Exciting day for Cheryl as she got the paperwork done on her new F800GS. Me, Leslie being conservative looks at our garage and thinks….”HOLY, we need to get rid of some bikes!” Have a look!
As usual all pics can be click for LARGER sizes.
Very hard to concentrate this week on work. We have a BIG garage sale coming up this weekend and we need to take some things off my bike, get it cleaned up and listed. Cheryl also wants to see if our Jesse Luggage Mounts fit on her 800. So far our BMW hand guards seem to NOT fit so we may have to modify them. Touratech are not ready for this bike yet regarding hand guards so something has changed.
At least our Wunderlich tank bag fits… 😉
Cheryl just adding some paint protective tape for under the tank bag.
We didn’t want to wait to install our favorite tires, Heidenau K60 Scouts. We are now in the 150 rear size versus 140 on the 650’s as well as the 21 inch front tire versus 19.
Waiting in the BMW plexiglass head lamp guards to come in. We like them and hopefully we will not have to trim our Cee Bailey shields. We had Best Rest guards on our 650’s.
Dave’s MotoOverland MOD skid plate looks great! As does his side stand enlarger! We had the side stand enlarger on our 650’s. Seems to be well made, does exactly what it is supposed to do and it does not grab the ground beneath you like many other brands. Nice design!
Side Stand Enlarger made by MOD-MotoOverland
Centre stand has straight legs versus curved from the previous years. Not sure why they did that..anyone think of a reason? Still rather easy to get up but hey, it works.
Close up of the side stand…Love this little inexpensive life saver!
SKID PLATE
This is a really well made skid plate down to the welds Dave uses. It is thick, seems it would take a lot and well, looks great too. Can’t hurt to have a well made accessories that looks good too right?
I call Cheryl’s bike White Fluffy…but Cheryl is not impressed. Not sure what she will name her bike if anything..maybe White Knight? 😉
Cheryl rode home with the stock low seat and said “it sucks”. We knew it would…back on her Renazco and is going to see how the extra height works for her. I have no choice but to use the low seat until I can get my Renazco modified or a custom seat.
So, we have a not so unique message for BMW. If you read this BLOG CHANGE your SEATS PLEASE! This is where the Triumph Tiger 800XC kicks ass on BMW. Their seat. Again we knew this buying another Beemer and we will deal with it. But if BMW would just learn a little from Triumph, add an adjustable seat to this bike and some gel to their stock seats maybe, just maybe we all would stop complaining so much.
Better yet, why not BMW just make the seat in two parts like the 1200 and again add gel! OK..I feel better!
Will be interesting to hear how Cheryl feels after she rides to work with her regular height Renazco seat. Even for her, 31.5 inch inseam she is on the ball of her foot.
Nice new addition to all the paperwork. I found this little dry sack for the owners manual…nice touch!
That’s it for now…we need to install her Gerbings permanent temperature controller. WE are beginning to have pretty cool mornings and since we are a bit spoiled having heat whenever we want, this is a must install soon.
Other than that we will eventually get to the luggage mounts etc. Perhaps after this weekend we can focus on farkles but for now garage sale blow out. I am naming out garage sale “My partner thinks I am a Hoarder” Garage Sale. That would be Cheryl referring to me, Leslie. It’s not true but she thinks so….to be continued! 😉
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Advgrrl Motorcycle Adventures & More 
Why didn’t you go for the Tiger?
You get way more for the buck with the 800GS. Although the seat on the Tigers is way more comfy, Triumph needs to add more of the comfort and ease of controls. Big issue that I am consistently complaining about when it comes to the Tigers is the manual dash. No easy on and off for the ABS. But yeah, very similar bikes in some ways but not enough when it comes to the 3 year warranty/roadside assistance and when we sat on the Triumph’s we just did not feel it. Oh, and we do have luggage that cam fit we hope the new 800GS. That saves us $4000 in farkles.
Looking good, very good. I vote for stay puft marshmallow bike
I’ll be interested in hearing what you think about the 150 tire compared to the 140.
I HATED mine.
Be very careful in not just mud and slimy stuff but in the rain as well. Try the Mitas E07
When and where is the first big trip?
we used the 150’s all the way to Alaska and it did fine for us on the Dempster/Dalton and all that Alaska and the Yukon could throw at us. It’s not great for your type of riding but pretty good for us. I am now thinking I might go with the 700 because of the height issue. After sitting on Cheryl’s and the thought of having to use a low seat of any kind deters me. Have to think more.
Congratulations again on the new arrivals, Cheryl and Leslie! Exciting times in Maple Ridge, and elsewhere for those of us who follow your adventures. I wish that I lived nearby so that I could be there for the garage sale. 🙂
I have a shamelessly newbie question about the side stand enlarger: what exactly does it do? I initially assumed that it extended the *length* of the side stand, which didn’t really make sense to me. However, in looking at your photo above, I am now guessing that it actually extends the footprint of the base of the stand. Since I too have a ’10 F650GS, please tell me what the enlarger does given the types of riding that you do. And where can one shop for the specific model that you mentioned above?
Many thanks, and congrats again!
Jay
Charlottesville, VA USA
The side stand enlarger is a must for us. It allows you to place your kickstand down on soft ground while the bike is loaded or not without falling over…you can buy them from many third party dealers but we LOVE MotorOverland’s version…aka MOD
http://www.motooverland.com/index_files/Page1682.htm
The 650 is not on their site but feel free to email Dave and ask if he has the 650 in stock. WE have them on our 650’s right now.
