Is the new BMW F 900 GS ready to unleash your spirit of adventure? Is this powerhouse of German engineering ready to conquer any terrain, with its robust design and powerful engine?
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SportsTranscript
00:00 Alright folks, welcome to our official review of BMW's 2024 F900GS.
00:09 This is a new and improved middleweight adventure touring bike from BMW Motorrad out of Germany.
00:16 Now this F900GS replaces the F850GS which was last introduced I believe for the 2019
00:26 or 2020 model years.
00:28 We did a really comprehensive review of that vehicle which you can find online if you would
00:33 like.
00:34 Now, for 2024 BMW Motorrad's done a nice number of modifications to its middleweight adventure
00:43 touring platform.
00:44 The main reason they made these upgrades is to better compete with other industry competitors
00:52 in the middleweight segment, i.e. the Orange Brigade and its 890 adventure bike.
01:02 So that's really what BMW is setting its eyes on.
01:05 To do that it has boosted the engine capacity and fitted some really high end suspension
01:11 components which is really nice to see because that was one of the features that was a little
01:18 bit, I wouldn't say lacking, but it was something that could be improved on for the more hardcore
01:25 adventure touring rider who actually likes to ride their bike in some treacherous conditions.
01:32 Beginning with the engine, this engine continues to be powered by a liquid cooled parallel
01:38 twin engine.
01:40 It displaces right almost 900cc's now, just under 900cc's, about a 52cc displacement bump
01:50 over the outgoing F850GS.
01:54 They did that via adding bore diameter to the cylinders.
02:00 The cylinder bore has been increased by 2mm on both of these cylinders.
02:05 This engine continues to benefit from an 8 valve cylinder head with dual overhead camshafts
02:13 spinning those valves.
02:16 Engine puts power back to the 17" rear wheel.
02:20 BMW loves their 17" rear wheels.
02:24 Via chain final drive that now terminates on the left hand side and a 6 speed manual
02:31 transmission with a cable actuated clutch.
02:36 If you remember back in the old days these bikes actually had, BMW's middleweight adventure
02:41 touring bike I should say, had the chain final drive on the right hand side of the bike with
02:47 the exhaust on the left.
02:49 BMW has switched that and they've gone with a more conventional setup.
02:55 You can feel that traction control really neutering the power band.
03:00 Right now we're operating this vehicle in Enduro Pro mode which is an optional ride
03:06 modes pro feature that you have to unlock at the dealership level.
03:11 You have to pay a little bit extra for that.
03:13 I wish it was just included in the price.
03:16 I'm always kind of skeptical when manufacturers lock out features from their bikes that are
03:21 built into it and make you pay an added cost.
03:24 I think that's kind of wacky tabacky.
03:29 Back to the F900GS.
03:33 So this bike continues to use a parallel twin engine.
03:36 It's got good torque, real responsive.
03:40 It does vibrate though, wow.
03:42 You're going to feel some vibration through the handlebars on this bike.
03:47 It's not so bad here riding off road, but when you're riding on the freeway, oh boy,
03:54 this thing buzzes.
03:56 BMW Motorrad says this engine uses a pair of counterbalancers, but I still think they
04:02 could do a little bit better job trying to quell some of the engine vibration.
04:07 The big news with this bike is the addition of the Showa 43 millimeter diameter fork.
04:18 So we have an adjustable damping 43 millimeter inverted fork.
04:23 It's worth mentioning that this F900GS, it continues to use a conventional suspension
04:29 configuration where the R1250GS and now the R1300GS continue to use BMW's awesome telelever
04:38 and paralever suspension systems.
04:42 BMW sticks to a more conventional suspension setup.
04:47 I should have seen that damn rock for its F900GS.
04:56 So 43 millimeters Showa fork.
04:59 We have adjustable compression damping, adjustable rebound damping, and you can change the preload,
05:06 the spring preload atop the fork cap.
05:10 Cool thing about the dampening adjustment on this bike is it's just like KTM now where
05:17 you have handy and easy to use adjustment knobs which allow for tool-less damping adjustment.
