PART 2. As a BMW R1250GS owner, I take the new BMW R1300GS for a test ride. Will I swap?

I previously had a look at the new BMW R1300GS in my local BMW dealership:

Now it’s time to take it our for a test ride. What did I think? Would I swap mine?

00:00 Introduction
00:56 Meeting the new 1300
01:52 Test ride begins, a bit of tech talk
07:14 The new range of bikes
08:44 So what’s it like to ride then? A bit more tech stuff
14:44 It’s quite flickable
17:50 The fancy radar cruise control
18:38 Fuel tank size/range
19:48 Was I blown away by the new machine, thoughts
21:46 Returning to the dealer, seat options and more thoughts!
23:19 Back at the BMW dealership, side by side with my 1250. A quick look around the 1300
27:30 Back on my 1250 gs…….would I buy the new 1300?

Big thanks to my local dealership for allowing me to take the bike out:
https://www.themansellcollection.co.uk

More information from BMW Motorrad UK:
https://www.bmw-motorrad.co.uk/en/models/adventure/r1300gs.html

Hello folks well a very good morning to you on this rather overcast windy but dry at the moment Monday morning well I’m on my way down to my local BMW d That’s the Mansel collection to try out this year’s this brand new r1300 GS if

You’ve got a GS 1250 like my one here and you’re wondering what is all the fuss about or if you after a KTM or you caty and you’re maybe not old enough to go on the on the GS we’ll stick around and this initial Ride video might just

Give you some indication of what BMW’s new r1300 GS is like so let’s crack on so it is going to be a Race Against Time cuz I don’t want to take the bike out if it’s going to be smashing it down and rain and the forecast is in the next few

Hours for it to be chucking it down so and hopefully the bike will be okay for me to take out so let’s find out right fingers crossed I can take the bike out so let’s go and have a look so the good news is the bike is here so

Nobody’s taken out as yet so let’s go and find Tony or Darren and see if we can take it out for an hour so BOS let’s go and do that now so folks here we go this is the r1300 and that is my old 1250 GS well I say old it’s actually

Just over 12 months old 2022 model put lots of stuff on it so let’s go from that one to this one the r300 GS there we go folks this is just going to be my initial thoughts on the new r1300 GS so I’d say this is a little bit taller than

My one at the moment so without further Ado oo let’s start it up it sounds like a GS but it doesn’t if that makes sense right so I think what we’ll do is let’s go for a little bit of a ride whilst it’s dry so my initial thoughts and as I

Pull away from the dealer initial thoughts are yeah it feels different to mine I think the handle bars are a bit too low for me but that’s something that could obviously be adjusted in fact while I’m just getting used to it let’s just talk about the bike itself and I’ve already

Done a video if you want to click on the card up here somewhere that’s a a walk around video of this bike in the showroom I put that up there last week I think it is so that’s got a lot more detailed information in it so this is just going to

Be basically my initial thoughts from the from the the first ride of this video right then so that’s a very nice Porsche yellow Porsche so we been on the bike now for about 20 minutes or so so just died myself in a little bit just getting used to the new feeling of the

New GS so again this is only a quick ride of about an hour or so just to give my initial thoughts about this new bike so my bike the 1250 GS if you don’t know I’ve had that for over a year brand new from the Mansel collection where this is

Being demoed from absolutely love it to bits I sort of know a lot about the GS taking it to bits taking all the fairings off to put lights and stuff on so I pretty much other than taking the engine bits I pretty much know the GS so

I think I’ll qualify to give some opinion of this one so this is a brand new bike from the ground up BMW has started with a fresh clean bit of paper so this bike then just talk about the engine so it’s a third 1300 cc I think

The old one was a 1254 I think it was the old one pushed out about 136 horsepower and 143 Newt M of torque this one with a 1300 CCC is pushing out 145 horsepower and about 149 newm of torque so it’s got more power uh to it uh big thing about the engine

Then is that on my bike the gearbox was at the back of the bike so making the the bike longer so this bike is the gearbox is on the bottom of the engine so making the engine shorter and obviously the weight has been kept uh

Low down as well let’s go around to the left low down as well so it’s an all new engine and putting that 145 horsepower to the back tire is a new drive shaft system and that new Drive sha system is all suspended from a new suspension system which is called the Evo power

Lever suspension system and the front suspension it’s just a bit of an upgrade really to to my GS so we’ve got the new engine we’ve got the new suspension the Evo suspension at the front and the back and then how’s the how’s the engine mounted in the bike well it’s we’ve got