It is the most inexpensive life saver mod you can do for your bike and your question was a good one…thanks! Leslie
Thanks, Leslie. I’ll check it out!
”HOLY, we need to get rid of some bikes!”
Isn’t it supposed to be “maybe we need a bigger garage or better yet a shop…”
Very nice new bike. Did the old bikes have names?
Nope! Lol
What are you guys thinking of doing for crash bars? I have the AdventureSpec on my F800gs and LOVE them! Picked them up when I was in Enland a couple years ago but they are now shipping to the US. I go off road quite a bit and with being 5’6 I have had my share of slow speed tips. These bars are the best I have seen for fairing coverage. Not a scratch so far to the body work. I can’t say that for the bars…but hey that’s what they are for!
As for the height issue I thought you could get it factory lowered in the 2013 model? That wasn’t available for my 2011 so I had a buddy lower my front forks and had a new spring put in the back. Touratech has a lowering kit for the F800gs that has fork adjusters for the front and the shorter spring for the back. I ended up just using the spring and my just sliding the forks up a bit in the front it makes the bike way easier to handle. With theses adjustments I a now flat footed when on the bike. When the forks are ready to be replaced I may change them out with the ones from the kit. We’ll see!
Enjoy the new 800!
http://www.adventure-spec.com/default/bashplate-protection-crashbars-guard-it-technology-crashbars-bmw-f650gs-f800gs.html
Yes you are right you can get it lowered but for resale reasons I will not go that route. Also, you lose the centre stand. I will modify my Renazco seat eventually I think. I am going to ride Cheryl’s bike this weekend and see how I feel. As for the crash bars..we are thinking AltRider this time. They are in Seattle, we can ride down and they will install them on site. I really like the ADV Spec bars but a bit costly to ship to Canada and/or US but worth another look. Thanks for the info!
These are the bars I have, they are bloody beefy!
Seats being a contentious issue with all BMWs it seems, I’ve read a few reports of people who find the harder/flatter low seat to actually be the most comfortable choice, might be worth a look into if you can get the dealer to put one on to try out.
We have the low now. Cheryl got it with her bike and she hated it right out of the gate. I need to ride her bike in Sunday with the low to see how I feel with the height as well. If I hate the seat but feel good with the height then we will both modify our Renazco seats.
My apologies I missed the rant above!!
lol
Oh… re the new centre stand, I’m curious if it is now the same unit as the r1200gs? It looks very similar and might be a cost-saving exercise if this is the case… nice thing is it can now be used as a tyre bead breaker 🙂
Looks good actually. And still seems easy to get the bike up. We had a hell of a time with the triumph tiger 800’s stand
I’ve had a few bad days (over worked and knackered) where I’ve barely had a strength to get mine on its (old-style) stand and other days where it just slips on almost on its own accord, parking in the same place! I think all the big bikes require a bit of a knack 🙂
I’m a bit of a late starter – I just recently read your great RR over on advrider and couldn’t put it down… and it was interesting to me as (before I heard of you grrls) I had been demo-ing both the F800GS and the 800XC down here in NZ… I really liked the Tiger setup (not to mention the seat!), but I found the engine a bit odd for the bike type, really high revving, it seemed more like a street bike engine (apologies to 800XC owners!)… and having to reach to the dash for option navigation wasn’t ideal. After I got used to the softish front end, I loved the F800… and I think it’s a great bike, and a better choice for me on balance. I’ve got a 2013 white arriving in a few weeks (now if I could have had an 800XC with the F800 engine and option nav… 🙂
I agree with you 100%. Our new bikes as you might know by the blog are 2013 BMW F800GS. For most of your reasons is why we went with the beemers. I hated the manual dash on the Tigers and did not hide that fact when we were riding them. Still hate that but only a matter of time before Triumph will add the handlebar controls. So, for now we stay with bmw’s and who knows what our future holds. Have fun on your BMW and thanks for commenting here! Hope you stick around. Leslie
I will thanks, I’m signed up 🙂 – it was great to see similar conclusions reached (although arrived at under MUCH more hectic conditions than mine were!). Strangely enough, I spent a couple of hours on several occasions on the demo bike’s standard seat and didn’t have a problem with it. From what I’ve read I’m in an absolute minority there. Regards, David
Just catching up with you two after a while. Very cool to see that you went with the F800. I was thinking of trading my 2011 for the 2013. For the same price that I paid 2 years ago you get more features. The ESA is very nice add on. BMW is forced to keep pace with the competition. As far as the new center stand, the straight legs are much better than the curved. The new one lifts much easier and has a better pivot point than the old style. Hope you enjoy the new bike! I sure love mine. I would be interested to hear your opinions on ESA.
I like the ESA. Comfy mode for highway. Ill review it more after I get my bike this Saturday! Stay tuned and check back. 😉
Also you can checkout my blog about motorcyclec – Motorbike Custom. I think you can find it ineteresting)
nice BLOG!
“BMW. If you read this BLOG CHANGE your SEATS PLEASE! This is where the Triumph Tiger 800XC kicks ass on BMW. Their seat. Again we knew this buying another Beemer and we will deal with it. But if BMW would just learn a little from Triumph, add an adjustable seat to this bike and some gel to their stock seats maybe, just maybe we all would stop complaining so much.
Better yet, why not BMW just make the seat in two parts like the 1200 and again add gel! OK..I feel better!”
Couldn’t agree more ! Well said .