BMW F650GS DakarThis is the bike I used for the trip. It was the last bike available so it's not like I had any choice, but I'd never ridden a BMW, so what the heck! Here are my experiences from riding the bike over the course of 2 days and 600km, through city traffic and on country highways, in sun, sun and ... still more sun! (Not a drop of rain or a cloud in the sky).
Wow, what great power delivery! It 's a bit of a rocketship in 2nd and 3rd gear, and 4th and 5th still have plenty of grunt for overtaking on the highway. The engine felt a bit vibey for long trips on the highway but nothing troubling. Good mirrors meant I could easily see behind me on both sides and they were pretty clear at speed. Although the grips were a little too closely spaced for my taste, (I kept edging over the grip butt), there were no vibrations coming through them and likewise for the pegs - so no numb hands or feet! The seat began feeling a bit uncomfortable after about 30 minutes on the bike, and became progressively more uncomfortable after that. It was probably the worst part of the whole ride. But the slightly higher than normal seat position was good in traffic, even although when stationary I could only really get my toes down on the road - I needed to tilt the bike slightly to get a flat foot on the ground. But the bike's weight was not an issue at all and I never found myself struggling to manouvre it when pushing it around.
Gear changes were a bit clunky and sometimes I got neutral when changing up from 1st - you just need to give it a good kick up when changing up into 2nd. No problems with the other gears. Although I sometimes got neutral by accident, finding neutral on purpose was another matter. It was a case of trial and error trying to select neutral, and sometimes I just gave up and turned the bike off in gear. Clocks were nicely laid out - speedo on the left, indication lights and clock in the middle, tacho on the right.
Did I mention no fuel guage? A bit inconvenient to say the least! However the under-the-seat tank reputedly gave 300km, or at least so said the guy who rented the bike to me, and to be honest I didn't find anything to the contrary. But not being able to see the petrol level inside the tank meant you had to be extra careful when filling it up not to overfill and spill highly flammable petrol over the side of the bike! (Something I failed to avoid on one ocassion).
I don't think I'll mention the 5 frustrating minutes I spent at the first fuel stop trying to get the steering unlocked ... finally blundered it free my luckily turning the key in the clockwise direction - opposite from what I'd been doing!
Overall an excellent ride. But it's not particularly refined for road use. Perhaps an inline V4 would be smoother...?
