5 things about BMW’S F 850 GS Adventure
Lighter weight makes F 850 a better bike
If you’re an adventure-riding motorcyclist shopping a BMW GS, chances are you’re spending most of your time gazing at the big twin, Bayerische Motoren Werke’s shaftdriven R 1250.
No wonder.
It’s the best-selling bike in BMW’S lineup, the standard by which all other adventure touring bikes are generally judged, and — I’m still not sure if this is a compliment — Charlie Boorman and Ewan Mcgregor rode BMW’S 180-degree twins on their Long Way Round excursion.
That all said, after a couple of weeks spent riding a 40th Anniversary edition of BMW’S baby GS, the F 850, I’m convinced the little Adventure is the better bike.
BIGGER IS NOT BETTER
An F 850 GS Adventure weighs 248 kilograms; a R 1250 version tips the scale at mighty hefty 268 kilograms. Twenty kilos might not sound like much, but when you’re hiking a big motorcycle offroad, it can feel like the difference between getting through that big sandwash and not.
Indeed, weight is a sporting-motorcycle-killer. Whether the intended sporting activities be on-road or off-, weight is your enemy. And, for something like a GS, which is supposed to fill both roles, that maxim applies doubly. Weight makes tipping into hairpins slower and bounding over whoop-de-dos trickier.
Light weight lends the rider more confidence, makes picking the beast up (after the inevitable tip-overs off-road) easier and is much less tiring when the road turns seriously nasty. It makes carrying a passenger less intimidating, and — this is a trait that should never be underestimated in motorcycling — it makes wheeling your bike around the garage or backing out of a downhill parking spot a lot easier.
Big-cube adventure bikes are all getting pretty weighty these days and, the more I ride them, the more I gravitate towards their lighter alternatives. All that you get from large-displacement motorcycles is power you can’t use — unless you have some sort of special Get Out of Jail Free card the rest of us don’t have — or heft that makes your road-missile harder to handle.
TALLER AIN’T BETTER
Despite sporting longer-travel suspension — 230 millimetres up front, and 215 mm in the rear — the 850 Adventure’s standard seat height is still a very manageable 875 mm. The standard seat on the 1250 Adventure resides some 15 mils closer to the stratosphere.
If you’ve never ridden a big-inch adventure bike, halfan-inch might not sound like much, but take my word for this, there’s a huge difference between balancing 268 kilograms on your tippy-toes and sitting on your 248-kilo 850 with both feet flat on terra firma, especially when the 850’s seat is also a bit narrower.
Yes, the bigger GS can be had with a lower seat. But, then, so can the F 850. And both lowered seats are made lower by simply reducing the depth of the seat cushion, never a good thing for longdistance comfort. No matter which way you slice the foam, the F 850 is, by far, the more manageable GS.
THE MOTOR IS NO LIGHTWEIGHT
No, the F 850 can’t keep up with the R 1250. Recently fortified with BMW’S Shiftcam variable valve timing, the big flat-twin now pumps out a Ktm-challenging 134 horsepower, about 40 hp more than the smaller parallel-twin used in BMW’S F Series. The R 1250 is, no doubt about it, one impressively grunty motor.
That said, I really didn’t miss it. The F 850 will poodle along at 2,500 rpm in fourth gear and not grumble when you hit the gas. It will take me and my SO so far past any legal speed limit in North America that we’d be shopping counsel, should we be apprehended.
And, unlike many other middleweight twins that need to be revved to make forward progress, the F 850 spins just 5,000 rpm at an indicated 125 kilometres an hour when snicked into sixth gear. Seriously, there wasn’t a single time in my two-week test where I lacked for motor, most certainly not enough to want to trade up for those aforementioned 248 kilograms.
IT’S ALL BUT AS WELL-EQUIPPED AS ITS BIGGER BROTHER
The F 850 GS Adventure comes standard with electronically adjustable suspension, not to mention multiple riding modes and traction control. The digital dashboard is large, bright, and colourful and just as quick on the draw as the bigger GS’S.
No, Apple Carplay is not available, but I, for one, want to get away from my iphone when I’m riding. Other than music piped into wireless headphones, I don’t want to know Steve Jobs’ name. And no, the F 850 GS’S cruise control does not yet feature the adaptive speed-adjusting radar now available on some larger Beemers.
That said, most of the goodies — aluminum panniers, GPS navigation system, Keyless Ride and various touring knick-knack — that are available for the big GS are also optional on the baby. And BMW’S Gear Shift Assistant Pro — admittedly a convoluted name for a quickshifter — is one of the better examples of the breed. The one thing lacking, of course, is the bigger twin’s shaft drive, but now that BMW has introduced its new M-endurance maintenance-reducing drive chain, its advantage might be limited. Besides, said driveshaft is a big contributor to the 1250’s avoirdupois.
The F 850 will poodle along at 2,500 rpm in fourth gear and not grumble when you hit the gas.
IT’S PRETTY DARNED COMFORTABLE
While seating is not as spacious on the baby GS — the SO and I were on excellent terms for this trip, so the cuddling required by the 850’s shorter seat was not an issue — it’s comfortable despite its smaller dimensions. The windshield, which is truly diminutive compared with the screens on larger adventure bikes, was surprisingly effective. There was very little turbulence, even at speed, and it reduced the wind-blast significantly. Similarly, the seat-to-peg spread was downright generous, resulting in an easy seating position for my cranky old knees.
Even the seat, thinner than the big GS’S and a little narrower, was pretty accommodating. And despite its basic design — parallel twins are the most rudimentary engine configuration this side of a single — the F 850’s
offset crankshaft and balancing shafts kept the F 850 surprisingly vibe-free even.
Lastly, the electronically adjustable suspension is just as impressive on the smaller GS as it is on its larger sibling. In Dynamic mode, the dampers remain firm enough for sporty riding, while in its Off-road mode, it’s soft, accommodating enough to swallow the really big bumps. Oh, the 21-inch front wheel slows down the handling, but you don’t notice it that much because the F 850 version of the GS is so — as I have mentioned so many times now — relatively light.
What I’ve been trying to say is that there wasn’t a lot of sacrifice, even in touring abilities, for its drop in specification and power. Indeed, though I’m sure to remain in the minority, were I shopping a GS BMW, I’d be opting for the 850 over the big twin. That I’d also be saving as much as $7,450 would be the least of my considerations.