Do I or Don't I????

Well today was a killer. We have been looking for a new bike for Mrs P as she does not feel like the CB400 is cutting the mustard anymore and wants something a little bigger for touring. Despite a looking at a number of bike she had set her heart on a GSX 750 (i know not a touring bike at all). Having seen a street triple at work she wanted to go to our local Triumph dealer and have a look.

All was good and she liked the look and how she was able to get on and of the 675 version at only 5'4" size has been a real issue. The problem is that our local triumph dealer is also a BMW dealer (grr) and whilst having a look around she fell in love with the new F800R and a test ride was organised immediately. As she did not want to go on her own the dealer offered me the K1600GT to go with her on a 30 minute test ride, who would say no to that? The problem is that I loved it. The ride was sooooo comfortable the cruise control was a delight the windscreen blocked out all buffeting and she handled better than the GSX. Taking both bikes down to the F3 up to the Berowra turn off and back down pacific highway to Hornsby I did not feel a single bump.

SO do I or don't I. The price is a little scary, yes I can buy three Bandits for the same bike. I can see why Baz loves his new Beemer so much. The controls are easy to use and figure out (well I had 30 minutes of ride time to fiddle with all the switches) The difference of shaft drive to chain drive was very noticeable.

Oh well looks like if i want to fulfil this desire I will have to buy a Lotto ticket HAHAHAHAHA
Time to save i think

I guess the old saying ...you get what you pay for may come into play here

Join the BMWLT forum its an international one and have a read, they have a 1600 section as they also have an RT section
http://www.bmwlt.com

I thought the 1600 would have been to expensive to run and I never liked the sound of them. mind you I didn't take one for a test ride, maybe I should have.

[quote="

I thought the 1600 would have been to expensive to run and I never liked the sound of them. mind you I didn't take one for a test ride, maybe I should have.[/quote]


Do it Baz!

Errr... what happened to just looking for the wife's new bike? lol...
I went to Mildura Motorcycles yesterday, and two female employees ride triples, one is around 5'5" and said she loves riding it, and had just come home from Tasmania and a 5000km trip. She also said she misses the ground lol
Oh and yeah, buy the bike..

Don't know if you would have as much fun on the Bemmer as you would on a Bandit. Looks like a cruisy type ride. There is a lot you could do with the 20 or so grand left over from a Bandit purchase. But. Lifes to short to dally. If you really want something. Go and get it.

I rode a friends K1300R and whilst it was a good bike I couldn't see 2 x Bandits in it to be honest. But really what ever floats your boat, if you feel comfortable on it then get it.

In Suzy's defence I reckon heavy or tall bikes for women is silly. Best to get something you can touch the ground on and which is fairly light and nimble

If.only the honda.hornets were still around, unless 2nd hand, i reckon its a good.height .Hate to say it, but im missing my cb400 already, it was a good bike

What next ,slippers, a pipe ,a ten year retirement plan .Asking the kids to move back home because you miss them .What about a nice bus ride
with the bridge club .I believe ukulele is the "in" instrument at the moment .That would fit nicely in a pannier so you could entertain fellow tourers
when you booked into your " 5 star ,organized tour accommodation."
For god sake man ,give your-self a good slap .Its a bus on 2 wheels .

Someone had to go the other way .

I've owned my Beemer F800 since 2008 and put over 60,000kms on it since that time. While I've enjoyed the brand, BMW ownership is not without its challenges.

The biggest is the technology. It stops working at the most inconvenient times and in the first two years it stopped quite a bit. (Since then its been fine).

BMW roadside assist is very good and the people are very friendly. Whilst my bike isn't in the same league as the 1600, nevertheless it's still given me my share of sleepless nights (was my primary transport before the bandit came along). The biggest plus for all those dealer recalls and various unexpected little breakdowns has been the various Beemer bikes including a K1300 and a S1000RR ive been given as loan bikes. These are bikes I might never have had a chance to try out if the built in foibles weren't a design feature of my F8.

Have a look through the forums. My experience from BMW forums is that a lot of people are asking questions about strange little hiccups occurring with their bikes etc. I just don't seem to see the same things on the Bandit forums. Having said all that, if I had the spare coin I'd probably take a K1600 for a run, even though I know it'd get under my skin also and I'd want one. The K1300 certainly did, but like Reddog said, I couldn't see two Bandits worth in it. The K13 I had use of for 7 days was sold as a demo soon after I reluctantly gave it back and I heard the new owner had it shutdown on him two weeks into his journey. But life is short, if it floats your boat grab it with both hands. Resale should be good particularly within the warranty period, and BMW are VERY good with providing loan bikes and their after sales support was always very good (in my experience). If I was planning a lap around oz with the financial controller on board, it'd have to be be a serious contender, although I reckon my GSX FA would do it fine, and the coin saved could be put toward better accommodation along the way.

Bill.

Postscript....I've just scanned the k1600 forums. Seems to be bugger all unhappy owners out there.
So ignore my take on BMW technology issues. My bike was first of the new series F8 GSs so I guess mine had the early bugs.

I'm on my third left hand side switchblock all the problems being with the cruise control not working. I trawled through the forums and found there were lots of failures in the USA, I think BMW sent all their crappy switchblocks to Australia so they can be used again. The one I have now seems to be working ok.
I'm finding the seat to be not to my liking, its too soft and needs a firmer type of foam in it, which I might try to do myself.

Have you looked at the suzuki GSR600? not to be confused with the gsxr.
Confortable seating position, loads of punch. Good looks.

My wife is loving her SV650S (older '02 model).

My suggestion is that your wife should buy what ever bike she likes the best and you should do the same. I'm assuming that you can afford the BMW.

Oh, these days I make a point of NOT test riding bikes I can't afford. I test rode a Tuono and a Futura just after buying the Bandit. It took me months to get over the fact I couldn't afford either. But I looking back I seriously doubt I'd have had either of the Aprlia's for as long as I've had the Bandit.

Baz wrote:I'm on my third left hand side switchblock all the problems being with the cruise control not working. I trawled through the forums and found there were lots of failures in the USA, I think BMW sent all their crappy switchblocks to Australia so they can be used again. The one I have now seems to be working ok.
I'm finding the seat to be not to my liking, its too soft and needs a firmer type of foam in it, which I might try to do myself.

David did his own seat on the VFR and sent me this link. http://www.diymotorcycleseat.com/foam_basics.htm it seems to be full of good tips.


YOu might find it useful Baz, and others.