Happy 8GS 1st BDay.

[ Friday - February 19, 2010 ]

At long last, it's a year old in my hands.  With only $1400 left to the financing, it's piratically mine.  This will finally be the first real bike I own.  All previous models were in various forms of financing when I either exchanged or sold it.

So if you ask me, "Has it been worth the effort to strip the R12R down to it's basic essentials and trading it in for the 8GS?  Is it all that you hoped for?  Is there anything to the 8GS that disappoints you?"  Yes, the trade in was more than worth the effort and pain regardless of the 12R's smoothness and power.  Yes, the 8GS is all that I had hoped for and more.  For my purposes I can't say that I'm disappointed.  Even when it comes to warranty work, Brown Motor Works and BMW NA has been very good to me.  As folks from the Brown service department tells me, "The 8GS is one of the cheapest bikes to maintain in the BMW line of bikes."  Boy are they right.  The 6K service is nothing more than an oil change and fluid checks.  The 12K service is more substantial, but doesn't cost much.  Approximately $350.

Of the 4 BMW bikes that I've owned...
  1. F650GS (thumper)
  2. R1200GS
  3. R1200R
  4. F800GS
Which is my favorite?  Why it's the 8GS of course.  Why?  Because of it's flexibility and forgiveness.  It's flexible in the sense that it's quite comfortable as an off road machine.  It's by no means a single track bike, but it doesn't mind dirt at all.  It's forgiving in that it's so well balanced that it makes riding any terrain and condition that much more effortless.  The suspension travel also helps with all of those well maintained 20 year old California roads on a long haul.

For some reason, I had a suspicion that the 8GS is going to be the bike that I will own.  This was in my mind ever since BMW announced the development of the F8GS several years back.  Of course nobody was sure whether the bike was going to be called F800GS or some other designation.

It's definitely a keeper.







Written on: February 19, 2010
Last modified: February 19, 2010