I've wanted to write an entry with a 30M kms review here in the blog, but a video review would be more exciting. Especially if I can make it interesting!
After getting inspired by a video on YouTube, where an Aussie did An honest review of the Triumph Scrambler, I thought Why not do the same for my motorcycle? It would fulfill the enjoying experience for sure!
So here goes "An honest review of the BMW F800GS". If you enjoy, press like on YouTube! Helps other find and enjoy it! ( and makes me proud! )
Today mounted the Anakee 3 on the bike. Live they look more rugged than in pictures, seems more off-road than I would expect….
Review to follow - first impression is the big is much quicker curving, and more tipsy simply because the old wheels were worn into a square shape vs round….!
As per the previous post: Michelin Anakee 2 review, my faithful Anakee's have reached the end of their life. In general I was happy with their performance so the first question is "Why change?".
However they were mounted in March 2011, I think that maybe wheel technology has evolved since then especially for the growing segment of heavy travel enduros. Also with much more players here vs. when I bought my F800GS (i.e. the new Triumph Tiger, remodelled KTM adventure 990, new Yamaha Tenere, Ducati Multiestrada) there should be some investment from tire manufacturers for the segment.
When choosing a tire, I first filter by major brand names (Michelin, Bridgestone, Dunlop, Metzeler, etc..), the reason being that the tires are the only point of contact in between the machine and the ground. You can have all the electronics in the world - ABS / traction control / stability programs, but if you buy a Chinese tire with less traction you will lengthen your braking distance, curving ability, etc...
Within the main brands there are various types of tire - some more for off-road use, some mixed usage and some for on-road. Here there's s difference in between the rational choice and the "What I would like to do" choice. Meaning that in my mind I would be doing enduro all day long up and down the Swiss mountains - i can see myself with a GoPro strapped to the bike in the middle of the forest with amazing Slow motion shots of drifts, dirt flying everywhere... The reality is, this never happens! I mean never! 2 years with the Anakee 2 and I probably went 8 times off-road and 900 times on-road and even then sloooowwwly. Don't want to crap up my daily commuting bike! But in spirit, I want the tire that goes everywhere just in case...
For the BMW F800GS the measurements are:
Front 90/90 21 V Rear 150/70 17 V
The tires I found available in the market with respectable brand and F800GS size are
Recommended by BMW with Road Bias: - Michelin Anakee 2 (mounted by BMW out of factory)
- Bridgestone Battlewing 501 (used to be mounted by BMW out of factory)
Recommended by BMW with Off-Road Bias: - Metzler Karoo
- Continental Twinduro TKC80
Not recommended by BMW with Road Bias: - Continental Trail Attack
- Pirelli Scorpion MT90
- Metzeler Tourance
- Michelin Anakee 3 (probably too new to be recommended by BMW)
Some of these are tubeless tires, but to use with BMW F800GS stock rims you need a tube.
So emotionally why not get the pure enduro tires for a what if situation? But good for me the rational part kicked in... I need road grip!
I already had tried the Battlewings and not liked them and I have a bad impression of Pirelli tires in general, which left me with the Anakee 2, Metzeler Tourance or Anakee 3.
I chose the Anakee 3 simply because (i) it is the most Road tire of the 3, i didn't use the 20% off-road of the Anakee 2 (ii) it's cheaper than the Metzeler (iii) it has a radically different design! Why not try something new?
Oil change: Pretty straightforward, just remove the retainer screw and let the oil drip into a basin. Remove oil filter, continue to let oil drip into basin.
Replace retainer screw washer, bolt back on. Screw in new oil filter ensuring that you cover the sealing casket with some oil, as to not destroy it when tightening. Top up with oil!
Only had two issues doing this, the first that I didn't have a 24mm socket wrench to get the retainer screw out - a normal wrench doesn't enter the hole. had to go out and buy one. The second was getting the #%@&€!!! Oil filter out. I punctured a screwdriver threw it and hammered, pulled, pushed ... But the darn thing was stuck. Sprayed some WD40 on it and let it set for a while. Sort of did the trick but took some hammering to get it out - you can see this in the time lapse
Rear brake pads: Over did this one, as I think it can be done without removing the rear wheel. Basically removed rear wheel, removed locking clamp, removed locking pin. Watch out as this looks loose but you need to hammer it out, it has a sort of expander head does doesn't let it fall out. That's why in the video I'm looking at the Mac, it's the garage manual to make sure I didn't crap something up! Make sure to press the brake piston back prior to fitting the new brake pads or else the disc won't fit in the middle.
Air filter: No video of this, but really easy and fast. Open top body part (battery cover). Unscrew air intake cover, replace, screw back on
Battery: same complication as the air filter..... Just made sure to remove negative pole first and when replacing add negative pole last.
Spark plugs: this was the most complicated replacement. The manual says only to replace at 40M but decided to do a compete overhaul. This was the most complicated maintenance item as it involves removing all frontal body arts (battery cover, left panel, right panel, front beak) and the air intake structure. Leveraged replacing battery & air filter to already have them removed. The difficulty of the air intake structure a the tubes that need to be disconnected & connected without a lot of space to do so. Also need to be careful to disconnect all electrical connectors of temp sensors, accelarator sensor, etc...
After all that, before getting to the actual spark plug, the spark plug coil or connector needs to be done with a special BMW tool. Darn that's hard to pull off!!
Only thing I didn't do was check the valve clearance - didn't have the necessary tools, gaskets, etc... Think she will survive a few thousand km's more, No weird engine clanking or anything.
My BMW stock horn sounds crap. It reminds me of a Vespa or some Kymco scooter noise. Any car going into my lane hears that, and just keeps coming, not a lot of respect.
