I found that the previous GS cast wheels bent pretty easily on the edge of the rims particularly where you lower the PSI to around 20 and there are a few rocks around. The wire wheels are much more robust and for $500 extra are very reasonably priced. Remember it is an Adventure bike!
Yeah, if you are riding where it is necessary to air down, then I think spoked wheels are the way to go.
Got 5000 kms in the beast and love it I like the tires but wear on the NEXT's seems poor ?? My 2004 GS always ran with std Tourance with good wear 8000/9000 kms rear and 12000/14000 kms front. At 5000 kms the rear is almost hitting the wear bar, ride hard but did on the 2004 as well. Your experience, other tire choices for better wear ?? CC
I'm just back from a (US) cross country ride, so my original Tourace Next tires have 8700+ miles. The rear has just a bit of tread left, so probably good for another couple hundred miles, maybe more if I had to stretch it, but I'm replacing it now. The front is still in great shape. I had a lot of wind on the trip, a lot of it side winds, and rode one-up with bags. Quite satisfactory to me. I just made an appointment with my dealer for a new rear; I thought that I'd try the Annakee but they can't get it yet so I'll go with another Next.
I had thee sets of Tourance EXP on 2012 GS -- I could only get 4K to 5K out of the rear tire, and the front tended to get crowned pretty badly. So I switched to the Continental Trail Attacks and did much better with them as far as wear was concerned - got more like 6K out of the back and the front didn't crown at all..........I know this is not the same bike and tyres as on the Wasser Boxer, but this should be somewhat similar to the newer tires I would assume. I have seen the Michelins, Metzlers, and Continentals on the GS WC at the local dealers, but have not seen enough of the WCs with worn tires to make a comparison - - I will be interested to hear what the folks with the new Continental Trail Attach II on the WC think about those meats. My new Waser Boxer is due in the dealership next week........am very curious to see which tires it will have on it........like I said, I have seen bikes at the dealer with all three tires on them so far - - I am hoping I get the Continentals !
Yeah, this one didn't have the LED headlight, but I am waiting on installation of the auxiliary lights that are LED. I was a bit disappointed that it didn't have the LED, but everything else was exactly what I wanted, and they had it in stock at the dealer!
Has anyone found/installed a rear tail light modulator yet? The ones I have seen are advertised for bikes up to 2010. Looking for a simple plug and play if that's even possible on Z BMWs!
I've installed the BMW extra tail light on the 2012 GS. Works. There were two versions of the basic unit, one that used the amperage from the bulb circuit and the later one that used the tail and brake wires as signals to turn on the tail and brake function of the extra lights and got power directly from the battery thru a fused wire. The later one should work fine with the new LED tail lights. I believe my tail light on the 2012 is LED.
Mine is at about 3400 at 80 MPH and it is pretty smooth, I rode away from the dealer and had a 2 hour ride home, I was very impressed. The cruise control is very nice for the highway. This is my first BMW and I have been off a bike for about 6 years, I have always wanted a GS, looks like I picked the perfect time to get back into riding.
I received the guards earlier this week and installed them this morning. It took about 2 hours w/help and I'm reasonably handy. Pics below (w/highway pegs installed) and comments re installation: First, the good news. They look great and are really beefy. And I won’t need to remove them to check the valves every 12k mi. They’re also round, not oblong like the prior set I had on my 08 and 10 GSs. Makes mounting highway pegs much easier. Now the caveats. As usual, SW-Motech's installation instructions are pretty sparse. The drawings are detailed and correct but there are a couple issues that could use explaining. The front upper attachment points on each side bolt to a piece of angled metal that in turn bolts to the bike. They are asymetrical. There is a left and right side piece. The important thing to know is that the bracket bolts to the inside of the mounting point on the bike, not the outside closest to the guard. See pic 3 below You will need a 19mm socket to break loose the OEM bolt that is replaced by a long (380mm) bolt with spacers on the upper, aft mounting point. And the male star socket that you use to hold the bolt right side and keep it from spinning is large, T55. And that long bolt is really tight! I was wondering if I was going to break my rachet trying to loosen it up. And you really need a second, strong person on the other side holding onto the socket with the T55 star socket. You will need a long (7-8” extension) on your socket wrench to tighten some of the bolts down.
They look like grey paint, not stainless silver color. I got rid of some for that reason and bought Touratech.
I find that it easier to sand-and-spray the painted bars after a drop than it is to make stainless look good. Sand-and-spray turned into an all too common part of after trip clean up with my '05 Maybe things will be different with the wethead.
If yours is an LC then this is incorrect. I have 116 KPH at 4,000 RPM this is a lot less than 80 MPH. I think you must have meant 80 KPH ?
I wondered too. My '12 GS is abt 4500 rpm at 75mph. Since the '70s, all my BMWs have been something like 17mph per 1000 rpm