I still haven't seen this in person, nor have I ever ridden one of these, but when have minor details like that gotten in the way of a good build thread?
Theoretically I now own my first adventure bike: A 2009 BMW G650GS. It's sitting in a friend's shop in Atlanta, after he very generously spent his Sunday going to grab it for me.
I have three photos, an odometer reading (17,000 miles), and an amount I owe my buddy for the purchase: $3000.
Let the build thread begin!
For years, I have intentionally stayed away fro ADVrider because when I do go there it sucks me in. Early in life I had a bad motorcycle experience that has kept me away from them but if I was pulled in, it would be nice, upright, ADV bike.
I don't mean this as an insult but I have noticed your "immersive-ness" that comes with things like Troopers, Mt Bikes, or more recently machining tools. You could very likely get bitten hard by the ADV-bug!
Those are great bikes. I had one for about a year. Surprisingly nimble as far as ADV bikes go in that size range. I'd compare it to my old KLR like this... KLR is a 1990's Suburban while the GS is a Porsche Cayenne. So many great ADV rides to do here in FL! Have a blast.
I just went for a ride with a GS800 in red. The owner has been riding and racing bikes for over 60 years (maybe 70) and swears that this is one of his all-time favorites. He has a collection of bikes, including a mint KLR, sport-bikes and cruisers.
The only thing I know about bikes is they have two wheels instead of four... but let me the first to say those magic words: "All the gear, all the time."
Please.
Ooh...nice! I'm excited for this one. Good choice on the bike; I'll definitely be following along.
So let's explain the why for this purchase.
Back in 2019, a friend of mind and I did a large chunk of the Blue Ridge Parkway on Honda Groms. It was an amazing trip and sold me on the idea of motorcycle touring, but it also left us both sore for weeks. We needed bigger bikes.
And right before Covid hit, I was shopping. At the time I was focused on big touring bikes, as my forum thread on cheap sport tourers explained.
Then came Covid, and with it my budget to buy a bike disappeared, as did my ability to travel.
Fast forward two years, and my friend buys a Harley Pan America and declares adventure touring to be way more fun anyway--far fewer cars to hit you, and far cooler places to explore. So I wanted something that would be able to keep up with the Harley, but without the $20,000 price tag. Bonus points for light and simple, as I grew up on dirt bikes and don't really want to take an 800-pound motorcycle off road, or try to fix it in the woods. At the same time, I wanted to be able to go on the highway when necessary, tackle the Blue Ridge Parkway again, and do some street riding with my wife on the back.
I also wanted ABS and fuel injection. Call me a wuss or whatever, but I hate keeping carbureted vehicles that are driven infrequently running, and I think ABS is an amazing safety feature especially on a bike. That's coming from a person that grew up on dirt bikes and has no problems with threshold braking in race cars, but things happen fast on two wheels.
This bike seemed to check all the boxes: cheap, light, ABS, sort of cool looking, and just the right size. This is a single cylinder that makes 53 horsepower. I'm excited to give adventure touring a try. And yes, I'll document my expenses along the way. I've always been curious how expensive this corner of the hobby really is.
Will I fall in love with it and start saving up for a better bike? Or will this just be a fun story about the time I bought a BMW for a summer adventure? Let's find out!
Stealthtercel said:The only thing I know about bikes is they have two wheels instead of four... but let me the first to say those magic words: "All the gear, all the time."
Please.
Absolutely. I'm a big fan of gear, and will cover some of the changes/additions for this style of riding. Ironically, I need to wait for Daytona Bike Week to be over so I can go to the store and start trying on new boots.
So, how does the hive feel about Continental TKC80 tires? Good choice?
I had TKC80s on a Pegaso, this bike's weird Italian cousin. They suited the dual purpose nature of the bike quite well, sort of a "works everywhere, not perfect for any of it" tire.
I never ran TKC80's but I ran a Shinko tire that was way better than I expected. 244's maybe? They were really cheap, but they were really good on the road and acceptable on dirt. Might be a way to save a couple bucks.
Nice little ADV bike!
For tires, it really depends on just how much offroad work you're going to be putting in. If you're going to be doing a fair bit of fire service roads, sand roads, beach rides, and some mild jeep 2 track, they're probably just right for you. But you'll eat them up in half a season or less.
If you're going to be doing mostly street touring with occasional gravel and dirt roads but nothing too technical, you probably want something way more street biased.
My R1200GS came with a set of Heidenau K60's (high mileage 50/50 tire) when I got it and it became much more fun and pleasant when I switched to Anakee Adventures (high performance 80/20 tire). But I don't take that big girl out on anything more technical than fire roads and so 80/20 fit my blend of riding.
