Super Tenere or BMW GSA?

Don't bump into that.:eek1

If it's true "There's a saddle for every ass" I don't want to see that ass.

haha... very stable...

saddle upside down isn't an optimum feel!

Tom that's a weak argument. You know that 90% of GS riders are fashion victims who wouldn't have a clue there was any other options in the Adventure bike market and probably wouldnlt have a clue what the pros and cons were anyway.

You see endless incorrect crap about the S10 as well by people who you would think would know better as well. (friendly banter aside)

If sales volume was an indicator of best, then a Kawasaki ninja 300 is way more bike than a any Aprillia or Ducati

The Hero Motorcorps Splendor 2.4 million units makes it a 20x better bike than the GS by that reckoning.

Meet the bike that is 20x better than the GS.

The Hero GS.


Probably easier to use off road as well. I would say that for the majority of wannabe Charlie and Ewans out there it would be a better choice.

They probably wouldn't care about dumping it, scratching it and getting it dirty and it would probably happen less.

And fit some of those funky Indian style crash bars and you have it made.

The Hero "GSA" 30x better than an R1200GSA


So here is mu experience with the.

Of all the bikes I see out in the crappy roads where I live, I see mostly DR650, Hardly any KLR's, A few BMW GSA's, big KTM;s and Super Tens and to date no GS's more than 180km from the major city except the one I ride with.

So two things to note. No KLR's and GS's. Hell on the last trip I saw a Ducati Monster in the middle of no where on a dirt road.

No reason why the GS's can't be out there or the KLR's. Just the way it is for some reason.

Says more about who buys them than what they are capable of I think.

Congrats on the new bike. I'll be interested in hearing how you like it during the next year or so. I'm kinda in the same decision situation..... originally a Yamaha guy but now own an RT, with the thought of getting a new something in '15. Rode the S10 and liked it, but I love the RT.

Good luck...

Having both of them I find them both fantastic bikes. I mainly use the Tenere for day trips and the GSA for longer treks or when I need to haul a bunch of crap for a camping trip. The Tenere definitely feels sportier than the GSA but am sure that a regular GS would feel comparable. Maintenance is a breeze on both bikes. The Tenere does win hands down as far as frequency of recommended service intervals. Both are taken off road, dirt roads and both have their attributes. If I could only have just one? Tenere hands down.
Having a back up bike as KamLeeR does allows her to experience that awesome suspension the BMW has and she got a good deal to boot.

I like the telelever on road as it lets you ride like a complete twat and still survive going into a corner too hot, but it's is a liability offroad.

90%? care to share the supporting data?

Let me see.

99.9% of GS's I see never see dirt.
Twat suits that look like the day they were bought. (BMW of course) 99%
On tarmac. In Coffee shops. 99.9% In groups praising each others amazing riding skillz.

Out on the road past the tarmac 2. out on the road more than 180K from the big city Zero.

So far I only have 12 years to go by.

In 6 years I have seen 2 with actual dirt and stuff on them. Probably the 2 in the previous 6.

So it's definitely not the bike that's the problem is it?

GSA'a are different. Don't see many but they are all over the place. No particular spot. They look like they are used.
Old Beemers. See a few still ticking over.

The reverse is Big KTM's. I hardly ever see them in Cafe's, they are usually out in the desert or on the road way out west covered on crap. They sometimes congregate at Cafe's the afternoon covered in crap road grime r mud.

Smelly dirty people. Ratio. about 20 out there to one at a Burger joint that's clean.

So you do the safety in numbers thing that's fine, but the guys I know that have real experience generally turn up in a pretty interesting combo of bikes. DR's, BMW (old and new), S10's, 400cc jobs, KTM's (big and small). 200cc AG bikes, Smaller triumphs and generally have a clue about the other bikes. You can have a discussion of the pros and cons and where they are coming from and why. You can learn things.

At the Cafe's it "what's that?" A Super Tenere.. A what?
Why did you get a GS? "Cause it's the best" and it's got 48 way adjustable and stuff and ...."
Did you try the Triumph. No I wanted an Adventure bike.
What about the KTM? A what? and on it goes.

I was there once though. I knew about the BMW. I knew nothing about a KTM. I knew nothing about a Strom. I thought that more power was better. I thought that wire wheels were for off road a bigger front wheel made all the difference.

