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1000 km (nearly) bike review

3K views 11 replies 5 participants last post by  SKIZIKS 
#1 ·
I’ve done about 850kms on my 07 GT and thought I’d post a few thoughts after 2 weeks of ownership. They’ll be in no particular order so could be a bit random!

Overall the bike is awesome and the best all round bike I have ever ridden. Great for commuting to/from work, great for a blast through the hills, great for doing a week long trip with 2 people on the bike. There’s nothing this bike can’t do.

Software: I have no idea which software my bike has (was built the week of 25 Sep and has not had software changed yet). So far I have not noticed any low speed/low RPM issues.

Engine: Great. So versatile with the gear ratios on the bike. Any gear, any time. You can be really lazy and stay in 3rd gear all day, or work your way up and down through the gearbox to really push hard.

Handling: With the wide bars and hossack/paralever combo, the GT handles like a dream. Really effortless to tip into a corner (for a bike in this class). You forget how much weight you are throwing around corners with the GT.

Gearbox: Well – what to say here. If you change gears ‘normally’, this has got to be the loudest gearbox I’ve heard, particularly in the first 3 gears. I get a really loud clunk and the sound of something like a spring that has been wound up tight for a decade that has finally been let free. Far from what you would expect from a $30k motorbike. I’ve never missed a change though, so can’t complain there. I’ve read through all the threads on this board and tried all the ‘fixes’ and I’m pretty close to getting smooth and mostly quiet changes now. Adjusting the gear lever did nothing. The fix for me is the ‘don’t use much clutch’ method. By ‘not much’ I have found that means less than 10% of the clutch lever travel. I’m nearly doing clutchless upshifts, but not quite. I barely apply pressure to the clutch lever after pre-loading the gear lever, and it just snicks to the next gear (mostly). This only works for up-shifts. Down shifts still scare the neighbours.

Comfort/wind protection: I’m 5’8. No idea of my inseam – must be an American thing! I have the low seat in the low position, the tall OEM screen and the bars in the lowest position. So far, so good with the comfort. The low seat is much better than the standard and from a comfort perspective I’m happy. I’ve started another thread in regards to the seat cover sliding. Will try and get a new seat under warranty to see if that fixes it. With the screen all the way down I get nice smooth airflow hitting me about the shoulders and up. With the screen all the way up I am pretty much sitting in still air and just look over the top of the screen. So I don’t think I need an after market screen.

Cruise control: Awesome. Couldn’t live without it.

ESA: Great. Especially for changing pre-load from solo to 2-up. I ride mostly in ‘normal’.

Tire Pressure Monitor: Very cool. I’m a lazy shit so this is a nice feature. Start your ride and do a quick check of the pressures. They don’t transmit the pressures until you are doing more than 30km/h, but then are constantly updated for the duration of your ride, even when stopped, up until 15 minutes after the ignition is turned off. No need to worry about the pressure indication changing as the tires get hot. The computer calculates the pressures back to a reference temperature of 20 deg C, so they pretty much stay constant the whole ride.

Factory Alarm: Seems like a good feature to me. I have mine set-up to activate when I remove the key (there’s a 30 sec delay before it arms). Its not too sensitive either. You can get into your panniers without it going off.

Brakes:
The non-servo brakes seem really good to me. I always found the servo brakes really powerful but a bit touchy during my test rides (I’m sure you would get used to them though). The new version is the best of both worlds. I’m still in the habit of putting my foot on the back brake when applying the front and you can notice some feedback through the pedal. I’m guessing it’s caused by actuation of the valves that link the front/back brakes.

Luggage: Great stuff. I have the large topcase, tank bag and the liner bags for the panniers and topcase. Really well designed luggage. I have the second version of the tankbag and have no issues at all.

Trip Meter: I reckon my trip computer is about 20% inaccurate in regards to kms to go before empty. I’m guessing it uses your fuel consumption and remaining fuel capacity to work out kms to go. I have been as low as a 1/3 of a tank of fuel and the trip computer has told me that I could still do more kms with that fuel than the kms I had done with the first 2/3 of the tank! Hopefully Australia will get the software update that corrects the fuel consumption – should fix the problem.

