Not just a junior
The F850GS hasn’t felt like a poor relation to its bigger, more famous sibling
What’s the best thing about the BMW F850GS?
It’s such a brilliant all-rounder. Forget the fact that it’s an ‘adventure bike’, it’s just so good at everything, on and off-road. In terms of a particular detail, it has got to be the full-colour 6.5in TFT screen. So clear, so useful, so very cool.
What’s the worst thing?
The bike is extremely difficult to clean when it gets really dirty, it has so many strange and complex little nooks and crannies, but the tiny non-adjustable screen really takes the biscuit. It may look cute and petite but it just isn’t big enough. Had the bike arrived earlier in the year, I would have definitely replaced it with a bigger, more efficient one.
What was your defining moment?
It came recently when riding in the wet in convoy with an R1250GS through gridlocked traffic on the M25 during the morning rush hour. It was immediately apparent that the bigger GS just couldn’t get through the gaps in the traffic anywhere nearly as well as me. With my smaller, more compact chassis, I pulled about 500 yards on the 1250 in a matter of seconds and never saw him again.
What have you learned?
For 95% of the time, I prefer the smaller GS to its big brother.
If you had £13,365 to spend on a new bike, would you buy it?
I’d love to buy this bike, it’s so very accomplished. But this one has so many extras it makes it prohibitively expensive. But I would certainly spend my own money on an 850GS that was spec’d differently. That said, the ‘Adventure’ comes out next year…