Anyway I talked, I bought, I rode, I learned what suited me.

But it's just like the 90% of Harley buyers really. If it's not a Harley it's crap. Jap crap, Metric crap. bla bla.
Not very informed. It's either Harley or It's crap. Just donlt know much because they never really looked.

Ducati's with huge chicken strips, blinged out to the max 2 years old with 2500km on them.
A friggen burgman would have been more appropriate.

It happens all over the place.

I am seeing a change though. It seems KTM is winning some comparo's and it looks like KTM is getting some of them cashed up fashionistas.needing those big HP numbers to get to the Cafe's. I'll see how that goes over the next few years. Might start seeing lots of clean KTM's in Orange twat suits.

Some rather strange logic and reasoning being used here. Fortunately in the GS group I ride with the logic and reasoning is much easier to follow.

Not an argument, but an observation. My rough accounting of bikes you find way up north has over 90% of them being GS BMWs, KLRs & V-Stroms. Are you thinking I am attributing this to sales volume? Assigning worth by it? Nah.

Tom in Salem

There is a question that someone could perhaps help me with. I have been convinced by the various forum sites that all British bikes drop all their oil, BMWs are all totally unreliable, Ducatis need a day and a half labour to get to their oil filter and Harleys are only good for being trailered to a rally. Its the Japanese bikes that are trouble free for ever. What I don't quite understand is why you so rarely see high mileage 30 year old Jap bikes and yet the duds are fairly commonly seen around?

The "BMW wave" is very similar to how the Queen does it. Let's practice, altogether now:
1. Extend arm in a 90 degree fashion, perfectly vertical forearm, palm at head height.
2. Cup your hand slightly whilst relaxing your fingers.
3. While keeping your forearm vertical, slowly rotate your palm through 90 degrees.

Perform no more than two waves (rotations) at a passing rider, then immediately resume your crotchety contemplation of the road ahead.

Gosh, 111 replies so far! Wow............


Just for the record, I sold my KTM 950 because it was not that reliable for me. It was an awesome dirt bike capable of street. BMW has proven to be reliable, I have friends with 100,000 miles and more on Beemers. Everybike has issues, I ride a bike but I do not abuse it, so I don't think I will ever have to worry about a broke shaft.

I buy bikes for their purpose, to ride on and off road. This Beemer carries its weight better than the 950. Now the front end and dry clutch is not as sweet as 950.
This Beemer will get dirty. I went with the lighter bike compared to Tenere cause 65 lbs makes a huge difference with me off road. I will miss the Teneres wet clutch and lower 1rst gear for technical stuff.

And no, I have never drank coffee and you will never see me at a Starbucks on my Beemer.
I will be too busy camping and riding fire trails!

I'll make it real simple.

Person asserts bike A is better because A sales > B sales.

Bike A sales = 20 x bike B sales

Therefore Bake A is better.

That's the same logic people apply when they say this sells 10 times that so it must be better.

May be, may not be.

Glad you see it's illogical.

Seemed like it.

And when they don't snap, they do this:






Don't say you weren't warned...

my "trusty" BMW...at 15k miles......

Perhaps they weren't selling many of them 30 years ago, or even didn't import Japanese bikes to where you live back then?

Over here we have a lot of old Japanese bikes still on the road (as well as others - our bikes are among the oldest in the EU thanks to the taxes!) A mechanic that I know, has a few clients with 'old skool' Honda CB750's, Suzuki GS1100G's etc. inline fours from late 70's - early 80's, and he's serviced some of those bikes from new. They all have now +100k miles, and some have well over 200k. He specifically said, that the bikes he knows from new, so far not one of them has needed an engine overhaul.

That said, some old Beemers definitely last very well, too, you see them over here as well.

Make no errors they were selling heaps of them then as they were reletively less expensive. I'm not saying that there are not still a few of them around just not as many as there are of the others.

Thanks I get it now. An apple can be compared to a bag of marbles because there are more of them

That's exactly what sells more = better is saying. Correct. There is absolutely no depth to it. It means nothing.

So how many times have you ridden a Hero? In India? in the conditions that they ride in?

You might know your bike is a bucket of marbles, that description would probably fit the S10 better, but you probably know nothing of the Hero.