With the Triumph 800xc out would you still buy an F800gs?

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Originally Posted by loph917

those are some serious whoops! and nice rock ledge. is that the egg i see?

as far as weight goes; in addition to the stock can, you can also swap out the battery for one of those new fangled shorai batteries which will reduce the weight a tad in the front.

definitely agree on the suspenders; i did a foolish near vertical jump a few weeks ago and besides my total lack of ability the bike landed like a ton of bricks and everything hit the stops. luckily bike and rider survived.

oh and in keeping with the theme of this thread, no i haven't ridden the xc800. don't want too. the f800gs was my first 'dirt' bike. i wouldn't trade it for another bike. i will say that to use it as i want to use it will require additional capex to get it setup. nature of the beast; everything needs adjustments to make it 'right' for you.

That's a great hill climb you are tracking there. Dang. Hope rounding the top didn't hurt too much.

Eggs currently resting in the Uwharrie OHV area @ the Art Lilley Camp ground...if you are looking to take that GS on some trails. Easy Forest Service road access as well if one is inclined to ride on regular roads. Egg really enjoyed jumping the GS and riding at speeds over 100 mph in the sand.

When I bought the GS I considered many options including the KTM, XR, DR, and finding a 650 GS Dakar. Weighing out all the options, the F8 GS is the best "touring" compromise I could think of. It's expensive but building a different bike up to the level of the stock F8 would have been expensive also, and time consuming, and require a shop (which I don't have readily available).

It's a great touring bike and does everything that I want it to but it's not my ideal RTW bike though. What I've found in my limited experience adjusting bikes for my needs is that it's always easier to add features to a bike than it is to take them away. And to make the 800 GS into a bike that is truly capable of tackling all terrain would require removing and changing very expensive key and core components...kind of like ChiTowns STB build.

2 bikes I'm considering buying and throwing modification funds into for serious RTW riding: older model 640 adventure and a DR 650. There just isn't a way to economically bring the F8 up to the level of these two bikes for RTW riding. Can't shed enough pounds for one thing. That weight issue is critical for off road adventures. It's why I didn't buy the KTM 990 Adventure and why I won't consider the 800 XC. The 800 GS is too heavy as it is and weighs in at just the limits of off road usability...the other bikes are even heavier.

And on the other side there's building up one of the uber light 450's but those bikes don't usually have a sub frame capable of handling the weight of gear and they usually require a lot of maintenance at very short intervals.

I really wish that KTM would come out with a 690 Adventure model -> using standard Rally Raid design that bike would rock out on the highway and off of it. I know you can buy the aftermarket fit kits for the current 690s but the retro kit alone costs a serious pretty penny.

Something like this would be the only thing that can compete with the F8 as a touring/adventure bike...(690 ADV Retrofit Kit from the Roemer Team)



...and the KTM 690 thumper engine routinely makes 60 mpg (reported to hit almost 70 mpg for some people). That's way way better than the XC and the GS but YMMV.