| Author | Message | ||
     Whitj |
I'm looking hard. Feedback or a slap in the face please. | ||
| Xbimmer |
I can't wait to ride one either... | ||
| Badbuell70 |
Maybe you should check a BMW site. | ||
| Miamiuly |
Doubtful that any BMW rider would give much of a review IF they had ever ridden a uly. Seems a fair question to me, and a neat bike. I have mixed feelings about BMW and having to use their shops. The bright side seems to be that they want people to ride their bikes far without fear and their dealers seem more likely to do the right thing to get a traveling rider on the road and continue their trip. At a premium cost maybe. I would depend on American Sportbike to get me a fan or a belt if I was on a trip or else I'd be kind of nervous. I love the bike, but even when I bought it, I wasn't planning on depending on a dealer. That can be a problem here for any brand though. They are mostly in disarray. | ||
| Iugradmark |
I think it is a fair question for the board as we have many ex-BMr's here. The thing that appeals to me about the bike is that it may have the least amount of BMW parts on it. Rotax engine, basic suspension, simple drive train, etc. Most of the really expensive stuff on the BMR's are the final drives, suspension parts, and problems getting their motors to run right. | ||
| Chas1969 |
No one in the USA has tested a F800gs. In the fall (maybe) there will be bikes to test along with the F650gs (w/800cc engine). Only the rest of the world has the privlage to ride the new twins. Even at the MOA rally they had a F8GS to look at but not to demo. I have demo'd the F800st and it is a great engine. The specs and photos a much more traditional dirt set-up than a Uly. The Uly engine has more torque but the F8 engine spools up faster with decent torque. The trans in nochier (kluck, klunck..) BMW should sell ooooodles of F8 and F65 GS's. Great bike (with a chain drive  ) Chas | ||
| Ulynut |
I sat on one at the motorcycle expo in New York this winter. Its about the same height as the Uly. Maybe a little lighter, I'm not sure. But, I agree with Iugradmark, all that expensive BMW stuff is gone. I like that it has chain drive instead of shaft drive. Should have plenty of power too. I like it, but I don't think I would replace my Uly for it. | ||
| Froggy |
Cool so i wasn't imaging it when i saw it at the NY show. It seemed pretty cool, but it didnt call for me like the Uly did. | ||
| Hooper |
I watched a couple demo videos on YouTube - an impressive rider and a capable-looking bike. There was very little on-road footage. The luggage in the videos is too small, in my opinion. I just took a weekend trip and used almost all of my H&B luggage space, and I didn't stop at any VA wineries! Not tempted in the least by this bike. It doesn't fit my needs. | ||
| Badbuell70 |
Why is there a thread in the Uly section ALL about a BMW bike? | ||
| Hooper |
We're just talkin'. If I could own 10 bikes, there'd definitely be a BMW in there. If you read Peter Egan's book "Leanings" (a collection of his columns from Cycle World), he has a great installment that has his buddies sitting around the garage with each other, sipping beer, and regarding the bike parked there in front of them. The discussion led to: "How many bikes should one person own?" The answer was 5: a sport bike, a vintage fixer-upper, a dirt bike, a cruiser, and a long-haul bagger. He probably wrote the article before "dual-sport" came into the lexicon. | ||
| Froggy |
Oh, so a Uly, a X1, a Uly, A Uly, and a Uly XT? | ||
| Hooper |
Bingo. | ||
| Atoms |
I agree that discussing this here seems appropriate. I have a Uly and an old Airhead R100RT. I was in the market for a GS when I found the Uly instead. There are a lot of us who are interested in both bike for obvious reasons. I don't regret choosing the Uly for a second, but I'm still interested in the idea of the GS. The 12 is a bit of a pig, but 800 does not cut it for me. I really love the weirdness of the boxer and I'm not a fan of chain drives. (not that the shafts of the GSs these days are desirable either). And liquid cooling? Not for me. | ||
| Xbimmer |