05:24 That's really neat.
05:25 So you can make little tweaks while you're riding.
05:28 Of course, spring preload has to be made the old-fashioned way.
05:34 Well, I think we got flat maybe.
05:38 Our tire pressure sensor thing is going a little crazy and the front wheel is kind of
05:45 wobbly.
05:46 It's still flat though.
05:47 We'll just have to see.
05:48 All right, back to the suspension.
05:50 So we have adjustable suspension, fore and aft with a nice beefy Showa inverted fork
05:55 with a nice slippery coating on it that not only looks factory but helps reduce stiction.
06:03 So reduce friction in the fork when it's moving through its nine inches, nine-some inches
06:11 of travel.
06:13 Up back we have a direct shock.
06:17 It operates without a linkage directly between the frame and swing arm.
06:24 BMW loves to use linkage-less setups on its middleweight touring bikes.
06:29 So this F950, I'm sorry, F900GS continues to employ that.
06:36 We have, like before, we have adjustable preload so you can modify the preload of the shock
06:45 with our handy remote juster.
06:47 The F850GS had that.
06:49 That's super handy.
06:51 But now it also has a remote adjustment knob so you can adjust the compression and damping,
06:58 I'm sorry, rebound damping circuits.
07:01 How cool is that?
07:04 All right, folks, we're coming to a T and then we'll check in with you here in a minute.
07:09 All right, folks, that big rock we hit made a little ding in this 21-inch alloy wheel.
07:16 These wheels are tubeless.
07:18 Tire still has air but a little bit more air would be good.
07:21 So let's just see how that works.
07:23 It's cool that the 6.5-inch color TFT dash tells you when your vehicle needs PSI.
07:31 It's a really handy feature.
07:33 10.4 PSI in the front, 31.2 PSI in the rear.
07:37 Not a big deal, we're nursing home, but it's cool that BMW offers that feature with that
07:42 warning light.
07:43 All right, everybody, we're back.
07:44 We're just cruising right now.
07:46 We hit that medium-sized rock back there which put a ding in the front 21-inch aluminum wheel
07:52 and now we're on low PSI in the front.
07:54 So I got to just cruise so I don't beat up the front tire or wheel too much.
07:58 We got to put some air in it.
08:01 So while we're cruising, let's get back into this $18,000 trophy specification F900GS.
08:09 Now this bike's so neat because it looks way more slim and trim than before.
08:14 If you remember the F850GS, it had a little bit of a, just a more rounder, less aggressive
08:21 profile.
08:22 This bike has more sleek rally bike-like styling.
08:27 Think Tenere 700.
08:29 That's the way this bike looks.
08:30 We really like its much more slim and trim appearance.
08:36 Another nice touch is the now symmetrical headlight.
08:43 So the headlight now is symmetrical.
08:44 It's not asymmetrical.
08:46 BMW Motorrad love to use this asymmetrical headlight on its S1000RR and F9, 850, I'm
08:56 sorry, GS bikes.
08:57 Now it's symmetrical.
08:58 Of course, we have nice bright LED lighting in the front of it.
09:03 So that does a really good job of illuminating the road or trail after dark.
09:08 Of course, we are riding an official BMW Motorrad press introduction event.
09:15 So we can't just ride the bike at night or do our usual battery of advanced high level
09:20 vehicle testing.
09:22 All right, baby, we're back.
09:24 We had some caveman style trail repairs.
09:28 Bashed in the aluminum 21 inch rim to get the edge flat.
09:34 Added some PSI and we're back in the game.
09:38 How cool is that?
09:40 Now like we said before, if you're riding these bikes off road, it's not a bad idea
09:43 to bring a spare tube, some air and some simple tire changing equipment.
09:49 So if you do get a flat tire, you just put a tube inside that rim, fill it up with air
09:54 and away you go.
09:55 And then you can go back to tubeless when you get back to your workshop.
10:02 Back to this F900 GS Trophy Edition.
