BMW F650's

[garth]

Hi

Anyone own / owned / ridden one?

I want to do a bit of travel in about a year or two, with the missus. Been looking at these, reviews seem good, reliable, robust, good on fuel etc, not fantastic offroad but can cope, and just looking for opinions.

After the F650 specifically because I know you can lower the Strada models to the same seat height as a GN125 with a bit of work - 740mm. This bodes well for the vertically challenged g/f. (would be an advantage to both have the same make/model bike)

TIA


____________________
You ain't a has been if you never was

[LustyLew]

My mate has the F650 GS and the Dakar.

The GS handles his trip round Austria perfectly fine, 2 up. Wasn't major off roading, but shallow streams nad some mountain passes.

His missus now has that and he now has a Dakar. From what I understand, it's a bit more capable with a bigger front wheel and more travel in the forks. But his side stand snapped when trying to load his bike onto a ferry and I think it has an oil leak. I think there might be an electrical problem too, but dont quote me on that.

The Dakar looks good when some nice aluminium luggage. Gives it a rugged look without being a Charlie/Ewan wannabe.
____________________
Like a Yorkie - I'm not for the girls

[nautilus]

I had one and felt it was a great touring bike one up. think it might be rather underpowered with a pillion though. You'll get more info on this forum https://www.f650.co.uk/
____________________
The world is a book & those who do not travel read only a page. St Augustine.

https://mogs-travels.blogspot.com

[Irezumi aka Reuben]

I rode a standard early model on off-road biased tyres.

On light gravel it was fine, on the road the front wanted to tuck and it would speed wobble at at anything over 70. Would wheelie quite easily though.

If it was me I'd buy anything but an F650.

[quacker_boy]

My dad had a 1997 F650 with off road biased tyres as well and as Reuben says you can't do much over 70 mph without clenching your bumhole. Fantastic bike overall though, first bike I learned to ride on and was really nice, uses a Rotax 650 motor, don't know whether they still do though.

He covered 14,000 kms on it through 12 countries in 2 and a half weeks from Dubai back to UK. Only thing that went wrong was the sidestand killswitch which cocked up in Germany of all places, apparently the rescue team were incredibly efficent and organised. Although he did get stopped in one country by two policeman on identical bikes as they'd thought he'd stolen it and changed the plates
____________________
wizzzard wrote: Imagine God just stopping by, tidying your front room up and then quietly letting himself out again. Statisticly more likely to happen than Korn being on here.

[G]

Never really been a fan of the F650, though they can be got quite cheaply.
For road stuff, something like the V-strom 650 is going to be better, for off-road stuff there's a lot of lighter choices.

If you don't mind keeping the speed down on the road it shouldn't be too bad; but I'd only be looking at them if they were cheap.

[LeeR]

A mate of mine had the F650 Dakar and loved it, regularly returned 60mpg and carried him, his missus and gear on several tours. He's upgraded to a R1200 adventure now, bought the gimp suit and helmet and thinks he's Charleeey.

As G says there are other options, esp if you want some off-road fun think Yamaha XT660 range.

But the new F650 (with the 800 engine) is supposedly a much better bike than the rotax single, though the Rotax was almost indestructible.

Others: DL650, Versys, Pegaso, Transalp etc... all probably a lot cheaper as well, as the beamers tend to hold a high resale value.

Just my tuppence, and all the best whatever you decide.
____________________
My claim to fame: Austin Vince nicked my pen...

[Keen]

I'd be a little nervous about buying an early one after reading this:

2002 BMW F650GS fractured at the wheel spindle mount
____________________
"he who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man"- Dr. Johnson

[pyx_e]

What is good/bad about single cylinder engines? The only single pots I know are Harleys, why would BMW choose the single pot route?
____________________
Shiney!
Kawasaki: ER5, Versys, VN900.

[quacker_boy]

[LeeR]

There's a whole world of information out there regarding single cylinder engines, The Thumper Page is a place to start if you're interested.

But essentially a good single (imho) offers a compromise between performance and economy. A well thought out 4T single might well have twin spark and twin carbs, thought newer ones might have fuel injection. Top speeds are normally sub 100mph but mpg is usually 50 and upwards.

The new KTM 690 Duke is a 650cc single that generates 65bhp, hits 120mph, and returns 48mpg if you're happy with that you're on to a winner.
____________________
My claim to fame: Austin Vince nicked my pen...

[garth]

Ta for the replies.

[G]

The new KTM Duke doesn't quite make 65hp and won't hit 120mph either. I've got the 'enduro' version of this and it's not bad, but not perfect either. However all the 690 models

Have you looked at the KLE500; not sure if you can make it that low, but it's along a similar vein and can be got quite cheaply.

I've seen a KLR lowered quite a lot, but doubt it's that much and the beemer is probably better on road, though not as good off-road.

[Weedy]

I've just taken the plunge and bought a brand new Aprilia Pegaso for just under £4k.

Not got it home yet, so can't go into detail about the pro's and cons, but from what I've been reading it's a pretty good bike. You'll get about 150-180 miles to a tank and it's a grin machine.
____________________
<CBT passed 16th Sept 2007><Theory Test passed 11th Oct 2007><Practical Test passed 19th Apr 2008>
OWNED: 2008 Aprilia Pegaso Strada CURRENT: Bikeless :'(

[nautilus]

[G]

While the listed 174kg is light-ish by road bike standards (though that's what my semi-fueled 675 race bike weighs), it's far from light for off-roading, especially if they don't have much experience.

[garth]

[Itchy]

[G]

XT660 is pretty heavy too.
You can go off road on anything - as we had discussed elsewhere, mr tatoo recounted how he had been down the lanes we were going down on a hornet - and he was probably faster than us too!

But, it will always be easier the lighter bike you've got. Sure the Dakar riders go bloody fast with big heavyish bikes, but I'm not quite up to the skill of them.

For me, I'd prefer to start with a quite light bike (KTM690) then add a load of stuff to make it heavish, rather than start with a pretty heavy bike to make it even heavier.

Have you watched/read mondo enduro? They had a lot of troubles as it was, now imagine they had bikes that weighed an extra 100kg.
It all depends how 'serious' off roading you want to do.
Not too serious and you could be using that hornet, but a big trailie style would have some advantages.

[Dom]

Personally I'd give the F650s a pretty wide berth. As I probably mentioned to you at some point I've got a mate riding one from the UK to Aus atm and I know full well that he'd have tossed it into a ditch and set it on fire by now if it could afford to get something else.

I've just asked him to send me a list of the problems he's had:

[LeeR]

Almost forgot, the October issue of RiDE (on sale until 14/10/09) has a good article on adjusting bikes for the shorter rider, interestingly they use a F650 as the donor bike.
____________________
My claim to fame: Austin Vince nicked my pen...