The All New 2013 LIQUID COOLED R1200GS threadfest

[markjenn]

Originally Posted by Moronic

Mark, is that a quote from Bike magazine UK? A special from their iPad edition? AFAIK they don't have an online presence and I'd not have thought they could have squeezed a review onto paper so quickly.

Yes and yes. It's Bike's relatively recent iPad edition in Apple's newstand. They mentioned at the beginning of the ezine that they managed to squeeze some new-GS coverage in that didn't make their dead-trees publishing deadlines.

As an aside, I have very mixed feelings about Bike's iPad app. It is very functional when it works, but after I initially subscribed and got the first issue, it wouldn't recognize my subscription for subsequent issues. Once I finally got through, Apple refunded my subscription money in full, then a few weeks later my subscription re-started and I've been able to download the last two issues. Well sorta.... it is so buggy, I seldom can read for more than a few minutes before the app crashes. If you decide to subscribe, be ready for a rough ride. Perhaps my "ancient" iPad 1 that won't upgrade past iOS 5.1 is to blame.

- Mark

[dmac57]

Um, EJ? Methinks you quoted the same passage (from the Canadian journo) as the other inmate. So, not that counting is important, but that still makes two reports so far.

[EJ_92606]

Originally Posted by dmac57

Um, EJ? Methinks you quoted the same passage (from the Canadian journo) as the other inmate. So, not that counting is important, but that still makes two reports so far.

Oops, you are completely correct...it's been a long day and I inserted the wrong quote...just fixed it. I had meant to include MarkJenn's quote from BIKE magazine.

[EJ_92606]

Originally Posted by EJ_92606

Oops, you are completely correct...it's been a long day and I'm glad it's only two! I'll edit that post since it doesn't make any sense.

Correction, I think it is three if you include the quote from BIKE magazine that MarkJenn posted previously, I had just pasted the incorrect quote...

Just to put some specificity to this discussion of possible handling issues with the new GS, here is the quote from the Bike magazine article:
"The only unpleasant shock during the while 280-mile ride is a tankslapper so violent it snaps the lockstops off the frame. BMW chassis engineers seemed shocked to hear of it, claiming they never experienced anything of the sort in five long years and one million kilometers of testing. It does seem that I just happen to have stumbled on exactly the wrong combination of speed and road surface at the wrong time. Assuming it really is just a one-off - which, in all fairness, would appear to be the most likely explanation - then the new R1200GS is a remarkable machine."
You guys can argue about whether worrying about something like this with the amount of data we have is prudent or chicken-little.

- Mark

[GrahamD]

Originally Posted by EJ_92606

BMW chassis engineers seemed shocked to hear of it, claiming they never experienced anything of the sort in five long years and one million kilometers of testing..

Well I can't say I'm surprised. They have been shocked for years about final drive failures.

Anyway if it is a real problem it will be fixed....Eventually...Maybe..

[tallguy-09]

"Motorrad" has its 2013 review "Wasser Marsch" or "bring on the water".
Oh, I don't even have to read it, the new GS is perfect in every German magazine :-)
...I was wrong, Motorrad couldn't test the GS in South Africa and therefore published an Italian review from "Motociclismo"...
Perfect but they've noticed off-road front end instability (handlebar shake) at 120-150Km/h (thinner fork tube/new stiffer frame) combination issue?

[GrahamD]

Originally Posted by tallguy-09

Perfect but they've noticed off-road front end instability (handlebar shake) at 120-150Km/h (thinner fork tube/new stiffer frame) combination issue?

Maybe. Stroms tended to do that a bit. Thinnish forks, stiff frame. Maybe a fork brace will help.

[Moronic]

Motociclismo has a review online, starting here.


Its reviewer also says something about the way the bike behaves on corrugated off-road surfaces, with the dynamic damping. Here it is in Google Translate:

"Where the GS is in difficulty are small undulations in rapid succession , perhaps due to the reduced suspension travel and accomplice probably the stiffening of the frame at the front, the Telelever breaks down on bumpy at speeds between 120 and 150 km / h, and the front tire hard copy to the ground by returning some sbacchettata steering."


