New GS

[Bones]

There's information up on www.bmwmotorcycles.com about the new GS. The site has been crashing as I've tried to watch video and clink links, so it appears there is a lot of interest.

All kinds of technology with the much anticipated "combined air and liquid cooling" looking like the biggest change.

And to my eyes, it's also a big improvement in overall design...still unmistakably a GS but it looks like an integrated whole rather than something slapped together by a committee.

Bet they sell all they can make.

EDIT: Can't find a price...anybody know?

EDIT 2: Apparently BMW hasn't released pricing, however the UK appears to be gettomg a TE model (for Touring Edition) which will have a bunch of standard kit for touring. Whether that's coming across the pond I do not know.

http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-news-new-bikes/intermot-water-cooled-gs-finally-revealed/21525.html

http://blog.motorcycle.com/2012/10/02/manufacturers/bmw/intermot-2012-2013-bmw-r1200gs-breaks-cover/

 

[dduelin]

Price?

Does it matter?

 

[Bones]

Price?

Does it matter?

Does price matter? Yes.

Has BMW released the price? Not yet.

 

[dduelin]

BMW imports so few bikes its almost as if price does not matter to the market. That is what I meant.

 

[BakerBoy]

It looks much better than the old ducky-dorky GS thingy.

Glad to see another company moving forward. (As in, where are you Honda??!)

 

[Bones]

Funniest comment from Motorcycle Daily readers: "BMW is super-sizing the R1200GS right out of the adventure bike category and into something that’s laughable in that role, like a 200 pound female gymnast."

It seems to be morphing into a more road-oriented bike. Perhaps that's why I'm liking it more. The new KTM Adventure is moving that direction, too. So is the revised MultiStrada.

 

[catcher]

Bones, you scared me, I thought you had bought a new GS!!!

Doubtful. He's just Bones. Not High-Bones. You, on the other hand, might well be able to force a GS into submission. Perhaps Bones WILL buy one - for you!
If we had 100 people on here each contributing a couple hundred dollars...
Bones, you're in charge of promotion! By the way, I'm in!

 

[Bones]

Bones, you scared me, I thought you had bought a new GS!!!

Nah, not yet. If the boxer is transformed into something I like, however, that opens up a bunch of possibilities. An RS or a Roadster set up for touring?

 

[Mellow]

That sux Ben... but I see that more as a company problem than the quality issue.. meaning no matter where it was made it sounds like he would have gotten the same response. Sounds like a very valid lawsuit to me.

 

[Chris Parker]

Ben, I have to say that your info is more wrong than you know... having lived in both camps, Honda and now back in the BMW world, aside from your models referenced, all other models are made with in Germany in Berlin. The brakes are Brembo units, and aside from the tires, they are designed, engineered and built in the Fatherland. As to your friends troubles, something doesn't pass the smell test of what they are telling him. He has a good case on his side. BMW stands by (or should stand by) their product, no matter where it is built (I have to look no further than in my own back yard where they build the X5, X6 and X3 here in Greer, SC). My dealer, the best motorcycle shop in the Upstate would not stand for this... so it really seems to be a dealer issue more than anything else. I would have him try somewhere else.

 

[dduelin]

Ben,

I think your friend needs to check his facts on BMW. The Rotax engine of which some have been assembled in Germany, Taiwan, and Austria was a 650 single. There are significant differences between the early 650 Rotax engine and the version used by BMW like different heads, crankshafts, carbs and fuel injection. The 800 twin is and always has been manufactured in Berlin.

 

[Mellow]

I have to disagree.

It's a corporate issue all the way around. They dictate what standards should be used for manufacturing, along with quality control. It shouldn't matter where the plant is. The COMPANY should be controlling the production-marketing-distribution of their product. Just my view on it.

Sure sounds like he has a case there based on the contamination comment...

 

[Mellow]

Lots of good images here

https://plus.google.com/photos/107268050451076515661/albums/5794661298694907489?banner=pwa

 

[Bones]

Lots of good images here

And perhaps a worthy contender here?

 

[Mellow]

And perhaps a worthy contender here?

Going to be an interesting couple of years ahead.

 

[Bones]

OK, can someone explain to me what a "beak" actually does? I could maybe see it serving as a secondary fender (maybe), although plenty of off-road bikes get along just find without such appendages. Does it serve some kind of airflow purpose? And it's so much bigger than it used to be. Does it truly need to be that long and doubly pointy? I'm thinking that GS would be a lot nicer looking without it.

 

[Mellow]

I know on the 1150 gs there's an oil cooler there - for the transmission I think - the beak 'looks' like it flows air into that but just a guess.

 

[dduelin]

The original GS beak directed air flow thru an opening then across an oil cooler mounted above and behind it.

Now it has become a styling feature. No adventure touring bike worth it's salt is without one.

 

[dbst1300]

And some better pictures............

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=831285

 

[Bones]

Nice pix. Is that an oil cooler on the port side and a radiator (with a fan) on starboard?

EDIT: OK, the more I see of that beak the more cartoonish it appears. Those points are going to put someone's eye out. Really, can we stop putting beaks on motorcycles please?