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BMW R1300GS

LCGS said:
Still waiting on a sub 500 LB Boxer. Would love a shiftcam 900 GS. 100HP and 80 FT Pound Torque. That is all I need as I age with my beat up body.

I will just ride my 1200 GS until I cant hold it up. Even though the gym helps, gonna come that time.............

Great they got it lighter even being fully water cooled. Just cant see why they dont see a 425-450 LB boxer is a winner. To us older BMW riders weight becomes our demon. Yes we can sit and ride it, but moving it around, or picking it up, is literally a pain. Yes I know we are supposed to keep the rubber side down, but stuff happens.
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Unfortunately, I doubt we'll see a 900 GS boxer. BMW would be cannibalizing sales of their parallel twins. However, if one existed, I would be a buyer.
 
pathfinder said:
Unfortunately, I doubt we'll see a 900 GS boxer. BMW would be cannibalizing sales of their parallel twins. However, if one existed, I would be a buyer.
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Yes, I know. I would bet it would be a winner, so they would not have to worry over those bastard twins :-)
 
I have a ‘22 R1250GS……..can hardly wait for the 1300GS issues to surface on what appears to be a brand new engine and chassis. And maybe, just maybe everything will work out just fine, Plus, BMW will probably spec some $25.00 a liter oil that only the dealer sells. I’ll be waiting for the factory shop manual.😎
 
Always excited for new bikes and platforms. But as always said, I would never buy a new series anything.

The complexity and cost of a new BMW is and was a bit to cover cost wise. Now with no OEM DVD, it has made me a antique ridding BMW guy. I will never go past my 1200 GS. Cant afford dealer service and if I cant have documentation to fix my own bike, well then it is not my bike, BMW owns it also.

I am still trying to figure out if there is a sweet spot for the used 1250's? Like what year is most of the stuff worked out? And while you cant work on them unless you buy a Pirated Copy of the DVD from Flea Bay at least something is out there.

I think I own the best year of the 1200's in my 17.5.

A 1300 with full water cool and all the electronic gadgets is going to be a nightmare unless you can get access to a DVD. I mean Radar cruise and any other goodies they are adding it is going to be tough to trouble shoot unless you have a schematic of the electrics. Just way too much tech with no information to work on it.

As I say if they would make DVD repair manuals then I would be on a newer bike. It is rather nice to just have a GPS and analog gauges to fuss with pairing and all that. It just works on the Zumo XT and the Sena head set. Now I dont have a nice TFT screen to look at but while I scan my dash and my mirrors, most of my time is looking up and forward.

Cant wait to hear all the good things, and the bad things, and hope for the best in the 1300.
 
Engineer said:
Too bad, I refuse to buy a bike with a Chinese made engine. They want BMW money for a Chinese product, no thanks.
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Could just buy a raven 250 for 1700 and limit your cash to something you disagree with. Why would I get a honda or bmw...ktoom when I could rock a gpx 2 smoke slid through the system. I pay property tax on chinese born goods. 20k of taxes is double wammied
 
Why rock a KTM vs a GPX?

My buddy kept his GPX parked at my shop for several years. They exist, for sure, but they aren't on the same level as the bikes they are trying to rip off. If you "need" a shiny, new bike to be happy, ok... maybe they're cheaper then. But he paid more for that GPX than my used KTM cost, and the KTM works every time. Aside from cost and reliability...that was one top heavy bike with really weird feeling controls. Took like 3-4" of travel to engage the rear brake. Clutch lever had an oddball shape/geometry to it and made it not fun to use. It moved in a really weird arc that gave it a herky jerky feel.

Ever see how to service Fast Ace forks? The internals don't come out the top like normal forks. You have to clamp the stanchions in a vice ( that's gonna require a proper soft V block ) and you have to torch the thread locked axle lugs off the legs because the guts come out the bottom. And they have grub screws retaining them. Think about that for a minute.

Grub screws through Chinese cast aluminum bedding in to Chinese threads. Those deformed threads get drug through those Chinese castings ...you know how that ends up. You either don't service the forks, or you wear out the axle lugs fucking around with that fuckery and end up throwing them away.

They get some love on the Internet, but when you get these things in your hands you see quickly that's these aren't bikes built by anyone who gives a damn about building a bike. They just need to look the part long enough to get you to write a check then they disafuckingpear leaving you holding the bag. Funky hand/foot controls might sound petulant, but it's one of those things that's a constant pain in your ass mile after mile after mile.

You could approach them with the KLR/DR Approach. Great cheap bikes! Especially after I replaced the shock, swapped the forks, put on new bars and upgraded the brake master cylinders, rotors and pads. I've seen folks drop $2-3k upgrading KLR's. I've got whole ass bikes I didn't pay $2k for 😁

I'd take a BMW with a engine contracted from China over a thoroughbred Cheena bike every time. Who cares that the engine construction was outsourced to a Chinese factory? You're buying a known thing, and if it eats itself alive you've got a known brand to stand behind it. Have a Chinese bike Amazon'd to your door and see how many fucks they give about you two days later.

