BMW F800S

Originally Posted by The Basket

All the BMW range looks pricey to me

I think the F800 has it's charms but it is up against some top Jap rivals.

You have to really want that prop badge to crawl over a SV thousand.

Ah...but for a mid thirties/forties DAS rider the insurance will be too much for a bigger bike and folks like that will have the cash and go for the badge and its probable higher resale value. BMW insurance services are bound to be doing good deals on it for newbies, I'd say.

I would go 2nd hand for me BMW if I was lookin'.

Originally Posted by Cloggsy

Does it come Naked

Most likely later this year: the F800R

I think the F800 has it's charms but it is up against some top Jap rivals.

I can't think of one Jap rival TBH. It's probably half way between the SV650 and 1000, but it's simply different. More likely a rival to a Buell I'd say.

You have to really want that prop badge to crawl over a SV thousand.

Not too interested in the badge, just rather like the idea of something different, that's well built, and has enough performance to excite me. Okay it hasn't got the all-out balls of an SS600, but torque? oh yes, almost on a par with the SV1000, which should mean that on the road it's a fun beastie to ride. Add a few changes, like a less restricted exhaust etc and you'll have a superb real-world motorcycle.

I'll have mine in Boxer cup colours please .


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It is fun, and naked in boxer cup colours will be a cracker.

[northwind]

Originally Posted by jonboy

I can't think of one Jap rival TBH.

VFR...

Hope it looks like this:

Originally Posted by northwind

VFR...

A TRX 850 would be the closest Jap Rival but that has gone. A TDM
A shame because the TRX was ok in my book.
You can have a CBF 1000 ABS for the money.

BMW is the marmite of biking...you do or you don't.

Ok but the price of them just gets me. Too rich for my blood.

Just for the record there's a review of the F800 in the current (June2006) edition of Two Wheels Only.

.....lets find a scan.....here ya go

I'd agree with that review having ridden one. Looks sweet in blue (in a slab sided industrial kind of way). 6.5ks a fair amount of dish tho........eek, sounding like the Basket Maybe more of a Fazer beater than an SV beater. WOnder how it fares against a Z750?

Agreed that the Yam TRX would have been it's nearest competition, but it no longer exists. But a VFR? Northy, what have you been smoking?

The S version is under 6k (and I reckon will outsell the slightly ungainly ST by 5-1) and when the R version is announced I'll wager that it will be around £5600 on the road.

What I find irritating about the bike press is that if a bike doesn't have more than 100 bhp then it's a "stepping stone" aimed at new riders. Jesus! The Kawasaki H2 750 (one of the wildest bikes they ever made) produced around 72 bhp (yup, virtually the same an SV650). So the F800 with 85 bhp and 62 lb ft of torque (half as much torque again as the SV) is, in my opinion, more than enough to put a big grin on your face and not have to worry about lurid power slides. Perhaps the "F" in the F800 moniker actually stands for Fun?*

* Though as it's German, maybe not


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