Now with a Touratech top box, the bike is more like a sail ship in the strong fen wind. This was an indirect approach to Balderston’s in Peterborough to look around. My GPS tells me my fastest speed was 83mph. I have no idea where that was. I have to tilt my head sideways through about 30 degrees to be able to see the GPS screen properly while wearing polarising sun glasses.
Frustratingly, the longest ride I have had so far on this new lovely bike, is riding it back home from the dealer in Welwyn.
What I don’t want to lose is the sense of the bike’s slightness, lightness and responsiveness compared to my old bike, as well as very welcome slight closeness to the ground. It takes up less space in the garage and has none of that imposing bulk. Opening the garage door to Bertha felt like I looked her in the eye but this bike is definitely down there on the ground.
Plenty of people have offered impressions and more lengthy reviews of this bike, some are clearly new to Beamers and this sort of eccentric design while some compare it carefully with previous models.
For me, I was most surprised by its similarity to riding the old bike, the same position, the same clunky gear box, but as everyone says, it is just so much more zippy and the brakes, which were strong on my old model are even more impressive on this 2014 bike. In fact I’m surprised that the 7 years between Bertha’s production and this model have made such a difference to the sophistication of the machine. The bike, along with the customised GPS is a model of the quantified self, it records and logs all kinds of minute information: how many times you have used each brake, the average opening of the throttle (mine was only 4% after the last but one ride). You can make miniscule adjustments to the way it rides and the suspension which I have only briefly tried in the park and ride car park I go to for low speed practice. As others have said, I can’t say I noticed much difference. The bike also looks and feels more mainstream, less individual and eccentric. Even the seat is springy and comfortable. And the indicator switching has finally come into the 21st century.
I was keen to install some basic protection, SW Motech engine bars and radiator protection and a device meant to make theft of the clocks more difficult, both from English firm Cymark with voluble instruction sheets. So this mass-produced slightly anonymous bike is gradually becoming a little customised. On order are some beautiful Touratech panniers and top box and a couple of other minor enhancements.
In order is a much longer ride.
Yesterday I rode down to SBW Motorrad in Welwyn for a booked test ride on the F800 that I have been mentioning, my thinking being to move to a lighter more manageable bike but one that still has some style and presence. When I got there it turned out they had sold the test bike and didn’t have another. Not a good start, so as I had spent the best part of an hour getting down there I asked whether they had a 1200gs (the current version of Bertha) for me to try, more out of curiosity. They did and I was shown a TE version with spoked wheels which I rode. Again, more out of curiosity I asked the price and this demo version seemed surprisingly reasonable, not that much more than the smaller machine. So what was it like? Once astride it feels suprisingly similar to my current bike and apart from being noisier (I forgot to put in my ear plugs) and the gears clunkier (mine are well worn in) it was a very familiar experience. But this bike seemed much lighter and easier to get around corners. All reviews say it is much more responsive than the old model but it was hard to compare. Very quickly I realised that this bike was clearly the more manageable bike I was after, with the wind protection and motorway capability that I feared losing on the smaller F800. I loved it. Here it is in a lay by near Welwyn:
Pleasant surprise number two was the offer I got for Bertha’s trade-in. If all goes to plan next Wednesday I will drive down on Bertha (all that cleaning and repainting was worth it) and drive off with a 2014 1200GS TE with just over 1000 miles on the clock, very many extra switches and dials, plus alarm, and I shelled out for the overpriced but clever BMW GPS. I was so excited that I barely slept last night. The Touratech catalogue is on my desk.
On Friday I test ride a BMW F800, for those who don’t follow such things, its an ‘adventure’ bike similar to mine but about 2/3 the bulk and also 2/3 the power. I am also taking Bertha down for the dealer to give me a quote for its part exchange value.
Here’s Bertha cleaner and shinier than ever before:
This is not the sort of documentary I would usually enjoy but the link came from a motorcycling site and I downloaded and watched.
Beckham and two old friends fly to Brazil to get away from Beckham’s busy life and to find a few weeks of anonymity. And crucially for me – otherwise I wouldn’t be watching – for some of the journey they ride on nicely customised and hard core looking Triumphs.
Whether you consider it interesting and enjoyable or not will depend on your interest in David. If you are a fan you will love it because you see plenty of his good looks and charming banter. From a strictly travel documentary angle it is not very penetrating. From a biking angle, its difficult not to see it in the same mould as the Long Way programs that also feature, and have much of their interest, in the celebs on board. But Beckham and friends’ riding style would make off-road gurus like Simon Pavey wince. There’s no standing on the pegs to be seen. Its more gun the throttle with legs splayed and hope for the best – probably how I would do it despite having watched the Touratech DVD on how they do it on the Dakar. Also there is very little branded motorcycle adventure wear on display, just a (very nicely designed) leather jacket, white t-shirt and jeans.
As has been said before, David comes over as surprisingly normal and charming both in his (generously proportioned) home in London where we see warm interactions with his family, and out with his friends. Strangely his friends on at least one occasion seem to want to sabotage Beckham’s desire for anonymity. At the end he tells us how few new friends he has made since he became famous and that the next ‘day off’ in his diary is in six weeks time. Although presented clearly as time out for Beckham, I wonder how relaxing this was given the constant filming. I’ll be taking a bit more notice of him after seeing this.
This eloquent review says it all.
Now, where can I get some more tattoos?