10:07 So this Trophy Edition has the up spec show a 43 millimeter fork.
10:14 The standard $16,000 F900 GS doesn't have the same type of fork with its super slick
10:20 Kashima like coating.
10:22 So that's really nice.
10:24 And having the ability to be able to adjust the shock without tools is another really
10:30 nice feature of this F900 GS Trophy Edition.
10:37 These taller bar risers are super awesome too.
10:40 I love the handlebar bend on this bike.
10:42 It's nice and tall.
10:44 I'm six foot tall, weigh 210 pounds.
10:46 I generally like not a crazy high handlebar, but I like to have a little bit of height
10:51 to it just because I'm so tall.
10:53 And when the handlebar is real low, I'm just hunched over so much.
10:57 This I can be in a real nice aggressive stance for dirt biking.
11:03 And I really like that.
11:06 We also have these nice hand guards.
11:09 Whoa!
11:10 ABS is kind of coming in there a little bit, I think.
11:14 So we have the nice hand guards, which really make it easy to keep chilly weather off your
11:23 hands and they protect the control levers in the case of an accident.
11:28 So if you have a little bit of a tip over a crash, you're going to be okay.
11:33 Or the control levers are going to be okay.
11:35 There's nothing worse than bending a lever or breaking off the tip of a lever off road.
11:41 That always really sucks.
11:43 All right, we're at 26.3 PSI, says the six and a half inch color TFT display.
11:53 So that's a little bit low on the PSI scale.
11:55 We would like to be a little bit higher in this rough stuff.
11:59 You got to remember this is a 500 pound bike.
12:01 This bike's not light by any means.
12:06 So you always want to have a little bit of extra PSI that'll help keep that front tire
12:12 from folding when it hits a precarious rocker object.
12:18 Gosh, I really like this bike.
12:23 Ergonomics are awesome.
12:25 Feels like a dirt bike.
12:26 I love the ability to lock myself into the vehicle by squeezing the midsection.
12:32 It's a really nice touch.
12:36 And this nice tall handlebar just makes it awesome.
12:39 And of course, those serrated foot pegs and the rear brake pedal just gives you more grip
12:46 against the soul of your Alpine Stars Tech 7s.
12:50 Now it's worth noting this F900GS no longer has the manual adjustable windshield.
12:58 The windshield is fixed in traditional rally form.
13:04 So it's not that big of a deal.
13:06 The old F850GS Adventures windshield, it had adjustment, but it didn't really have a lot
13:13 of adjustment.
13:14 The tallest position wasn't tall enough.
13:16 And then the short position was actually pretty good for riding off-road because it allowed
13:22 more air to get onto the rider's torso.
13:25 So if you're riding in a little bit warmer weather or just working up a little bit of
13:29 sweat in cooler weather, having that windshield in the low position just put more air in your
13:34 torso.
13:35 We don't have that.
13:36 The windshield is fixed.
13:38 But I think it's okay.
13:40 I really like the updated styling on this bike.
13:42 It's way more awesome in my opinion.
13:47 All right, everyone, here we are back on the road.
13:50 This motorcycle is a really nice motorcycle to hover some miles on despite the smallish
13:56 3.8 gallon fuel capacity of this vehicle.
14:00 BMW, why'd you have to make the gas tank so small?
14:03 Now sitting here cruising at 71 miles per hour.
14:08 Let's put the cruise control on 71 right there.
14:12 It is very easy to use with the switch gear here.
14:17 You pull back to reduce the speed and you can push forward to give it more gas.
14:22 Really, really nice.
14:23 Easy to use.
14:24 You can also reverse the throttle and that will automatically disable it as will any
14:29 brake application or clutch lever application rather.
14:35 Cruising down the highway, you definitely feel some engine vibration.
14:38 We talked about it, BMW Motorrad says they've, they use twin counterbalancers in this engine
14:43 just like the previous F850GS.
14:46 We still feel a lot of engine vibration to the controls.