Chapmoto did a big test of a ton of ADV tires and I'd be tempted to read through it:
2020 Adventure Tire Shootout Results | 25 Top Performing ADV / Dual Sport Tires | ChapMoto.com
Tkc 80s and their shinko knock off are wonderful tire, bit buzzy. Much perfer the shinko 700 to both for legit 50/50 use. The tkc80s are a bit odd on gravel and side hills.
TKC80's are my favorite tire, they do great out here in Colorado and are good on the pavement. Never tried Shinko's. Had one of those BMW 650 singles, they're good bikes. Get crazy good mpg, not a whole lot of power, made my hands go to sleep if I rode more than 45 minutes or so. Suspension is only ok, I know some people do a Yamaha (I think?) fork swap on them. I was contemplating doing that to mine but sold it to buy a KTM instead.
Nice! I got to take a F800GS for a spin a couple years ago and I liked it a lot, though it was a bit tall for me. Personally, I've been fond of the BMW motorcycles, while I haven't actually owned one.
Cool. Very good choice for a first adventure bike. I've got 2.5 of the previous Rotax engined version of that bike and they're great. Changing the forks as Doc suggested and upgrading the shock will make it quite a bit better all round. One of mine has Honda fork internals and an Ohlins shock. Night and day...
I've had 7 R12GS's over the last 18 years. Still have two of them but they're going to get sold so I can get a new one. Every one has been better than the previous one and I imagine the R12.5 is going carry on that tradition.
The TKC/Heidenau tires are fine if you're doing lotsa dirt. I can't stand them on the street for more than an hour. Noisy and crap handling compared to the Anakees. But if you are doing lotsa dirt, they are the ticket.
Look forward to reading about your exploits!
In reply to rdcyclist :
Yeah, I suppose I should've prefaced my TKC comment with the fact that I ride at least as much dirt/trails as I do pavement, if not a bit more...
Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) said:Much perfer the shinko 700 to both for legit 50/50 use. The tkc80s are a bit odd on gravel and side hills.
This man obviously dual sports! I agree with Brap on the Shinko 700. These are the tires I keep in my 21"/18" wheelset for my Husky 701. They offer a great 50/50 balance for the price. I also have a 17" supermoto wheelset, which allows me to skew a bit more dirt-focused for my dual sport than if I only had one option. The trick is getting decent off-road grip (especially side grip) when the surface gets a bit loose, but without buzzing yourself to bits at speed on the highway, and minimizing the disconcerting squirm both on gravel and as you tip it into a paved sweeper. Nothing is going to wow in every category, but I like the jack-of-all-trades nature of the Shinkos.
Being honest with your usage is important to narrowing towards good tire options. If I ran some of the stuff off-road guys with trucks/trailers recommend, I'd be miserable on the pavement (My moto rides leave from home in the city, on the bike.) Likewise, if I used the tires recommended by the 98-miles-of-paved-highway-for-every-2-miles-of-maintained-gravel-road crowd, I'd be cursing deep in the woods.
Bike size/weight will also impact tire choice, so what works for an R1200GS might not suit for a lighter single, and vice versa.
John Welsh said:...I don't mean this as an insult but I have noticed your "immersive-ness" that comes with things like Troopers, Mt Bikes, or more recently machining tools. You could very likely get bitten hard by the ADV-bug!
Yeah, it is a thing I do with hobbies... part of the fun of driving an old car with no payments is being able to dive into stuff like this instead. 
Speaking of payments:
More purchases:
Ummm, you can buy any number of Pro-Taper bars for $50ish. Then add heated grips..... You might find you want a different bend bar anyways...
Something to consider. Since you're planning to stay off road as much as possible, are you planning for soft luggage or for hard-case panniers?
In reply to docwyte :
Keeping the OEM heated grips requires machining or OEM bars, and I'm planning to meet this bike in Atlanta (without access to a machine shop), spend a day working on it, then go for a ride.
I figured I'd play it safe and bring a set of factory bars with me, then once I've ridden the bike I can figure out if I like them, or if I want to go through the hassle of putting aftermarket bars on. If I only use them for one ride, I'll put them back on eBay for the next BMW dork.
the_machina said:Something to consider. Since you're planning to stay off road as much as possible, are you planning for soft luggage or for hard-case panniers?
I'm planning for soft luggage just to improve safety as much as possible.
Just met my bike for the first time: So far so good! I rode it about 5 miles and am pretty sure this is a perfect first adventure bike.
Time to start improving it!
This picture does a decent job of showing the safety gear I wear on a motorcycle, too, including some new goodies I'm breaking in on this trip. Here's the cost breakdown for this photo:
Total: $1685 Expensive, yes, but this is one reason my bike budget was so low. I wanted to make sure I left plenty of room for safety gear. This stuff is hopefully the difference between walking away and getting seriously injured in a crash.
You'll need to log in to post.
