Those new R1200GS look kinda cool.....

[boney]

I thought about buying a water cooled GSA last summer but was able to pick up a slightly used 2010 for just over half the price. You take a big hit riding those off the Floor.

As a sole bike, it's hard to beat.

 

[cleverusername]

The new water cooled boxer motors are pretty nice

definitely better than the non-wc. but still a step down from the others. all opinion, of course, but i'm always stunned when others consider the bmw boxer a peer of the 1190 or the multi.

to the credit of the r1200gs, it wheelies fairly easy with clutch work. boutside of that, the multi, fjr, and 1190 are much more complete motors imo.

 

[Z3n]

You can put a 17 on these.
Speak to JT2 right above your post. The early GS I think he is referring to is my previous (and sennasixty8's previous) 2006 with a 17" on the front.
I think he has the 19" on it last I saw it.
I don't know what model it was from but it was a bolt on mod with a factory BMW wheel. Identical to the rear.

It's gonna murder the ABS and TC.

As to the need for a 19 inch front for offroad, never had an issue bombing down singletrack and doubletrack on my 690 SMC. Would much rather have access to cheap 17 inch track takeoffs than get some marginal boost in climbing curbs and shit, the little tube on the right does a good job of helping the front end climb stuff.

 

[Kornholio]

definitely better than the non-wc.

That's a matter of perspective. I wouldn't have the water-cooled version.

 

[stan23]

I had both the GS and Multistrada 1200. I preferred the GS. I can only assume the new water-cooled one is much better..

 

[dmfdmf]

Except V-Stroms have ALWAYS been ugly. :|

If you want to be happy for the rest of your life...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NF5XU-k2Vk

 

[cleverusername]

As to the need for a 19 inch front for offroad, never had an issue bombing down singletrack and doubletrack on my 690 SMC. Would much rather have access to cheap 17 inch track takeoffs than get some marginal boost in climbing curbs and shit, the little tube on the right does a good job of helping the front end climb stuff.

experiences vary, and this was not my experience in moab. a larger wheel is a substantially larger spider web of ability. switching from a hot 17" street tire to a 17" track tire in a non-track application is a marginal benefit in the most narrow of applications (timed hill climb or downhill, for example), and a downgrade for even the baddest of asses on 84 on sunday morning.

again, expereiences vary. from hooning on a sumo to hooning on a r1200gs (it's doable, but i recommend against it), my experience is a larger front wheel gives more options at little to no expense for on-road ability. while this seems contradictory, i found the larger front wheel compensated for systemic disadvantages, such as having to ride an r1200gs, or for novice riders.

flipside: an SMC can do amazing things on 17" pirrelli scorpion trails (a 95/5 tire), because it is a particularly athletic bike with top shelf suspension and very trim at 330 lbs gassed up compared to a 600+ lb bmw.

so, my advice then would be to try "bombing" down singletrack on a r1200gs on 17" and tell me that it worked great. then, go tell ktm that they've been doing it wrong this whole time with the adventure r, and that they're poseurs for having 21" front wheel dirt bikes.

until then, i will tell you from my experience that you will get more out of a 19" in all purpose tomfoolery than access to 17"track take offs or whatever else kids think is cool nowadays.

 

[Triple Threat]

I have a 2006 RT, I've never held a bike for 8 years. I hope to have it for 8 more. I love my RT.

BTW, you can test ride just about every BMW for free, no need to rent.

Triple

 

[Z3n]

experiences vary, and this was not my experience in moab. a larger wheel is a substantially larger spider web of ability. switching from a hot 17" street tire to a 17" track tire in a non-track application is a marginal benefit in the most narrow of applications (timed hill climb or downhill, for example), and a downgrade for even the baddest of asses on 84 on sunday morning.

again, expereiences vary. from hooning on a sumo to hooning on a r1200gs (it's doable, but i recommend against it), my experience is a larger front wheel gives more options at little to no expense for on-road ability. while this seems contradictory, i found the larger front wheel compensated for systemic disadvantages, such as having to ride an r1200gs, or for novice riders.

flipside: an SMC can do amazing things on 17" pirrelli scorpion trails (a 95/5 tire), because it is a particularly athletic bike with top shelf suspension and very trim at 330 lbs gassed up compared to a 600+ lb bmw.

so, my advice then would be to try "bombing" down singletrack on a r1200gs on 17" and tell me that it worked great. then, go tell ktm that they've been doing it wrong this whole time with the adventure r, and that they're poseurs for having 21" front wheel dirt bikes.

until then, i will tell you from my experience that you will get more out of a 19" in all purpose tomfoolery than access to 17"track take offs or whatever else kids think is cool nowadays.

