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My BMW F850GS review: Purchase & ownership experience

4th July 2024, 17:47 by Rahul Nagaraj

Did a test ride on the Himalayan 450 and the Honda Transalp, while upgrading from my Interceptor 650.

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After riding the Interceptor for 15k kms I felt the need for a comfortable bike with reasonably good handling. Not that it's a bad bike but not a bike for long-distance touring. I have done 700-800 kms in a day on it, and wanted to have something more comfy and more sure-footed around the corners. Interceptor handling, let's say, is very thrilling but not the best.

This was sometime around the end of 2023, I was pretty sure about the Himalayan 450, it has everything I needed. Took a test ride, and was happy with everything except the engine. After the Interceptor the engine felt a downgrade, rough and lacking low-end power. Rode a friend's 390 Adventure as well, again the engine felt like a downgrade. Till this time I was thinking about a budget of 5L for the bike and accessories.

Then came the news of Honda launching the Transalp, I thought to check it out and if I like it then stretch the budget, yolo right? The bike came to the Chennai showroom very late, went and checked it out. The bike felt nice and big but very barebone for the price. I wanted to ride it before making a decision, not going to book a bike without a test ride, not gonna happen. Asked a few times in the Chennai showroom but they were not in a hurry for test rides as folks were booking the bike without TD, hell some booked even without looking at the bike. Finally, one Transalp owner from Bangalore very generously offered me to ride his bike. In short, it was a major disappointment, I didn't like the bike at all. I had high hopes and almost thought of buying a Transalp.

One of my friends suggested checking out the BMW 850GS Adventure. Although I was a bit sceptical because of the service cost and also who will buy 850, BMW means it has to be 1250. Anyway, I booked a TD with BMW, it was a nice experience, and they agreed to give me the bike for a long ride. I asked for the bike early in the morning and they agreed, took the bike around 6 am from the showroom and rode more than 150 km, returning the bike around 10 am. Absolutely loved it, the power delivery was sublime, and the on/off throttle action was super smooth, with no jerkiness. The engine is pretty much vibe-free throughout the rev range, I rode in the road and dynamic mode and liked the laid-back throttle response of the road mode. The best bit was the suspension, it was like literally floating on the road, not a bike for corner carving but does that pretty well too. It just flattened the bad roads like nothing I had ridden before.

When I first saw the bike in the showroom it was quite intimidating, I was certain that I would not be able to manage such a huge bike. The 850GS looks big, 850GS Adventure is huge, combined with an 875mm saddle height. I was barely tip-toeing on the bike, I am 172 cm. But as soon as the bike started moving I was right at home, The handling was fantastic and you don't feel the 248kg kerb weight, the test ride bike was given to me with tankful petrol. I didn't feel it being top-heavy while riding, it was getting into corners effortlessly. While returning I purposefully took it through a busy traffic route to check engine heat. I rode in peak weekday bumper-to-bumper traffic for 5km, engine heat is there but I could live with it. I absolutely loved it on the bad roads plus the dynamics were spot on. Now comes the price, is it worth spending that much on a bike which I will use occasionally? I thought of giving it some time, and not to book in a hurry.

Also if I were to increase my budget to this range then why not ride a few more bikes? Called the Triumph showroom for Tiger 900 TD and they had no interest in selling the bike, actually, they had no bikes to sell, the new 900 was supposed to be launched a few months later. Luckily one of my friends had a year-old Tiger 900 rally. Took his bike for a spin, and rode 100km one morning and although the bike was great, I felt more at home on the BMW. In terms of service cost BMW is around 30-40% higher, being said that Triumph's service is not that great based on various threads on tbhp itself.

Called the BMW showroom again to check the 1250 as well, they only had a 1250GS TD bike, not the adventure variant. Took that out, rode it till the tank went dry, and had to fill a few litres of petrol before returning it to the showroom. I didn't feel it was worth spending 10L more on 1250GSA over 850GSA. I didn't want a fast bike, 850 had all the speed I needed. There are a few things which are definitely better on 1250, it felt more nimble than 850, front brakes were unreal because of the telelever, initially, it took some time to get used to no front dive on braking, but after that, you can squeeze the front brake without any fear. There was some buzz and vibe, maybe due to the TD bike being 33k on the odo, some reviews say it’s typical of the boxer motor and shaft drive combo. Also, I felt the suspension was a bit harsher on the 1250, so I tried both road and dynamic suspension modes.