Test Riding the F800GS and the F650GS

This past Wednesday, I found myself with some free time mid-morning and rode on Maria over to the Beemer dealer to test ride a 2007 pre-owned F650GS Thumper I'd been eyeing.

The salesman, Tyler, was very accommodating and things were slow so there was no waiting on my part. Signed the disclaimers, and away I rode on the thumper.

2007 F650GS (courtesy of BMW of Denver)

There's plenty of thorough reviews of this neat motorcycle on the Net so I'll just note some impressions I got:

Nice and light. Very nimble, and its performance was very much like my R80 Beemer, Brigitta. Being a thumper, her tach runs a bit higher but it likes it. About the same wind protection as the R80, which is really nothing. No real increase in buzziness from its being a single cylinder bike. Nice bike.

I got back to the dealer and made the above comments, then asked to ride their Demo F800GS bike which is BMW's newest dual-sport offering in the mid size category.

2008 F800GS (courtesy of BMW of Denver)

I have to admit, a much more "powerful" bike on first impressions (it's got like 21 more horses than the new F650GS). Very nice sounds coming from its pipes and great pick up! I had to use the "lowered" seat in order to almost flatfoot it so bear in mind its a higher seating motorcycle. Still, it was a lot of fun to ride. Both the 650 and the 800 have very narrow saddles, creating some pressure points in one's thighs/buttocks area.

After the second test ride, I watched this rider come in on his brand new F800GS with only 800 miles on it. He and I chatted for a bit and the only negative was that his butt gets sore after about two hours in the saddle.

Neither though is in my immediate future though. Nice as they are, they fall into the local commuter with the occasional ride down mild dirt roads category for me. In other words, I've a bike that can do that now: Brigitta.