BMW G 650 Xmoto
by Al
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| The BMW G 650 Xmoto |
"You're not taking your bike on that run you're doing", Boris proclaimed. "You're taking a press bike, and you're writing me a yarn about it."
I'd thought this out. "Boris", I said, "I'm going down the Wombeyan Caves road. There is much dirt. They wouldn't like their bike back all dirty. Don't worry about it."
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| It's tall, and if you're under 180cm you probably won't be able to put your feet flat on the ground |
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| BMW obviously thought it was more important to be able to check your brake line than your speed. Works for me. |
I picked it up, and rode it home in traffic. It's great for commuting in that it's narrow and light (sort of - around 160kg gassed up). It's tall and the handlebars are high and wide, which is good because when you ride between lanes of stopped cars you don't hit their mirrors. Trouble is, I can't put my feet flat on the ground, and I don't feel stable when stopped. I'm 175cm tall. I suspect shorter people will have larger problems.
It steers well and precisely, though, and it's easy doing feet-up manouvering. And fun. You can play trials rider until you really, really have to stop. But there's a price to be paid for the light steering. You're high up, and when I got some crosswinds on top of the Gladesville bridge it moved the bike around a bit and I needed the whole lane.
The power delivery is punchy and really smooth as long as you're on the gas . It seems to run lean on over-run at the low end of the rev range - between maybe 2000 and 3000 rpm - and it backfires quietly as unburnt fuel fuel ignites deep in the bowels of the muffler. A couple of times it cut out -- always on over-run -- and I had to re-start the engine while coasting to a stop. It always started first time.
The exhaust pipe comes close to your left leg, and you feel the heat. It was winter, I liked it. The psychopath who designed the indicator switches for the R series BMWs appears to have been outplaced, and the indicator switch works just like a Japanese bike's switch. Except, of course, that it is under the horn, which I pressed accidentally a couple of times. Fortunately, pressing the horn button produces a pathetic, emasculated bleat that it would be very difficult to take offence to.
There's a headlight flasher at the FRONT of the switch block just under your left trigger finger. I hit it accidentally a couple of times, too. Strangely, my old Yamaha has a similarly placed flasher switch, which I never hit accidentally.
The instruments consist of a digital speedo and two buttons. The throttle cable and front brake hydraulic line are cable tied together, and run in front of it. One button switches it between views (odo, voltmeter, trip meter, something else) and the other resets the odo. I would have liked a tacho, but I'm old-fashioned.
I'd expected it to be a wheelie machine, but it never popped the front under acceleration. Unless I'd seen a speed bump and stood up, bounced on the forks, leaned back and gassed it, of course. Then it wheelied.
The seating position took a bit of getting used to. You're very much on top of, rather than IN the bike. And it hasn't got a fuel tank in the normal place. The seat is this great long plank that pretty well goes from 20cm behind the steering head to somewhere out over the rear guard. There's a fuel filler cap in the right hand side cover, and the tank it fills is somewhere near the centre of the bike.
It takes 9.5 litres. The fuel light comes on after 7.5 litres.
Fortunately, the 652 cc liquid cooled single cylinder engine is quite economical. It makes about 53 bhp, and gets a bit less than 20km/litre when ridden in a, er, spirited, manner; so don't count on much more than 150km between fuel stops.
So I prepared for my 600km Saturday run. I packed a tubeless tyre repair kit, some tools, some duct tape and a pair of sunglasses in my magnetic tank bag, and went down to the garage.
The stuff that's where a tank normally sits is made out of plastic, and magnets don't stick to it. There are no mounting points where you could tie it down with ocky straps.
Behind the rider, the flat plank of a seat just turns into the rear mudguard, and there are no mounting points for ocky straps. There is absolutely no place on this motorcycle where you can attach luggage. Unless you buy the optional rear rack.
I cancelled the plans for a 600km run on the G 650 Xmoto. I took the old Yamaha XJ instead, and decided I would try the G 650 Xmoto up around the Hawkesbury River the next day.