14:51 I wouldn't say it's totally off-putting, but it's very present.
14:55 You feel it through the handlebar, through the foot pegs.
14:59 Kind of makes it fun, but it also kind of makes it feel like the engine's really old
15:03 in my opinion.
15:04 Of course, this engine, of course, has an uneven firing order, which helps give it a
15:09 B-twin-like feel, which adds a little bit of vibration, but BMW can reduce the level
15:15 of vibration with the V-controls of this bike.
15:18 That would be great.
15:20 Sitting here, I really like these GS Trophy up spec aluminum hand guards.
15:26 These keep the wind off your mitts.
15:28 Makes for added comfort.
15:30 I like the heated grips, three position adjustable, really easy to use with your right index finger.
15:36 They can save the illumination of that indicator here on the dashboard, really easy to use.
15:43 Obviously, it is 75 degrees Fahrenheit outside, so we don't need the grips.
15:48 We might if it gets a little cool.
15:50 We're not wearing very thick gloves at this time.
15:53 Now, the seat on this bike, the seat is really comfortable.
15:57 It's just like a street bike, where other adventure touring bikes in the middleweight
16:02 segment have more narrow dirt bike-like seats.
16:05 This is a conventional street bike seat.
16:08 It's broad, it's wide, it's well supported, and it really is good for logging miles.
16:15 The foot pegs, I remember with the previous FV50 GS, the foot pegs were positioned a little
16:22 bit far back, which put a little bit of strain on the rider's knees.
16:28 I don't know if the foot pegs have moved forward or not, but I'm not feeling that kind of strain
16:33 this time.
16:34 I think the foot pegs moved a little bit forward.
16:36 Either way, this motorcycle is really comfortable to ride, vibration side.
16:44 Right now, we are averaging on the computer.
16:48 Our average gene, let's see right here, is 33.1 mpg, which isn't super good, but to be
16:56 fair, we've been starting to stop a lot.
16:58 We're riding off-road not super fast, right around 45 to 60 miles per hour.
17:04 So 33.1 mpg so far.
17:09 We'll have to reserve mpg judgment until we get one of these vehicles in our race shop
17:15 back at the office.
17:17 Really like this engine, it has a good amount of torque.
17:21 Here in sixth gear, we are spinning, let's see what rpm we're spinning, almost 5,000
17:28 rpm, and you can give it some gas.
17:31 This thing pulls very, very nicely.
17:34 Let's make a pass, plenty of passing power on this vehicle in top gear.
17:39 Good job, BMW.
17:40 It's always nice not having to grab a bunch of downshifts like this to get up and go,
17:46 but if you do have to grab downshifts, it's really nice having that slick electronic gear
17:52 shifter, which allows for full throttle upshifts and downshifts without having to use the clutch.
18:00 That really boosts rear wheel stability during corner entry.
18:03 Good job, BMW.
18:04 We love electronic quickshifters.
18:07 The response to the quickshifter is, it's not the fastest we've ridden, but it's also
18:11 not crazy lazy.
18:13 So we give it a B+ no doubt.
18:19 Now, this windscreen could definitely be a little bit taller.
18:24 It's a little bit short.
18:25 You definitely feel a lot of the air blow you right in the face.
18:29 If this vehicle was ours, we would definitely opt for a taller windscreen.
18:34 It just keeps the turbulent air off the rider's torso and helmet.
18:39 Again, not bad, but a little bit taller would always be good.
18:42 It's nice we have this USB-C charging port right here, so we can charge our gadgets on
18:47 the run.
18:48 There's also a small 12-volt charging port and adapter to use that.
18:55 And then, of course, BMW loves its Garmin accessory GPS, which mounts inside this dash
19:02 display.
19:03 Again, if you download the BMW Motorrad Connected app, you can have turn-by-turn street navigation
19:10 right on the 6.5-inch color shift.
19:12 This plan is really slick, but if you're riding off-road where you can't really use the street
19:19 GPS application, the BMW Garmin GPS is a nice accessory.