A new frame so we’ve got a sheet metal uh construction type frame uh so there’s no tubes in sight and then at the back where I’m sitting we’ve got a new subframe again no tubes and sight so it’s a I think it’s an aluminium uh subframe so yeah BMW have

Done away with the tubes the actual the seat is new so yeah so we’ve got this new seat um BMW they’ve they’ve done away with being able to have a high and a low seat position and indeed they’ve done away with a low suspension as well so

Basically uh your seat is basically is what you get so the seat is 850 mm uh from the ground is 850 mm tall so that’s the main technical bits out the way from a comfort point of view as I said earlier uh I’m 5’9 32 in leg and the

Bike certainly feels like you sit on the bike whereas my GS feels like I sit in the bike certainly feel like I’m much higher on this but from a comfort point of view yeah my legs yeah everything seems all right actually still feels very much like a

GS um but I’m not sure how comfortable that seat’s going to be on a long trip mine just seems to be a little bit softer but sometimes firmer is better so time will tell on that one but yeah it seems to be quite a nice place to be the

Engine does sound different to my GS seems a little bit more uh whiny from the whing from the gearbox maybe I don’t know um and then you still get the noise coming up through the front forks here cuz I I’m not sure if the clutch is at

The front but yeah the old GS yeah that noise coming up the the fork tube so that that sort of noise is still there but is just slightly different to the uh shift cam 1250 noise switch gear it’s pretty much what do you expect from BMW obviously we

Haven’t got the power button in here that’s now on on the uh instrument cluster on the right hand side and then we’ve yeah it’s very much as you’d expect on the old GSS should we say sadly it’s not bad lit and I don’t know why they’ve done that absolutely no idea

At all so yeah go and check out my other video that I did in the showroom again it’s it’s in a card up there somewhere so this is the triple black so it’s got uh a few little bits and Bobs on it so let’s very quickly just cover the range

Of these new r1300 so they come in full flavor you get a white one then you get the blue and white one which is the trophy and then the black one they’re about 168 and that’s the base model R and then you get the top of the range

Traton and the green one and that’s just over 18 Grand so with the three uh low spec models the white one the blue and white one and the black one then they come with as standard you’ve got a cruise control you’ve got uh heated grips you’ve got tire pressure

Monitoring system and then you’ve also got uh four riding mode you’ve got Eco Rain Road and indurro so that’s that’s the three sort of the the cheaper packages should we call it and then if you want to just upsp speec that and go for the te models which will cost you about another

2,475 then you get thrown in for those you just get the electronic suspension and then you get the extra riding modes you get the dynamic mode Dynamic Pro or programmable that’s what that means and then you get the Enduro Pro but on the TR Manana even on the base model you’ve

Got all of that stuff on there anyway and I think the T Montana to go te spec it’s about another 800 quid so I think most people will go for the te model to get the electronic suspension and then the extra riding modes as well so let’s

Just concentrate on the riding of the bike then it is windy as anything today a very nice view so the new 1300cc engine so the gearbox is now uh on the underside of the bike or the engine and how have I found it so far with the quick shifter yeah that’s

Something you also get with the T model is the uh quick shifter so this bike is done about 116 mil so everything’s still a little bit tight but certainly going to first I just found it a little bit clunky but it’s a brand new engine and then the

Quick shifter I wouldn’t say it’s a a massive leap over the over my 1250 first read to second yeah still a little bit jolty it’s a new gearbox though it might be a little bit better than mine but it’s not a huge Improvement but what I will say is you

Just can hear a little bit of a whine I think from the gearbox in relation to the engine again this is a demo bike I can’t thrash it I don’t want to thrash it can only take it up to 5,000 revs it’s supposed to have a lot more

Low down grunt I’m in Road mode at the moment yeah I mean I don’t notice a massive difference the bike does feel a bit tighter if you guys want to know who’ve got 1250s or if you’re looking at maybe going into the BMW market and you’ve

Been looking at the KTMs and the jcti v4s should you be looking at the BMW so what I’ve done I’ve put it into Dynamic Pro so that’s going to firm all the suspension up let’s just see what it goes like I will say the bike does feel tighter than mine that’s something I’ve

Been critical of in the past I wish it when you’re on it it does feel like it could do with stiffening up if you’re a bit of a keen Sports Rider but this bike certainly feels tighter the quick shifter it’s a new it’s a new bike 116

Mil it’s not a million times better than mine and my quick shift is not particularly brilliant clutch feels nice nice and light hydraulic clutch brakes feel good and again this has got the sports brake package which are the Brembo bakes with his the red BMW written on the calipers but the whole