Let's be frank: the R1200GS is a pig offroad, no matter what size tires you put on it. I think the tradeoff of the 19 inch front considering that the vast majority of riding put on the R1200 is going to be street riding is absurd. 19 inch front means more inertia to overcome turning an already large and heavy bike, it means a heavier wheel overall, it means less availability of rubber across the board (Pilot Road 3s/4s aren't even available in a 19 inch front, which is what I run on my commute bikes, generally - track takeoffs were nice for my supermotos because they were ridden more aggressively and it was basically free tires).

The R1200GS is a streetbike with delusions of grandeur of around the world trips. There's that guy that took an R1 around the world through all conditions, including plenty of offroad - the limiting factor is going to be the rider.

With that said, the 19 inch front is a styling choice because the common knowledge says that you need the bigger front for more blah blah blah blah blah and really it's fucking bullshit. A decent rider can ride the thing offroad with a 17 inch front no problem, and nearly every rider of the bike would benefit from more tire availability/options.

I was just shopping for bikes recently in this class and ended up on a 1290 Superduke because it wasn't giving up real world performance for some bullshit pretensions of snapping subframes in the middle of the Mongolian desert.

Consider my last gravel road blaster was a Daytona 675 with a handlebar on it, I can't take anyone seriously when they claim it needs a 19 inch front - the bike would be a fuckload better if they shaved 100 pounds off it and put a 17 on there. The 19 is a compromise to deal with their other compromises.

The reality is I'm fucking bitter that there's no long travel suspension bike with TC and ABS available from the factory with 17s that's big enough to comfortably handle long 2 up rides. The GS gets a pile of ire from me because it'd be sitting in my garage right now if not for that fucking 19 inch front.

 

[DefyInertia]

Rode one up on 253 a couple weeks ago and was shocked at how little I liked it. Maybe I would just need to dial it in, but I could not get synced with the thing. I can normally jump on any decent bike and be up to speed in short order, but I hated the thing. I was stepping off my MTS 1200 with Q3s....but still.

I'll give it a second chance but damn that was disappointing.

 

[jumph4x]

I am not affiliated with the Z3n, nor am I being paid to say this but

 

[Z3n]

Is it wrong to want the equivalent of a Dakar truck in motorcycle form? I DON'T THINK SO.

 

[crick]

definitely better than the non-wc. but still a step down from the others. all opinion, of course, but i'm always stunned when others consider the bmw boxer a peer of the 1190 or the multi.

to the credit of the r1200gs, it wheelies fairly easy with clutch work. boutside of that, the multi, fjr, and 1190 are much more complete motors imo.

That's a matter of perspective. I wouldn't have the water-cooled version.

yeaaaahhh... it's pretty much a matter of opinion and living with it for a while.

I've owned a variety of bikes and have ridden a bunch other but the RT right now is my favorite cuz of its utilitarian uses. It's so far the easiest to live with on a day to day basis. I've used it year round and almost everyday for commuting... i cant say i've done that with my previous bikes.


Sure the boxer engine may not pull me from zero to holy-shit... but its behemoth shape and weight is actually surprisingly nimble... and I had thought about the WC boxers but i'm happy with my oil cooled bike - one less fluid to worry... and i love the maintenance on this thing...its the first bike i've done valve checks/adjustments on and its surprisingly sthuper easy.

I had thought about other bikes, like a K1600GTL, but i'm really enjoying the simplicity of maintenance that i feel spoiled to even try valve checks/adjustments on any other bikes.

