BMW F900GS: The Honest, Dirty Truth.

In a past life within the South African motorcycle industry, I managed a tantalizingly short ride on the then, brand new BMW F900GS. It was just enough to whet my excitement for a proper exploration, but as is often the case with our local Motorrad, a proper ride was not to be..

For some crazy reason, BMW Motorrad South Africa is remarkably reluctant to let the local motorcycle media actually review their new models. Not even if we show up as a customer at a local dealer, ready to fill out the required indemnities and play by the rules… go figure? So, I waited. Two years later, as the early adopters began trading in for the next "shiny thing," my patience finally paid off.

When BMW Motorrad East Rand told me they had traded in an F900GS that had been used for proper adventuring, I was all in. I wanted to see how it had held up after living a real life, and find out if the F900GS is as good as I suspected it might be.

We arrived at BMW Motorrad East Rand around 10:00 AM on a sunny but blustery and chilly Gauteng March morning. I was handed the keys to a 2024 unit with roughly 37,500 km on the clock.

Truth be told, it looked a bit manky. This wasn’t one of those valeted and detailed showroom queens Motorrad East Rand usually turns out, it looked like it had just rolled in from an epic cross border mission, been rinsed off with a garden hose, and parked.

I LIKED THAT!! There was an absolute honesty to it, nothing to hide, warts and all. It also made me significantly less nervous about taking it off road, when a bike already has a few scratches, you worry less about the repair bill and more about the ride.

We planned a 200km loop that would test every facet of a South African "Dual Purpose" life, from tactical lane-splitting through Gauteng’s manic morning traffic, to a freeway blast through seething congestion and the seemingly endless roadworks, and eventually a local nature reserve featuring a technical mountain pass and some truly epic off road riding and scenery.

Why "Smaller" is the New "Better"

There is currently a strange game of one upmanship between manufacturers, all trying to build the biggest, most tech laden "pack mules" possible. I recently rode the new BMW R1300GSA, and while it’s an impressive bit of kit, I couldn’t properly adventure on it.

Unless you are a GS Trophy riding god, taking a behemoth down a steep, rocky, narrow goat path is fear inducing. You aren't worried about your talent so much as worried about the matching behemoth repair bill when you inevitably run out of strength and dump that giant on the deck. As gravel highway luxury tourers, they are unmatched, but when the infrastructure hits third world levels, they become a handful.

The old counter argument was that a 900cc bike would be slow and tiresome on the long open roads through the Karoo or Namibia. With the previous F800 and F850GS iterations, I would have agreed. I actually competed in a GS Trophy on an 850GS and absolutely hated life. The suspension, specifically the front on the 850GS was less than desirable. It felt like riding a pogo stick, I’ve never crashed as often or as unexpectedly as I did on that event. I eventually pulled out of the competition and headed for home in the middle of the night directly after the gala dinner!

But the F900GS is not as good as I suspected… it is so much better than I could have imagined.

Performance & Handling: The Night and Day Difference

Suspension That Stays Planted

Even with nearly 40,000 hard kilometers on this unit, the suspension felt solid. It’s firmer, better dialed with proper sag and rebound, and completely lacks that skittish, "dirt-bike-esque" feel of its direct adversary from the other side of the English Channel. It feels absolutely planted, whether you're carving tar or skipping over corrugated dirt.

The Motor.

BMW has perfected their parallel twin. On the freeway, it easily bombs past slower vehicles with an easy roll of the right wrist. If you’re feeling cheeky, bang it hard on the gas and dump the clutch off the line, but you’d better hope you have the correct riding mode engaged... or god-like wheelie skills.

Technical Mastery

In the dirt, select Enduro or Enduro Pro. Stand up on those wide pegs and give it some throttle; you’ll be amazed at the places it can climb out of.

Pro Tip: If you don't have the skills yet, the "nanny modes" are brilliant at keeping you upright. But do yourself a favor: chat to your dealer about training days. Upskilling makes adventure riding 10x more fun.

The Soundtrack

I have always enjoyed a quickshifter, and while the older versions were clunky at low RPMs, this new iteration is leaps and bounds better. Plus, the autoblip on the downshift gives a really sexy burble out of the factory-fitted Akrapovič pipe.

Ergonomics

At 2 meters tall, my biggest fascination was the "ergos”. I had plenty of space in the cockpit, with a relaxed, neutral position and surprisingly good wind protection from the sculpted body kit and tiny windshield. Once up on the pegs in the technical stuff, I wasn't hunched over the bars or "squat hovering" above the seat. The bars are high and wide, and the seat narrows perfectly at the front so you can grip the tank with your knees.

Comparison: F850GS vs. F900GS

To see why the 900 is such a massive leap forward, look at the numbers:

The Verdict: Long-Term Reality

Riding a "well used" F900GS from BMW Motorrad East Rand that had barely been rinsed since trade in tells you all you need to know. Besides a few wear and tear items, grips, seat cover, and some baked on mud, it felt tight, mechanically sound, and ready for another 40,000 km’s.

This unit is listed for R197,000.00. Honestly, I’m currently trying to con the dealership into overpaying for my broken old BMW 1150GS, so I can take this machine home.

The "con" will never work, they know it, I know it but a man can dream. In the meantime, if you want a bike that handles the N1 to Baviaans as easily as it does the Ben 10 passes, this is it.

Ready to find your own new horizons explorer? Check out the pre owned stock at BMW Motorrad East Rand… just get there before I find a way to make that 1150GS look like a collector's item!