Bike does actually feel does feel stiffer certainly does feel stiffer engine sounds different it almost doesn’t sound like a BMW if that sort of makes sense it’s got more of a wine to it and one thing I have noticed there’s nobody behind me but if you stay stand up look down the

Pots I don’t know if you can see that the pots are almost in line with each other this one’s just slightly towards towards me on the right but not as staggered as the old as my 1250 but I have to say it certainly feels a lot tighter and

Not sort of as Twitchy but yeah it does feel feel tighter would it be worth me chopping mine in for this but I have to talk about that at the end so this bike has got the fancy electronic screen and whil I’ve been riding along this main

Road I haven’t felt a breath of wind over my helmet at all so the screen is certainly better than my bike they’ve obviously sorted the aerodynamics out and these uh you got these wind deflectors here which you can see through so if you’re Offroad if you’re

Like standing up and stuff you can look through there that’s quite nice I like that yeah that’s good and in relation to the electronics packages where you can get shedloads Electronics packages so this is the te model and it’s got the electronic wind screen you’ve got uh

They’ve changed the buttons a little bit but if you’ve got a BMW it’s not it won’t be too unfamiliar to you so you’ve got a basically a multi-function button here on the left hand side so you can allocate certain functions to that so at the moment the dealership ship have got

These rocker buttons allocated to the screen so if I push that up then you see down there the sign for the screen comes up and then the screen comes up and it is a very very effective screen very effective I don’t think you want to muck about with getting any aftermarket

Screens yeah that’s pretty good and to come down you might get some more noise coming from that but yeah pretty effect pretty effective and you you can also get tint screens and all that kind of stuff from BMW so you can go into the menu and then you can just allocate this

Rocker switch to anything in there so you’ve got uh active cruise control Heating and at the moment the black dot next to windscreen means that this rocker switch has been allocated to the uh use of the wind screen so you got the standard 6.5 in TFT which we all know

And love brakes a nice I do like the brakes clutch very light quick shifter there’s a bit of a pause actually to it on the way down yeah it’s all right it’s it’s still not brilliant but maybe a little bit better than the previous 1250 I

Think but what I will say is the bike certainly feels yeah it just feels a lot smaller I think that’s this is the main thing I’ve noticed so far on the video what I’ll take away is the bike doesn’t feel like a big GS you know it’s um when you’re on the

Gas and then off the gas it’s um it doesn’t sort of flex at all really I guess that’s down to the new frame and the aluminum subframe so it feels a lot tighter so certainly if you got a bit of a sports Man head on your head then I

Think you’re going to enjoy this cuz it certainly is yeah it’s certainly flickable and you just can’t feel any Flex in it at all and the tire tire Wise It’s got the Met tance next two tires which I’ve got on my gs1 1250 and they’re really good tire

So in the UK I think uh that is the standard tire I believe that they’re going to come with so this is my one of my favorite routs then so let’s just see how the bike handles through here so we’re on Dynamic Pro roads are dry yeah it

Does it does feel tighter definitely feels tighter through here you don’t it’s not flexing as much I love this bit of Road little bit of a wobble there but it feels it does feel feel good Yeah that quick shift a little bit pausy on the way up uh yeah the brakes are really nice it just handles it does handle better than mine if I’m being sadly if I’m being honest it handles better than mine which is what one would expect it’s certainly a lot

Tighter it’s all got that sort of noise coming up through the fork stanions there which uh if you got a BMW you know what I mean tank wise tank feels nice although this is just a standard model not the GSA whenever that’s going to come out it really is comfortable I

Didn’t think I’d be impressed with the seat but I’ve been on the bike now for about an hour fine uh Comfort wise it feels like it’s a similar seating position to my GE uh but maybe you’re you just feel like you’re on the bike rather than down in

It on my GS I think youve got if you got that you want something with a bit of excitement I think this is going to give it to you so I’ve just stopped for a minute just to uh adjust the camera what I’ve noticed is that if you’re neutral

Pull the clutch in into first gear it’s almost like quite a long pause actually so obviously there’s some kind of connection there uh but it is a long pause to get into first gear obviously with a new gearbox anyway let’s go uh through some twisties first through to Second it still it

Still jumps like the old one so I don’t think they’ve it might be a little bit better but it’s not brilliant what they’ve nailed is the uh the whole chassis yeah it’s a lot firmer so it does hustle quite nicely through the bends so we’ve got this uh