Fuel tank/fuel light: As I am only up to 850km I am only on my 3rd tank of fuel. For the first tank (was riding pretty hard in winding, hilly roads) the fuel light came on at 268km and estimated 68km remaining. I didn’t get fuel until 298km and put 19 litres in the tank. On my next tank I got to 300km (no light – combo of highway cruising with some twisties) and put in 16.5 litres. It will take a bit more riding to get a good understanding of fuel usage.

LCD: I find mine very readable in full sunlight. The issues I have is that the screen reflects really well and I can see myself on the display more often than bike information (nearly anyway!). I also had one instance where I parked the bike over breakfast (about 2 hours) and when I got back on and started the bike, the LCD was ‘greyed out’ like a damaged LCD. After about 5 kms of riding it was fine again, and has been since.

That’s about all I can think of at the moment! In summary I love the bike but have the following complaints/issues. 2 of them should be easily fixed.
- Gearbox not as smooth as it should be for a bike of this cost/quality. Especially down-shifts.
- My seat cover is loose and sliding
- Trip computer is on drugs.

Am looking forward to putting over 5000km on the bike over the Christmas break.
 
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#2 ·
great review, ben
love the "inseam in america" comment

we have the same bike....
though i didn't wait long enough to get that TPM.... wish i had it

please post more info soon'

thanks for the great read
 
#3 ·
Ben,

Welcome to the star fleet!!

Loved reading your review. CGM is the fastest colour. I'm adding the TPM as a retrofit. Nice to hear how it works. I was wondering about that. Nice approach.

Us lucky Canucks had Xenon in '06. It's fantastic.

cheers,
 
#6 ·
ClearwaterBMW said:
who knows
my dealer says that there is NO info yet regarding it
Greg, you're not alone, we can't get any detailed info here in the UK either. I've asked my dealer specifically to check and the best BMW could come back with was 'about April'. :(
 
#7 ·
Chrisdy said:
Greg, you're not alone, we can't get any detailed info here in the UK either. I've asked my dealer specifically to check and the best BMW could come back with was 'about April'. :(

april sounds like CRAP
if it is available NOW as an option......
how can we have to wait 5 more months to get it put on?

of course, in typical BMW fashion.... the aftermarket price will be 2-3X that of the original cost, i'm sure
 
#8 ·
ClearwaterBMW said:
april sounds like CRAP
if it is available NOW as an option......
how can we have to wait 5 more months to get it put on?

of course, in typical BMW fashion.... the aftermarket price will be 2-3X that of the original cost, i'm sure
Perhaps, in true BMW fashion, the people selecting the factory-supplied TPM are the guinea pigs and BMW are waiting to see how they survive before making TPM available as an upgrade????
.
.
.
and THEN they jack up the price for all us after-market upgraders, when of course there will be a lot more people waiting.
 
#9 ·
Chrisdy said:
Perhaps, in true BMW fashion, the people selecting the factory-supplied TPM are the guinea pigs and BMW are waiting to see how they survive before making TPM available as an upgrade????
.
.
.
and THEN they jack up the price for all us after-market upgraders, when of course there will be a lot more people waiting.

oh,
my BELOVED BMW wouldn't do that...... :teeth :teeth :teeth :teeth
 
#11 ·
SKIZIKS said:
Chris D, perhaps you missed this thread. I know you didn't Greg. Seems to be lots of information around.

http://www.k-bikes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7512&page=2&pp=10
Actually I read that thread at the time with great interest. My posts in this thread were rather tongue-in-cheek because, despite all this impressive technical information becoming available, the one thing that seems to be impossible is to get BMW to even tell its dealers when the actual capability will be made available for retro-fit.

Greg has an excellent point - we have the current crop of new bilkes arriving from the factory with TPM fitted, so we know the technology works and is available now, yet the people who gave BMW early support in the GT programme by purchasing the bikes prior to TPM's release cannot even get a hint of a date for upgrading. BMW's marketting people really do need a lesson in customer support.
 
#12 ·
Chrisdy said:
BMW's marketting people really do need a lesson in customer support.

I agree wholeheartedly. If I wasn't sitting here in the heat of winter, looking out across a snow-covered vale, I'd be as antsy as you. I've got 3 more months of dreaming about using TPM. Then I'll become impatient. Hopefully, BMW will have responded by then.
 
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