Oh, so a Uly, a X1, a Uly, A Uly, and a Uly XT? Good one Froggy!  I agree that discussing this here seems appropriate. I have a Uly and an old Airhead R100RT. I was in the market for a GS when I found the Uly instead. There are a lot of us who are interested in both bike for obvious reasons. +1. I like the F800GS, sat on the bike at the Long Beach show. I could flat foot it but it did seem taller than my Uly, and felt much lighter. From my initial (static) impressions of the ergos I wouldn't think it would be as comfy for long distance rides like my Uly is. But it's lean and mean and looks good for its role. Small luggage? You can bet the aftermarket will be fixing that real quick. I wouldn't replace my Uly with one I don't think, but I also wouldn't mind having it in the garage alongside the Uly and R100S. | ||
| Xbimmer |
I really love the weirdness of the boxer and I'm not a fan of chain drives. (not that the shafts of the GSs these days are desirable either). And liquid cooling? Not for me. You need a 1050 kit and one of these then:  | ||
| Red_chili |
I had one of those. The suspension sucked. Works Performance for the rear with a relocated shock mount, and a Honda XR front end with larger disk, heavy springs, and Honda triples adapted to the Beemer steering head bearings solved that. It even accepted full size bags because I relocated the exhaust and used an aluminum SuperTrapp slip on. Riding through streams was a little hard on the rear drive seals once you sucked in some water. Needed to put in a breather extension like on my truck. I could kick myself for selling the thing. Oh, so a Uly, a X1, a Uly, A Uly, and a Uly? Fixed it for ya.  (Message edited by Red_Chili on August 11, 2008) | ||
| Xbimmer |
That's exactly what my brother did to his R80ST, the Honda front end mod. Don't remember what shock he installed though, but that thing with an Acerbis 12 gallon tank was a tractor off road! I've also seen modded twin-shock airheads with extended swingarms. Fun stuff back before "adventure bikes" were invented. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I could have sworn I saw one of the 800 GS's when I was wandering around Deals Gap. I remembered seeing it announced before that, and saw it parked down at the gas station, and just thought "oh, out already, that's nice" and ate lunch. I looked it over a bit, looked like a great bike. I'd have to ride both it and a Uly (and see *real* prices and service costs) to pick one over the other. Of course, I am in a major metropolitan area, and the nearest BMW dealer is now like two hours from me... That'd be a factor. Had I known the bike was not really out yet, I would have paid more attention to it parked there at the gap. | ||
| Atoms |
Yeah there was an R80G/S on ebay this week. It was pretty tempting. I am definitely not in the market for any more bikes - not this year anyway. | ||
| Alameda |
I rode a BMW 800GS all over the swiss/italian alps (well as much as I could in four days) just about two weeks ago. Real nice bike. Do you have specific questions? in short, handles great, nice protection from the wind (better than my Uly) and very smooth motor. Feels very light and has great luggage and surprisingly good power fully loaded. The luggage is at least as big as the Uly as it is expandable with a little lever inside that gives you about three inches wider or so on the side bags and taller on the rear top box. It was brand new and I rode it on road mostly with some off road from Zurich to Italy and back. Felt very planted in all conditions and the ABS had an on off which I left off most of the time except when it was around 0 degrees and mix of rain/snow over Stelvio Pass. I would own this bike for sure and ALSO still like my Uly. I did really like the smoothness of the BMW and it ate up miles a bit better than the ULY. I dumped it over once on an uphill righthander off road at zero mph looking for a lower gear and the luggage is durable I will say that. It could use lower gears but with the sprocket and chain that is probably a pretty easy deal. Someone overfilled the oil and the headlight fell off because the bolts got loose but these were no big deal and I chalk it up to a new bike not being fully gone over before taking it on a long trip. (Message edited by alameda on August 12, 2008) | ||
| Mainstreamer |
Thanks for the review Alameda, sound like an very nice tool. |