Adaptive cruise control so it’s got a radar on it we’ve heard about the radar before so let’s put the cruise control on so set it 28 M hour I’ve got two blobs of distance so let’s just see if it follows that even go around the corner will it pick it

Up so set it to 36 M hour and it should when that slows down the bike should slow down as well I should be able to change gear as well yeah yeah nice smooth gearbox and then as the car slows down the bike should slow down as well so there we go it’s

Slowing down but I am covering the brakes just in case so very clever Tech so through the twisties very nice certainly a massive improvement over my 1250 GS I think we’re just going to go back to the dealership now back to the Manel collection part the bike side by

Side and have a quick look over it but what else can I tell you well in relation to fuel range this got a fuel range of a this is a 19 l t now so it’s reduced in capacity capacity by 1 lit mine was 20 L I think mine was good for

263 Mi apparently on paper this is good for about 247 I think 247 Mi if I’m wrong I’ll amend it up here um but yeah it’s okay and for accessories well you can throw the kitchen sink at these bikes different option packs etc etc um I don’t think anybody’s going to

Get the basic model I think you’re going to go for the tea model to get the electronic suspension and the extra riding modes are lobbed in as well so I think that’s what people are going to do and then choose whether you want fancy brakes and all that kind

Of stuff but um yeah real nice kind yeah real nice machine yeah kind of I suppose am I Blown Away by it I really like the fact that you can hustle it and it’s it’s it doesn’t Flex it’s not like your flexible friend like the 1250 GS um yeah I suppose the

Question would I get one well we’ll answer that when I get back to the uh dealership just feel it just feels a lot smaller it feels like you’re on um what can I say it feels like you’re on certainly doesn’t feel like you’re on a 1250 GS uh absolutely no way at all

They’ve uh they’ve sort of brought it down as size if if that makes sense yeah you don’t feel like you’re on a a big 1250 GS and if you’re into your off-roading I think you’d be more tempted to go and give the gravel road a

Bit of a go rather than on your you know your big GS not the GSA but your standard big GS compared to this so I think that’s where they’re the the takeaway points that um takeaway points that sounds very Posh doesn’t it yeah they’re going to be

My uh takeaway points uh from this just made it more sporty so it’s going to appeal to the the the younger Market not the old old farts like me at 57 I think they might have just reduced their target range from like mid 40s down to

Sort of the I don’t know into the 30s now I suppose so that means they might be selling more of them but it’s certainly from a handing point of view it’s yeah it’s a it’s an improvement I can’t I can’t deny that gearbox yeah the quick shifter yeah it’s

Still not perfect I don’t want to sort of on anybody’s fireworks but it’s not perfect maybe with a few more miles on the engine it will bed in a bit a bit nicer but first through the second yeah still clunky I’m glad I got the heated seats and the heated handle ball grips

On they are lovely so nearly back at the dealer then so what am I going to take away from this and as we approach my lovely BMW dealer well it’s certainly we’ve said it a couple of times already it’s certainly tighter uh it’s got It’s got more sporty

Aspect to it now definitely uh it feels a lot smaller than the GS and it’s 12 kilos lighter so this is 236 kilos mine’s 248 249 I’m on tippy toes so it might just sit a little bit higher and I got a 32 in seam so I can’t flat foot it

You can get the Adaptive ride height if you want to get that so the standard height is 850 mm and if you get the Adaptive ride height then that drop it down 30 mil to 82 I think as you come to a stop it just drops it down so if you’re vertically

Challenged cuz you can’t get uh the lowered suspension for it so they don’t do that and even the seat you can’t adjust the uh seat height uh from 850 you on my one I could go higher or lower you can’t do that now but you can get

You can get a high seat and a low seat um and once you’ve got it that’s it you can’t change the position of it and you get different pegs and all that kind of stuff so you can adjust STI to get the right ergonomics on the bike so here we

Are then at The Mantel collection my bike’s still there and this old bike here look at that that’s a that’s the 4Runner to all of this the r00 GS and that’s done about 100,000 mil that one I think something like that so there’s mine so what do I

Think well let’s switch it off and have a quick chat BOS well there we go my old girl 1250 GS that’s a year old and then the new boy on the Block new kid on the Block the r300 GS very quickly then this is the triple black the T model and you can

Just see we’ve got the new engine out it 1300cc engine it’s all on my previous video go and check it out but it’s all covered in this Teflon frying pan kind of finish so the front of the engine as well it’s all got that finish uh we’ve got the