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| Front end componentry by Marzocchi and Brembo. Press bike was fitted with optional ABS. |
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| Rear shock damping adjustment. You will burn your hand. Don't ask me how I know. |
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| Engine is stressed member of frame. Fuel filler cap is visible below seat at rear. Rear brake hydraulic reservoir is bolted to cylinder block. If you were German, you'd know why. |
A good part of this is the suspension. After a while, I stopped picking lines which avoided the bumps through bumpy corners. The suspension just swallows nasty bumps. The 45mm inverted Marzocchi forks forks have 270mm of travel and are adjustable for compression damping (top of left fork) and rebound damping (top of right fork). The rear suspension has 215mm of travel. And it's mounted to a very rigid frame which uses the engine as a stressed member. If you hit a pothole in a 130km/h sweeper the wheels just go up and down a bit and the bike stays dead on line.
I have never ridden a bike which handles bumpy corners this well.
The rear suspension has adjustable rebound damping and preload. The rebound adjustment is a big black knob right next to the exhaust pipe, and I burnt myself trying to adjust it. You need a spanner for the preload.
There are downsides to this bump-swallowing suspension, though. I've mentioned seat height -- if you are less than 185cm you probably won't be able to put your feet flat on the ground. And under hard brakes you lose about 200 of the 270mm travel in the front, it sits up in the back, and the steering gets decidedly quicker. The feeling is accentuated because you're sitting so high, and I didn't like it at all.
The brakes are very effective. There's a single 300mm brake disk at the front with a twin piston Brembo caliper, and a 240mm disk with a floating caliper at the back. There's no need for twin front discs on a bike that only weights 160kg wet. I never used more than two fingers on the brake lever and I had no complaints -- even when the car I was following too closely braked suddenly to avoid a dog.
The test bike came with optional ABS. For the control freaks among us, there's a button on the left switchblock to turn it off.
It's got 17 inch cast wheels, with a 3.5 inch rim at the front and a 4.5 inch at the rear, and comes standard with Pirelli Diablo tyres: 120mm front and 160mm rear.
So, it has sticky tyres, a rigid frame, good suspension, good brakes and bulk ground clearance. I'm not a fan of the motard riding position, but I got used to it real fast and found I could corner just as fast, if not faster, than I could on a "normal" bike.
The four-valve engine only makes 53 horsepower, but it's everywhere. You've generally got a choice of two or three gears for the situation you're in. You get good drive out of corners thanks to the abundant torque, and if the exit to the corner is bumpy and there's another corner coming up, there are few bikes that will pass you.
If the exit is smooth and there's not another tight corner coming up, there are plenty of bikes that will pass you. The 53 horsepower gets you to 150km/h reasonably quickly, and BMW reckon it's got another 20km/h in it after that. They're probably right -- I ran out of road before I could test the truth of this. But plenty of other bikes get to 150km/h more than "reasonably quickly", and you won't be comfortable on your G 650 Xmoto when the speed gets high.
It cruises comfortably at about 120 km/h maximum. The riding position means you cop a lot of wind and have to hang on, so it gets tiring when you go much faster. The motor has a balance shaft, but I started to notice the vibration at cruising speeds. And the seat is great for moving around on while lining up the next hairpin, but it starts to bite after about an hour. At which time the fuel light will probably come on anyway.
So what kind of person will want to buy the G650X Moto?
A person who doesn't like to share. There is no provision for carrying a passenger.
A person who likes to have fun commuting. This is one fun bike to carve up city traffic on.
A person who likes going fast on bumpy, twisty roads. The stability of this machine on a bad surface is simply outstanding. I've never ridden anything like it.
A person who travels light. You either buy BMW's tiny luggage rack, or get a jacket with lots of pockets. Either way you'll carry about the same payload.
A person who doesn't tour. With no luggage carrying capacity, an ordinary seat and a limited fuel range, this is not the bike for the long distance rider.
But if you're a person who likes scaring people on larger, faster bikes over a piece of potholed, rippled pavement; commuting in style, and hunting within an hour of home, go get yourself a G 650 Xmoto.
$15,250 plus on-roads. You will have SO much fun.
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| The potholed, twisting dirt and tar roads around Sydney's Hawkesbury River are ideal hunting grounds for the G 650 Xmoto |