19:24 Oh, it's starting to cool down.
19:26 We went from 75 to 68.
19:29 Time to zip up the zippers a little bit.
19:32 All right, folks, here we are cruising down this beautiful back road with the desert rocks
19:38 in the background and the snowy Cappie Mountains over there far away.
19:44 Now, we covered a lot of topics on this bike.
19:47 Let's talk about the maintenance on this vehicle.
19:50 Now, after the initial service, this vehicle goes 6,000 miles between engine oil and engine
19:59 oil filter changes.
20:00 So 6,000 miles, you have to change the engine oil and the engine oil filter.
20:06 The engine case holds right around 3.7 warts of oil.
20:12 Now, every 12,000 miles, you have to, or BMW Motorrad recommends that you inspect the valve
20:21 clearance on each of the eight valves.
20:23 So that's at every 12,000 miles.
20:27 Then at 18,000 miles, BMW Motorrad suggests that you change the air filter and change
20:35 the oil on the fork.
20:41 So pretty neat that this vehicle goes 6,000 miles between service.
20:46 You know, 12,000 mile valve inspection clearance duration, that's okay, but it'd be nice if
20:55 it was 24,000 miles.
20:57 There's other major Japanese manufacturers that have similar twin-cylinder configurations
21:05 that can go that distance.
21:07 So BMW can you up the valve clearance inspection duration from 12 to 24, that'd be nice.
21:15 Still, it's nice to know that this motorcycle can go the distance without a lot of time
21:21 spent wrenching on it in the garage.
21:25 It's also worth noting that this F900GS Trophy Edition, this bike is made in Germany.
21:34 The engine's also manufactured in Germany.
21:36 There was a time where the old F800 engines from back in the old days, those engines which
21:45 share similar bottom end configuration as this engine were manufactured in China.
21:51 BMW Motorrad doesn't manufacture its US-bound F900GSs, powertrains in China anymore.
21:59 Anymore they're built in Germany as this final assembly of this vehicle in Germany.
22:08 Well folks, that wraps up our official review on BMW's 2024 F900GS Trophy Edition.
22:15 Right now we are riding the base $16,000 edition.
22:18 Our boss Mark wanted to try our bike so he's riding it.
22:22 So what the boss says goes.
22:25 The Trophy Edition's a really nice bike.
22:27 We really like the engine.
22:28 Of course, the engine architecture's a little bit old.
22:31 The engine still vibrates, but gosh, it has a lot of torque.
22:34 It's really easy to ride.
22:35 It has a nice character.
22:36 Yeah, it vibrates a little bit much, but it's still a very effective power plant.
22:41 The chassis, the chassis on this F900GS Trophy Edition, that's probably the biggest improvement
22:47 for us is just the additional heavy-duty suspension, the damping adjustment, especially
22:54 in the Trophy Edition.
22:55 The ability to adjust the damping in real time with the knobs without having to use
23:00 a screwdriver or any tools is super handy.
23:02 That bike is very, very well balanced on road and off.
23:06 That was really the thing I noticed most in the off-road section was how easy that bike
23:11 is to ride and how balanced it is.
23:13 You can ride that bike surprisingly hard, more hard than you could with the outgoing
23:18 F850GS Adventure.
23:19 The electronics package, too, as usual, this BFW has all the bells and whistles, and we
23:27 really like this super slick 6.5-inch color TFT.
23:31 The ergonomics on this bike are also much improved.
23:34 The lower foot pegs are made for a bike that's more comfortable on the road, and when you're
23:40 in the standing position off-road, this bike feels like a legit dirt bike.
23:43 I really like the ergonomics on this bike, and it really makes it easier to ride.
23:48 It really works in unison with that well-balanced overall chassis package.
23:55 Well, folks, as always, make sure to surf on over to our website.
23:58 Give this video a thumbs-up if you like it, thumbs it down if you didn't, because we'd
24:01 love to hear from the naysayers, and we'll see you next episode.
24:04 Thanks for riding with us.
24:06 [engine revving]