Trekker's Delight

Trekker's delight

UP FRONT

David Edwards

IT’S ENTIRELY TOO EARLY, ESPECIALLY for a man who, by profession, should retain an open mind, but I believe I’ve already ridden my favorite new bike of 2009.

In October I spent three days in California’s Sierra Nevada range aboard one of the first F800GS BMWs in the country, and I am smitten.

I guess I shouldn’t be all that surprised. As I look back over my last 20plus years of riding, BMW’s odd-duck dual-purpose bikes have provided some of my brightest memories.

Not that it was love at first ride. In “Good as Gold,” my first big touring story for Cycle World (January, 1985), my motocross/enduro background was all at odds with the R80G/S, a 425-pound shaftdrive “trailbike” that had so-so brakes and cylinder heads where my boots wanted to be in turns.

Then, if only for survival purposes,

I learned to chill out, slow down and let the dirt roads and logging trails of California’s Gold Country slip more sanely beneath the big G/S’s tires. In the process, I discovered an adventure-touring mantra of sorts: “We weren’t out to set any speed records in the dirt, and as we bobbled our way toward Eureka, our slower pace allowed us to take in all the beauty of the surrounding straw-colored hills, isolated farm houses, •azing horses, Hrling clouds and darting deer. Barrelling down a dirt road, ass-end hung out and in a cloud of dust, has its merits, but sightseeing isn’t one of them...”

I now own a 1982 R80G/S, a 100,000mile example that saw hard duty as a Mexican tour rental bike, and it’s one of my favorite rides.

I am not a lone voice around here in praise of the GS, either (the slash was dropped from the model name in ’87). In fact, over the years, CW’s editors have picked various GS models as Best Dual-Purpose Bike, Best Standard and Best Sport-Touring Bike in our annual Ten Best Bikes balloting. No other machine has topped such a wide range of categories.

That versatility has come in handy many times. I’ve ridden GS Twins in Baja, the Alps, the Appalachians, the Dolomites, the Pyrenees, rural Wales and Australia’s back country-not to mention F650GS Singles in New Zealand and Mongolia’s Gobi Desert-and never have I wished to be on a different kind of bike. I’d even wager that on unfamiliar mountain roads, in all kinds of weather and on varied surfaces (cobblestones, gravel, patched asphalt, bovine-generated “green ice,” etc.), nothing will hold a higher all-day speed average with less drama than a GS. Factor in ABS brakes, heated handgrips and secure, purpose-built luggage, and you’ve got one competent, capable traveling companion.

Which is not to say perfect. The current R1200GS is a big, tall motorcycle, scaling-in at a claimed (i.e. optimistic) 504 pounds full of gas. The new F800GS is about 50 pounds lighter, that figure arrived at in part via a 45mm inverted fork in place of the big bike’s Telelever A-arm arrangement, plus a simpler final-drive system-chain and sprockets instead of the 1200’s anti-chassis-jacking Paralever driveshaft setup.

Somehow, though, BMW’s boffins have managed to make their almost vertical-Twin (8.3 degrees forward slant) sound and feel like der grösser Pancake Motor. Credit the 360-degree firing order plus a unique counterbalancing system. It’s related to the “dummy conrod” setup used in Ducati’s Supermono Singles racer in that the balancers reciprocate rather than rotate. BMW has provided masses below the crankshaft, at the ends of pivoted levers. These masses are driven by a short connecting rod (BMW calls it an eccentric) from the crank, so that as the engine’s pistons rise, the masses on the pivoted levers are driven downward. The inertia forces of pistons and these masses neatly cancel each other-just like the opposed pistons of a Boxer motor!

I fell under the 800’s spell on the Cycle World Trek, a three-day industry dual-sport ride we’ve put on for 33 years. For the past nine, the destination has been the Sierra Summit ski lodge near Huntington Lake. We lay out three routes to get there: A, B and C, the latter roughly 15 percent dirt and 85 percent scenic backroad. Perfect for the F800GS, in other words.

Oh, fate of the GS after the Trek? It’s now part of CW’s long-term fleet, so it’ll be around for the next year and 10,000 or miles. Just to make sure I haven’t made decision, you understand...