First of all this is my first GSA and I'm so happy to be apart of this new community! My first week has been so exciting, trying out all the cool electronics and having a great time! I even took it out for its first off-road ride at my nearest OHV park to see how it handled a trail, excellent ride! There were no issues what so ever, didn't drop it, didn't bottom it out, just a fun day out in the dirt. Well today I've owned it for a week and gave it a little cleaning/ inspection. What the **** is this! Is the exhaust really that fragile? I even bought the wunderlich fender extender. Does anyone else's exhaust look like this after lightly off roading their bike? I know it's an adventure bike and it'll get some rash here and there, but nothing happened! Guess I won't wait any longer on a new skid plate.
Nice job getting your new ride out where it belongs, glad you had fun getting it dirty. Are you speculating this damage is from debris/rocks coming off the Anakee 3 front tire? In "light off-roading"? I can't imagine what you define as heavy off-roading. Those big dents look around the same size as the skid plate bolt, ~8mm in diameter, that's a big rock to be thrown up from the front tire, particularly with such a non-aggressive front tire. I've ridden fire roads, double-track and a groomed, intermediate motocross track, using a Karoo 3 on the front, no fender extender and see nothing like you pictured. Did you get roosted by another bike? Riding through the woods with branches, sticks and other low lying debris? In any event, my current bike is my 3rd GS(A) and not had a ding/dent like that, but again, maybe I don't understand your level of off-roading...
I have an off roading background, rode motocross in high school and some in college. This thing is way to big to go all out like I did back then. The trails were rocky and some what technical, I wasn't blasting through them at light speed or anything. There wasn't any loud noticeable noises and didn't get in anyone's rooster either. The bike had 2 miles when I bought it so it had to have happened on my day at the park. Altrider has some nice header pipe guard pieces Ill probably go with, also really like their skid plate compared to others. Sorry the picture is so bad, but there are three dings on the left header pipe. None on the right
I really doubt that happened whilst you were on the trail. Can you be sure the damage was not there when it was delivered? K
I had similar damage once. It was attributed to damage while uncrating the bike. They have to raise the front end to install the front tire and if done carelessly can damage the header. The header was replaced at the first service under warranty.
doesn't look like there are any associated marks on the skid pan either. figure a dent that big, you probably would've cringed at the sound of impact...
Funny you posted this, as I had a similar dent on the right hand header on my 2014 GSW. I didn't hear it happen, just thought it was one of those things. The headers on the Watercooled bikes do seem more fragile than the twin cams, as I never picked up a dent on any of my other bikes.
here's some better day time pictures. I emailed my salesman and he want me to bring it in to get it looked at. I'll make sure I update you all.
Hey there, I hope you get this sorted out. The one thing I would recommend is that you get yourself a Black Dog Cycle Works skid plate ASAP. (I'll preface this by saying the folks at BDCW are great friends of mine, but I loved their products long before we ever became friends.) There are many other skid plates on the market, but the BDCW plate is the one that almost all of the instructors at Raw Hyde run. Jimmy Lewis uses their stuff and swears by it. I've had one on every adventure bike I've owned, and quite simply, there's nothing like it on the market. It's designed to take an incredible amount of abuse without any adverse effect to your bike, and this has been tested and proven time and time again. I've seen bikes take hits to the BDCW plate that would have guaranteed a ride home in the chase truck if they were using anything else. Check out the selection of stuff they make here: Black Dog Cycle Works Anyway, I hope you get it sorted, and enjoy that bike. They are awesome. Best, Luca
I'm guessing it was there. I think you would have noticed something like that, Do you have any full bike shots to cheer you/us up?!
Take a look in the vendor section for "Twin Headlight Ernie".....he designs a great bash-plate for the oil colled GS's, but not sure if he has designed on for the water cooled bikes yet, regardless, he has some great products.
Hey Blackhawkx, sorry to see your new bike got it's first battle scar. From the looks of it, I'd guess a rock got kicked up by the front tire. Let's hope the saying is true and chicks really do dig scars I came across this thread and just wanted to give you my two cents worth. I'm an instructor at RawHyde Offroad and I can appreciate the value in a good skid plate as well as anyone. I've been running a Black Dog Cycle Works skid plate on my '09 GSA for over three years and have been nothing but impressed. When I bought their skid plate, the owners at BDCW (Kurt and Martha) didn't know me from Adam but they went the extra mile to answer all my questions...not just about their bomb proof skid plate, but about other products I was considering too. I have since gotten to know Kurt and Martha very well and consider them good friends. If you are still in the market, send them an email or give them a call. They can answer all your questions and will make you a subject mater expert on skid plates in no time. Cheers!
Been on some more trail rides since the original post and I've managed to put two more dents on the same header pipe. For some reason rocks love the left side. Discussed it with my salesman and it does look like rock hits. To bad the, cheap material. Thanks BMW I was messaged by Altrider and they offered me a nice deal on a skid plate. I'll probably be taking them up on their offer soon. I like the blackdog skid plate but I prefer the mounting setup altrider has. yes I do