Uh sheet steel metal frame which the engine is bolted into that’s all new so not a tube inight and then we’ve got the uh aluminium rear subframe again with this kind of frying pan finish as well that’s all all light exhaust sounded all right uh we get the

Uh over and under shotgun exhaust if you want to and what else is there brakes yeah we’ve got the BRBO brakes with BMW branding on it really like the Electric windshield that’s really good actually it’s a standard one wind deflectors work really well nice built-in turn indicators and if you

Want to go for you can get rid of that and you can have them down here just like my GS somewhere so it’s nice like the shape of the Tank tank was nice seat position was good not sure the durability of this rubbery kind of stuff but it felt really comfortable actually

Really comfy all nice and then you’ve got the mounting system for your piers and I’m surprised that there’s not a like a a a spring-loaded flap that they could have up here because somebody’s got Sticky Fingers then yeah they might come along and have a bit of fun with

You and they might might disappear who knows so maybe a spring-loaded flat would have been better on there indicat wise yes we’ve got the done away with the the main backl we got the multifunction indicators not a great fan of those got the rear radar unit there which all

Works with the adaptive cruise control which is on here so if you haven’t I think all the bikes have got this here and if you’ve got the uh the version without the radar then your screen will come down and cover this up because you can’t retrofit the radar so

You can see here the screen just finishes short of the radar so that’s how you know this has got the Active Radar got the new Matrix light that’s sort of growing on me really that’s all right what else is there to say about it yeah the engine was okay now you got a

New square box section kind of Center stand down there what else yeah comfortable it’s all right I should have just got should have come back to the workshop and got to roll the handlebars slightly forward but there we go yeah and then you’ve got the uh new rear shaft drive and again

It’s covered in that tou frying pan stuff so that should be really quite durable actually certainly easier to keep clean without a shadow of a doubt definitely going to be easy to keep clean yeah compared to my one so yeah there you have it that is

The new r1300 GS oh one thing before I go the USBC thing down here that is a fa to get a charging plug in there absolute FAU cuz it’s at 90° so I’m not a fan of that one but I guess once it’s in there it’s in

There for life kind of thing but yeah I couldn’t get couldn’t manage to insert one in there to charge my GoPro anyway that would be a negative bit of a f for that but you have got over here a charging port there as well just thought I’d had that

So I’ve got to say a big shout out to the folks and Tony at the Mansel collection for allowing me to take out their demo r300 GS triple black with all the bits on it there we go this is this is let’s have a look this is a

1988 bumblebee r100 GS with nearly 100,000 Mi on the clock so we’ve got the old daddy and the new kid on the Block very impressive and then we have my GS now how is this going to feel this is going to be interesting how is this

Going to feel compared to what I’ve just ridden but straight away I feel like I’m sat in the Bike and I’ve got an sc project exhaust on this and it’s been Hill topped as well so yeah I still like this bike I still like this bike yeah definitely on the 1300 you’re higher up definitely and the and the whole bike is feels a lot smaller obviously it’s 13 or 12 kilos

Lighter but folks if you’re an existing 1250 GS shift cam owner would you would you change or would I change and the answer to that would be I have to say no at this moment in time Never Say Never but for the gain that I would get from a

From a sport sort of from a sporty kind of viewpoint I just don’t think it would be worth my while changing up but that’s not to say I didn’t like the 1300 I did I love the I love the screen I liked how tight the frame was with that new

Main frame and the subframe go mad with your little doggy handled really well I think it would definitely out handle this flexible bike with all the tubes on it but being brutally honest I would keep I would keep this one definitely keep this one and then

I’d be interested to see what the GSA next year whenever that comes out is going to look like um cuz that would be maybe one reason I would upgrade this to the big boy the GSA would be the fuel anxiety that sometimes we get when we’re

Away but as I sit here and now I would stick with my 1250 GS because it suits me and I don’t need to to spend a lot more money so I did sort of go onto the configurator just to see how much a triple black with all the bits on that

I’ve got and it was about 22 Grand so I don’t know what I’d get as a partx for this one but I don’t think I’d sort of I would spend the extra money so I don’t think I’m getting that much more money’s worth but when the GSA

Comes out I would more than lik to have a serious look at that that’s it folks I might have gone on for a bit longer than 15 minutes I did want to make it a short sort of initial ride uh video but as a gs1250 owner yeah the new one is a lot

Tighter feels a lot smaller you sit on it rather than in it like this one but I’ve got to say I would stick with my 1250 but that’s not to say I wouldn’t change in the future that’s it folks as of a ride safe and we’ll see you again

In the next video Cheerio for now take care and ride safe