Riding Gear

Well with bike parts on the way from the US and still waiting on the Bikes it seemed like a good time to review riding gear.
In our current Enduro lineup I have Alpine star tech 6, Alpine star upper body armour, knee pads, MX gloves and a Leatt brace with a Fox V3 helmet. Most of which will not be suitable to many hours of road/offroad with the Beamer. So I have gone for the following

• Keep the Tech 6's for now and see how they go; not real happy with anything with less protection given I still have a plate in my ankle from an earlier get-off.
• Ditch the full upper armour for the dryrider rallycross pro2, mainly for abrasion protection, may add vest protection.
• Ditched the MX pants/gloves for the Dryrider rallycross, gives more abrasion protection. Keeping the leg strapped knee pads.
• Ditching the V3, although I really like this helmet with the best ventilation and lightest helmet I have had, it is quite noisy and the peak catches the wind at +100km/h so I am looking at a dual sport, favouring the Shoei Hornet at this stage.
• Unfortunately the Leatt will not fit any type of textile jacket so will need to have the RallyCross Pro2 altered to fit the Leatt brace.
  

Accessories for the F800GS

OK have done a lot of research on the following: The idea is to get the base bike ready for dirt action. This means adding accessories to enable us to control the bike and to protect the bike when it is dropped. Orders have been placed for the following

1. Headlight protector by Aeroflow
2. Foot Pegs by Fastway F5
3. Engine crash bars by Hepco & Becker
4. Front Brake-res protector (Plas) by Touratech
5. Rear Brake-res protector by Touratech
6. Folding gear lever by Touratech
7. 29/35 Litre pannier system by Touratech
8. Steering Damper by MSC ralle-moto
9. Bark-Busters by Bark-Busters
10. Tyres Continental TKC80
11. Akrapovic slip-on exhaust

Whilst we did not want to purchase a pannier system at this stage we thought we had to in order to protect the rear of the bike in a fall. We don't intend on fitting the cases during our off road learning exercises.

Change of options

After a lot of research into the options for the BMW we decided that the OEM bash-plate offered the best protection as its the only one that covers the catalytic converter, we were going to go for the adventure-spec plate. Was also put off the OEM bark busters as they would add unnecessary weight to the bike with steel construction and lead anti-vibration ends and minimal wind deflections, will go for the home-grown bark busters instead.

Your bike gets heavier one gram at a time...

So a quick email to Melbourne BMW to amend the original order was done...

We put down the deposit

Yes, after much deliberation on which bike to get the BMW F800GS came out on top so the deposit has been made.

With the world super bike next weekend at Phillip Island, Melbourne BMW are overloaded servicing bikes before next weekend so it will be about 2 weeks before our bikes are ready to ride away.

The only options we have gone for on the 2010 F800GS are ABS and the OEM bark-busters.

The Tenere Hmmmmmm

I initially discounted the Tenere as the suspension seemed quite limited at only 210/200 mm travel. The reviews seemed to confirm that the suspension left little to be desired. But this bike does look great and comes with a 23 litre tank...
The weight of this bike was also a little worrisome as its curb-weight less fuel is only 4kg lighter than the 800GS ??? what gives, this is a single!

Thought I should at least give this bike a go, so I rang my favourite Yamaha dealer and to my surprise I could not get a test ride anywhere in Victoria... In fact I was told these bikes are in short supply and would not be able to get one for 6 months... There were a few on showroom floors if I wanted to risk buying before trying. That's a big no thanks....

Anyhow on paper and all reviews I have managed to find tell me the Tenere is no match for the F800GS