Cheap Chinese bikes are false economy, especially after the fanboys have been "vouching" for them, and now they're not even that cheap anymore. I've seen how that vouching goes firsthand. My buddy's GPX set in my shop for three years. He rode it 2 or 3 times. He would show up with some internet hack that's supposed to fix something, fuck around with for a while, finally give up and just ride the thing in it's still shitty state, or hop on a spare KTM, Yamaha, whatever was available. But three years later online..."I've been riding my GPX for three years and it never broke down on me once!"

That's not really accurate though, is it? You've not run a whole tank of fuel through it.
 
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Shinyribs said:
Why rock a KTM vs a GPX?

My buddy kept his GPX parked at my shop for several years. They exist, for sure, but they aren't on the same level as the bikes they are trying to rip off. If you "need" a shiny, new bike to be happy, ok... maybe they're cheaper then. But he paid more for that GPX than my used KTM cost, and the KTM works every time. Aside from cost and reliability...that was one top heavy bike with really weird feeling controls. Took like 3-4" of travel to engage the rear brake. Clutch lever had an oddball shape/geometry to it and made it not fun to use. It moved in a really weird arc that gave it a herky jerky feel.

Ever see how to service Fast Ace forks? The internals don't come out the top like normal forks. You have to clamp the stanchions in a vice ( that's gonna require a proper soft V block ) and you have to torch the thread locked axle lugs off the legs because the guts come out the bottom. And they have grub screws retaining them. Think about that for a minute.

Grub screws through Chinese cast aluminum bedding in to Chinese threads. Those deformed threads get drug through those Chinese castings ...you know how that ends up. You either don't service the forks, or you wear out the axle lugs fucking around with that fuckery and end up throwing them away.

They get some love on the Internet, but when you get these things in your hands you see quickly that's these aren't bikes built by anyone who gives a damn about building a bike. They just need to look the part long enough to get you to write a check then they disafuckingpear leaving you holding the bag. Funky hand/foot controls might sound petulant, but it's one of those things that's a constant pain in your ass mile after mile after mile.

You could approach them with the KLR/DR Approach. Great cheap bikes! Especially after I replaced the shock, swapped the forks, put on new bars and upgraded the brake master cylinders, rotors and pads. I've seen folks drop $2-3k upgrading KLR's. I've got whole ass bikes I didn't pay $2k for 😁

I'd take a BMW with a engine contracted from China over a thoroughbred Cheena bike every time. Who cares that the engine construction was outsourced to a Chinese factory? You're buying a known thing, and if it eats itself alive you've got a known brand to stand behind it. Have a Chinese bike Amazon'd to your door and see how many fucks they give about you two days later.

Cheap Chinese bikes are false economy, especially after the fanboys have been "vouching" for them, and now they're not even that cheap anymore. I've seen how that vouching goes firsthand. My buddy's GPX set in my shop for three years. He rode it 2 or 3 times. He would show up with some internet hack that's supposed to fix something, fuck around with for a while, finally give up and just ride the thing in it's still shitty state, or hop on a spare KTM, Yamaha, whatever was available. But three years later online..."I've been riding my GPX for three years and it never broke down on me once!"

That's not really accurate though, is it? You've not run a whole tank of fuel through it.
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You miss the point. It's not necessarily grounded in quality, although I'm sure the quality and long term parts availability will be poor.

I refuse to buy a bike with a Chinese made engine. Why can't they just make it in a free country and charge more? Why are all of the European bike companies tripping over each other to sell the most commie bike possible?

Some of us want to spend our hard earned money on a product we can be proud of, not a European product with a heart designed and built by a company controlled by the CCP (make no mistake, almost every Chinese company is controlled by the CCP). Chinese engine production for European brands wasn't common 10 years ago and it shouldn't be the case now. At this rate, my next bike will probably be a Honda since both BMW and KTM are on a path to simply being resellers of Chinese designed and built motorcycles.

And you can't compare China to Japan and say, "oh, well in the 70s people thought Japanese products were crap". Japan is a thriving democracy, not an enemy of the free world.

Moreover, China isn't a budding Japan or Germany. The culture simply isn't aligned with producing quality equipment and supporting it for decades. The common mentality there is to make a quick buck by secretly modifying the design to save a few cents. The culture doesn't have pride in a quality product for its own sake. In other words, KTM might design an engine, but as soon as they hand over production to CFMoto, they secretly tweak it to lower the grade of materials, manufacturing dies and techniques, and other hidden things. Then they pocket the difference while claiming to be building exactly what was contracted. In less than five years, parts won't even be available for the KOVE 450.

Production in India would be preferable to China, although in that case, the quality certainly isn't there and they have a long way to go.
 
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I kinda like the specs. But I would not like to ride this bike in the rain or cold.
 
Looks like yet another bike for the short of stature. My RS has less crouch than it does.
 
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