 

[Donelop]

With that said, the 19 inch front is a styling choice because the common knowledge says that you need the bigger front for more blah blah blah blah blah and really it's fucking bullshit.

Is it wrong to want the equivalent of a Dakar truck in motorcycle form? I DON'T THINK SO.

You mean a dakar bike?

Buy another ktm 1290, sell both of those and then buy this for the same amount. They're limited run production bikes, offered by ktm as a turnkey race bike for $40k-ish. Ive seen photos with lic plates but i dunno.

also, i thought this was interesting. Icon took a pair of Tiger 800's on dakar, destroyed the tranny on one, the shock mount on the other, and the clutch on both. They're not built for dirty dirt without lots and lots and lots of modifications to overcome the load that excess weight puts on everything.

[youtube]aTvYAcJOx3s[/youtube]

 

[boney]

PR3 and PR4 are available in 19 inch sizes. They call them the trail and the only difference is the width of the rubber compounds. So don't use that as an excuse to have not bought a bike. Besides, I've seen guys scrape their boxes in corners with TKC-80's mounted. It's not the tire, its the rider.

 

[jt2]

You can put a 17 on these.
Speak to JT2 right above your post. The early GS I think he is referring to is my previous (and sennasixty8's previous) 2006 with a 17" on the front.
I think he has the 19" on it last I saw it.
I don't know what model it was from but it was a bolt on mod with a factory BMW wheel. Identical to the rear.

You are correct, sir. I had some illusion that I'd do a fair amount of off-pavement riding, so went back to the 19", and a set of Tourance Next rubber. It still handles fabulously, but there definitely something to the 17" conversion - turn-in is much better with it, at the expense of a little nervousness at speed.

It's gonna murder the ABS and TC.

I can't speak to TC, but at least on the older model, the ABS works just fine with a 17" front.

 

[Archimedes]

imo, the ktm adventure bikes are better. what the bmw wins in slabbing, it gives up in being fun vs the ktm.

i sold my r1200gs and never looked back. awful in the dirt. very good for slabbing. pretty good for cornering, surprisingly good actually. most joyless bike i've ever had.

the ktm is way better in the dirt, pretty good for slabbing, waaaay better as a sport bike / hoonage / cornering. so much more fun.

What year was your GS? I would never have even considered owning the prior model, but the new one may have been the best bike I've ever owned.

Ant, tough call between the new RT and the new GS. I had both at the time of my accident and I struggled with which I would own if I could only have one. In the end I concluded that it would be the GS unless I really wanted to do a lot of long distance riding. Either will do everything well, but the GS is a little better locally and the RT is a little better on the slab.

 

[Archimedes]

definitely better than the non-wc. but still a step down from the others. all opinion, of course, but i'm always stunned when others consider the bmw boxer a peer of the 1190 or the multi.

I owned the new Multi and the new GS. I would never own a Multi again and I would buy the new GS again in a heartbeat. And I would have said the opposite regarding the prior gen GS. And I'd never owned a BMW before 2013, so I'm not a BMW fanboy.

 

[bmwbob51]

I picked up a water boxer a couple months ago in AZ. after searching for the configuration I wanted (all the upgrades and bags). Used ones can be hard to find at a reasonable price around here for a reason. They're a Swiss knife bike. Not cutting edge at all motorcycle applications, but do a decent job at all. It's not a dirt bike, but it'll do fire roads way better than a street bike with its semi adaptive suspension. It's not a high speed sweeper carver Ducati, but a GS will easily haul butt in the high speed sweeper. Where I like it best is goat roads that we have an abundance of! Once underway the GS weight disappears and the bottom end grunt will pull you through those off camber uphill turns. Everyone should head to SJBMW sometime and take a test ride. It's a real eye opener and the reason they sell so many. The only downside is they're pricey!

 

[Ant]

PR3 and PR4 are available in 19 inch sizes. They call them the trail and the only difference is the width of the rubber compounds. So don't use that as an excuse to have not bought a bike. Besides, I've seen guys scrape their boxes in corners with TKC-80's mounted. It's not the tire, its the rider.

So you can get Pilot Roads and other popular brands like Metzler Z8's and such in a 19"??