always put together a really good bike, but I think in some ways it's become a bike that's lost a bit of the soul of the original GS. It's not a bike that really is meant to go across any sort of road anymore. It's really much more of a street oriented bike with an adventure style, and it's probably going to be as a consequence of that, a really great touring bike for smaller riders who might hit a few dirt roads every once in a while. And I think for that use case, it's probably an awesome, awesome bike. But that's not the use case that I'm typically doing But if I think of this new F900GS, its power is nearly the same as my current GSA, but 80 pounds of weight loss, it feels a lot sportier. And even when we did a bit of the dirt section and this was actually going up a hill with a dirt winding road.

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this had, you know, ruts in it from the rain and stuff. So it was a little bit more technical, not a trail, but certainly more technical than most dirt roads would be. And what I found was it was really easy to fling this all around. And that was something that I really enjoyed about it. And ergonomics, as I said, sitting and standing were perfect for my size. It's as though BMW said, Hey, all the cool things we used to do on the older GSs we're going to now do you on the F 900 and really target maybe the offroad oriented rider or the taller rider. And that came in fitting for me really well.

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And when you look at a lot of the competitors in this class, you know, one of the ones that I've been in the back of my head thinking a lot about was, as I said, it's the KTM 890 Adventure and the KTM 690 Enduro and both of those KTM is really, really known for its offroad capabilities and they're both phenomenal bikes, and even their 500 series, which I've ridden, is amazing. It feels like cheating when you're off road comparatively so they're great, great bikes, but you always hear about these niggles of reliability from them. The 890 you know, it's been pretty widespread. You've looking like ADV rider and stuff. A lot of people will talk about the Camshafts having excessive wear on them on the 890. there's claims that this has been addressed in the newer model years, which is good, but you don't want to have where that comes and bites you again in the end. And I think most people have a hesitation for saying, Hey, I'm going to use my KTM and go for like a long distance trip through the middle of wherever.

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Certainly a very capable bike.

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And if you're going onto some dirt roads or even trails, it will handle amazingly well. But can you rely upon it to even get you there? And that's the thing that was always wiggling in my head of would I want to do at KTM. And when I think of the BMW with the F 900, I've always had great experiences with the BMWs I've always had them work reliably. I have a more than 50 year old BMW that still is running. They know how to build bikes and know how to keep them going for a long, long time. So I wonder, is the F 900 GS really that unicorn where if you want to do some more difficult offroad riding, not that you're doing singletrack non-stop and whipping it with dirt bikes, but something and where you have to ride to get to those trails.

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That's really the use case for me because where I live there's not massive dirt trails right by my house, so I have to ride usually a good 100 miles before I get to the really fun trails.

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I'm not going to buy a whole other car just to buy a trailer with it to tow a dirt bike.

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That's a it's a very expensive dirt bike at that point. So I really want to have a bike that I can still ride somewhere or maybe do like a backcountry discovery route and have the confidence that the bike will be able to get through the entire thing. So this is where I think the F900GS might actually be that unicorn that I've been looking for.

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But I'd love to know what you guys think. Have you actually ridden any of these three bikes? Do you have an R1200GS of a vintage similar to mine? The oil, the last of the oil cooled GSs. And have you tried the R 1300 GS? What do you think about it? Have you enjoyed it? I mean, it's probably a very good competitor to the Multistrada, but what do you think? Has it been a bike that you've enjoyed and have you tried out the new F900GS? And if so, what were your thoughts?

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Text the show through the link in the show notes and we'll share your feedback in a future episode. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you soon.