Somebody who can read Italian might offer us something more accurate from the original:

"L’unico frangente dove la GS va in difficoltà sono le piccole ondulazioni in rapidissima successione: forse a causa della ridotta escursione della sospensione e complice probabilmente l’irrigidimento del telaio nella zona anteriore, il Telelever va in crisi sullo sconnesso a velocità comprese tra 120 e 150 km/h, e la gomma anteriore fatica a copiare il terreno restituendo qualche sbacchettata di sterzo. Colpa della moto o di chi, come noi, si lancia su terra a velocità “dakariane”?"


The key term which Google has not translated is sbacchettata. A search on the term brings up a bunch of YouTube videos whose common thread seems to be ... hmm, some sort of shaking or oscillation, possibly of the steering.

Edit: sorry, missed some stuff above while typing. Starting to look like more than coincidence.

[Ze_zaskar]

This kind of stuff just strengthens my everlasting thoughts that the Telelever is a bad idea in a bike like the GS.
I've tried some GSs over the years, and the fork is one of the reasons why I feel my S10 better offroad.

Unfortunatelly I belive the Telelever is one of those german things made to make the GS "different", AKA design arrogance

[GrahamD]

Originally Posted by Ze_zaskar

This kind of stuff just strengthens my everlasting thoughts that the Telelever is a bad idea in a bike like the GS.
I've tried some GSs over the years, and the fork is one of the reasons why I feel my S10 better offroad.

Unfortunatelly I belive the Telelever is one of those german things made to make the GS "different", AKA design arrogance

Well it's an English thing that one manufacturer borrowed and stuck with. It has its pros and cons like everything else.

[EJ_92606]

Originally Posted by Ze_zaskar

This kind of stuff just strengthens my everlasting thoughts that the Telelever is a bad idea in a bike like the GS.
I've tried some GSs over the years, and the fork is one of the reasons why I feel my S10 better offroad.

Unfortunatelly I belive the Telelever is one of those german things made to make the GS "different", AKA design arrogance

What makes you think it's a telelever issue? The telelever has been around for ages in a good part of the BMW product line without any of the issues being reported about the new GS.

[navpreet318]

If you see some of the threads here, it has been reported that a fork brace on the regular GS aids the handling enormously! And thats with those thick stanchion tubes. And now BMW has gone ahead and made them thinner. Why do they have to resort to this kind of cost cutting? No doubt it will now need a fork brace even more. The telelever is actually a nice thing. Not about arrogance but I love the fact that I have full suspension travel even under braking under emergency situations.

[igorpetrovich]

"sbachettata" in italian means a strong shaking of the stearing, it normally accurs when accelerating, I'don't know if this is the case.
The jurnalist also says: Is it because of the bike or because of us riding on a dirt road at dakarian speed?

[Moronic]

Originally Posted by igorpetrovich

"sbachettata" in italian means a strong shaking of the stearing, it normally accurs when accelerating, I'don't know if this is the case.
The jurnalist also says: Is it because of the bike or because of us riding on a dirt road at dakarian speed?

Thank you for the translation, igorpetrovich, and welcome to the forum.

"dakarian" - I like that!

But we can answer his question for him, for we have the other reports above, among them one from Kevin Duke of motorcycle.com who recounts some fearful sbachettata arising at the apparently un-dakarian pace of 45mph (75kmh).

There is also the Bike UK reporter, who does not give the speed at which a tankslapper broke his steering stops but who hypothesises that he may "just happen to have stumbled on exactly the wrong combination of speed and road surface at the wrong time", and that the incident therefore was a one-off.

Add it up and we can say so far ...

To Bike, no, not a one-off incident.

To Motociclismo: no, not only at arguably inappropriate speeds.

To all three: yes, it is starting to look like a bit of a problem with the bike.

And to canadamotoguide.com, whose reporter experienced something similar but opined that "It isn’t alarming": well, it has been alarming for some.

[RichBMW]

So has nobody EVER had a tankslapper whilst riding the current 12GS off road? I seem to remember a post only last week of a guy riding across the desert on a GSA and wrecking the bike.