Discussion
My 1250GS was written off by an unexpected deer in October, fortunately I wasn't, and after 3 months I was recovered enough to be able to think about replacing it.
I had actually got a surprisingly decent result from the insurance - for a 27,000 mile 4 year old bike, they paid out 76% of what I originally paid for it, without any quibbling. I wondered about just replacing it with a lightly used one, but decided that I might as well stick some more money in and move on to the latest model.
So I test rode a 1300GS and a GSA from North Oxford Motorrad. Both had the automatic gearbox, which was pretty hopeless in auto mode as it wants to be in 6th at 40mph, so would need to be shifted manually most of the time, and I didn't see much advantage over the standard bike's quickshifter for my usage. The GS, which I also tried a couple of years ago when it came out was clearly a more sportier bike, turned really quickly, and felt like it was egging you on all the time. The GSA felt more like my old bike to ride, a bit less focussed and more of an all-rounder than the GS.
The trouble for me is I'm 6'4" with some knee issues, and given they made the 1300GS physically smaller to appeal to shortarses, I just don't fit on it as well as I did on my old 1250. So I ended going with the GSA this time as it's just more comfortable.
BMW are doing a deal in Q1 with free luggage that's worth about £1600, and I managed to get another 10% off the RRP with some firm negotiation, that I'm normally totally crap at. So I'm fairly happy with the deal. Insurance was more of a problem given the bike's value and the fault accident, so just had to swallow last year's premium more than doubling.
The bike was delivered this morning, and my first job was to fit some pre-cut PPF I'd bought (from Invisible Patterns) to protect the tank, which I think otherwise will get scratched to buggery just by looking at it. I'd never fitted PPF before, but after watching a few YT videos, I managed to make a fairly decent fist of it. The key is just to take it really slowly and use a LOT of spray to keep the film mobile, and work from the inside outwards. The first side of the tank was a bit of a 'mare, but the second side was much easier once I knew where all the difficult bits were.
Then I took it out for a quick 50 miles just to get a bit of heat into the tyres, it felt really great to be out on my own bike again.
Minecraft-styled bike for your appreciation:
I had actually got a surprisingly decent result from the insurance - for a 27,000 mile 4 year old bike, they paid out 76% of what I originally paid for it, without any quibbling. I wondered about just replacing it with a lightly used one, but decided that I might as well stick some more money in and move on to the latest model.
So I test rode a 1300GS and a GSA from North Oxford Motorrad. Both had the automatic gearbox, which was pretty hopeless in auto mode as it wants to be in 6th at 40mph, so would need to be shifted manually most of the time, and I didn't see much advantage over the standard bike's quickshifter for my usage. The GS, which I also tried a couple of years ago when it came out was clearly a more sportier bike, turned really quickly, and felt like it was egging you on all the time. The GSA felt more like my old bike to ride, a bit less focussed and more of an all-rounder than the GS.
The trouble for me is I'm 6'4" with some knee issues, and given they made the 1300GS physically smaller to appeal to shortarses, I just don't fit on it as well as I did on my old 1250. So I ended going with the GSA this time as it's just more comfortable.
BMW are doing a deal in Q1 with free luggage that's worth about £1600, and I managed to get another 10% off the RRP with some firm negotiation, that I'm normally totally crap at. So I'm fairly happy with the deal. Insurance was more of a problem given the bike's value and the fault accident, so just had to swallow last year's premium more than doubling.
The bike was delivered this morning, and my first job was to fit some pre-cut PPF I'd bought (from Invisible Patterns) to protect the tank, which I think otherwise will get scratched to buggery just by looking at it. I'd never fitted PPF before, but after watching a few YT videos, I managed to make a fairly decent fist of it. The key is just to take it really slowly and use a LOT of spray to keep the film mobile, and work from the inside outwards. The first side of the tank was a bit of a 'mare, but the second side was much easier once I knew where all the difficult bits were.
Then I took it out for a quick 50 miles just to get a bit of heat into the tyres, it felt really great to be out on my own bike again.
Minecraft-styled bike for your appreciation:
Nice bikes, I agree about the difference between then GS and GSA. The GS felt like a big comfortable super naked to me and would be my choice for that reason! Did you do a direct comparison between the manual and ASA? I test rode an early 1300gs and thought the quick shifter was far too clunky, then I rode an auto GSA and it made the shifts so much smoother it would be my choice. Wondering if they've improved the manual quick shifter since then.
GreaseNipple said:
Nice bikes, I agree about the difference between then GS and GSA. The GS felt like a big comfortable super naked to me and would be my choice for that reason! Did you do a direct comparison between the manual and ASA? I test rode an early 1300gs and thought the quick shifter was far too clunky, then I rode an auto GSA and it made the shifts so much smoother it would be my choice. Wondering if they've improved the manual quick shifter since then.
I had ridden a manual 1300GS previously, and found the quick shifter to be OK, maybe slightly better than my 1250, so was confident it'd be fine. The Auto is certainly much slicker than the quickshifter, when doing manual shifts, but I just didn't fancy the additional complexity and cost. I've also read of a few people who have had issues with ASA bikes stalling at low speeds.
Welcome to the GS13 club. At 5'8" the "regular" GS was big enough for me and back in early 2024 the GSA wasn't out yet anyway so I have the standard bike. It's at 13,000 miles now and after nearly 2 years I absolutely love it. Better than the 1250 in every demonstrable way (much much faster, better handling, firmer ride, stops better, more comfortable seat, and the tech is outstanding) except the exhaust noise!!!
Here's a controversial thought too - although I'm still not sure I'm a fan of the weird light and radar panel on the front of the GS13, put it next to the 1250 and the 1250 looks very old fashioned. Could the GS13 be growing in to its looks???
Here's a controversial thought too - although I'm still not sure I'm a fan of the weird light and radar panel on the front of the GS13, put it next to the 1250 and the 1250 looks very old fashioned. Could the GS13 be growing in to its looks???
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