That was ¨OK¨until I rode a Harley. The air horn they have sound amazing - a profound loud and powerful toot, for a car sounds something like an 18 wheeler coming at you full blast.
So I´ve been looking into how to put a harley air horn on my GS. After some investigating ran into some roadblocks, like the can BUS but more importantly the size of the thing - where & how to mount it on the bike without adding a wierd appendix...
But I found the Stebel Magnum horn:
Which almost fits into the same place as the stock GS horn, and you can connect directly to the CAN bus. This is how it sounds:
Replacement wasn´t that easy, mainly because I was missing a torque wrench extender and couldn´t get the original bolts off. Other than that, pretty straightforward - just needs some pacience in getting it exactly into where the original is. Here a timelapse of the mount:
Arriving at work,tried putting the bike on the kickstand and it just toppled over as the kickstand didn't have the "strength" to hold it.
The root cause was the loss of one of the two screws that hold the left foot peg and kickstand in place. No major harm done as I was able to put the bike on the center stand, and after a visit to the local dealer got an extra screw. However it raises concerns, the first being if this assembly was to fall off (it was only held in place by one very loose screw) I could have had a serious accident if this hit the rear wheel and the second that it is poor engineering to have such a "stressed" attachment, which holds he weight of the bike, held in place by two screws even without a nut! Even stranger is that I had tightened these a couple of days before!
After seeing a couple of pictures of GPS mounts, satellite phones, etc.. decides to cheaply give some navigability features to my F800GS. Instead of buying more electronic devices, decided to leverage the connectivity heavyweight iPhone. With the installation of some software, it can be a versatile GPS device - just need to install it in a visibile position on the bike and also find a way to power it during longer drives.
After looking around for a while, narrowed the search down to two contenders for the support - the touratech and the RAM. Decided for the RAM because of the price difference. As for power, found a Power socket to Car cigarette lighter adapter, into that device I can plug in a regular Cigarette lighter to USB abd power the iPhone. The RAM mount arrived today and I've been going around on exactly how to mount it. The mounts are very modular so you can mount almost anything, anywhere. The one I purchased has one module which is the Handlebar mounting kit (a U type bolt), and another module which is the iPhone support. Everything is connect by mounting balls. Very sturdy. After experimenting a bit, I didn't like the mount on the handlebars, as it's to close to the driving position and means you have to take your eyes really off the road to look at the screen. I decided to mount it on the structure which supports the windshield & the instrumentation panel. All with the pieces supplied by RAM, no further handywork needed.
First I unscrewed the windshield and took it off I wrapped the F800GS support structure in cloth as to protect it (it's plastic) from the tightening of the ubolt.
Added some cloth inbetween the windshield and the U-bolt as to not damage the windshield (it's pretty tight and they touch) After some tightening and putting the windshield back on, this is the result!
I only had the iPhone camera, so as soon as there's camera around bike I'll take some pictures of everything up & running - with the iPhone and the charger.
Details: RAM-HOL-AP6U UNPKD RAM HOLDER FOR APPLE IPHONE 3G RAM-B-149ZU UNPKD RAM U-BOLT MNT W/2.47DIA. X 2.47X1 BMW Powerlet to USB Charger
The reason is that I need some type of navigation on the motorcycle but won´t use it enough to invest in a motorcycle specific navigation device which tend to be very expensive. So I wondered if I could use tomtom or google maps on my iPhone for the task.
Today mounted Touratech foglights on the BMW F800GS. I investigated several solution, from Wunderlich to custom made LEDs I would need to adapt and decided for these due to price, being fully integrated into the design of the bike and ease of mounting.
Mounting is pretty straightforward with the instructions provided by Touratech. Just make sure you have the correct tools and isolating tape. Biggest issue is routing the cables to make sure they don't come loose, setting the fuse and attaching to the battery
Unfortunately don't have pictures of mounting the foglights, erased them by accident - but I do have pictures of them mounted
Update
Having used them for several kms.....: #1 reason I really like these foglights: I\m seen by cars at any time of the day. Even during broad daylight people see me coming and that equals SAFETY. If they know a motorcycle is there, less chances of hitting it...
#2 reason I really like the foglights: Nightime use... it really lights up what is in front vs. the BMW headlight. being used to Xenon headligghts on my car which for me equals safety, the BMW only front headlight was very weak. This definitely gives it a boost.
#3 only thing I would change:Xenon / LED light. it is still noticeable that they are traditional technology and not as powerful as more modern solutions...
I wanted a motorcycle to upgrade from my ´94 Honda Transalp, which is still running to date. A proof of Honda reliability at it´s best, almost 150000 kms with no major mechanical issue or overhaul - just normal maintenance. It passed by my fathers' hands for a few years, and then resisted a 18 year old ... having fun. Grew up with me & my driving. Worth every premium we paid for it being Honda.
I would have stayed within Honda if they had something to upgrade to inbetween a Transalp and a Varadero - something like the discontinued African Twin. So I went to check alternatives with the same type of reliability. The BMW 800GS caught my eye. I always liked the 1200GS for what it stood for (a bike that can go around the world with you), however saw it too big for my daily commute needs. The 800GS is a good alternative. more powerful than the Transalp, much more versatile and not as big / bulky as the 1200GS.
So... today went to pick up the new addition to the stable! A new BMW F800 GS.
Options included were:
- Onboard computer
- Heated grips
- Hand protectors with protectors
- LED flashing turn indicators
- Center stand
- BMW Vario Topcase
- Aluminium Engine guard
- ABS
- Anti-left Alarm
