2010 BMW F650gs Motorcycle. Any thoughts. | GTAMotorcycle.com

2010 BMW F650gs Motorcycle. Any thoughts.

Klaatu

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My friend is selling this and I'm thinking of buying it for a second bike, just to go for short rides, probably never go off road with it.
I enjoy riding it, very light, not too tall.
Anybody here own one, or had any experience with it. Not concerned too much about cost of service on a BMW, I own a Ducati, can't be any worse. lol
Trying to find some reviews, found a few online, but just wondering if anyone here has owned one.
Thanks
 
We have a 2012 F650GS, owned since new.

It's a fantastic street bike, but as an Adventure bike, it's capabilities are on par with a V-Strom - power about the same as well. Will handle light gravel roads fine, but the only thing that's favourable for taking it on gnarly tracks is the upright seating position. The real Adventure model in the line-up is the F800GS and the suspension is the biggest difference between the two bikes, with the F8 getting longer suspension travel, higher clearance and a 21" front wheel.

We've taken the F650GS over some tough terrain and the suspension lets the bike down, the tires spending more time in the air than on the trail. In Mexico, the speed bumps (topes) are excessively tall, and the low-clearance 650 was continually scraping the bash plate - on the street!

Cast wheels are prone to denting and cannot be repaired like the 800s spoked wheels. We dented one (again on a pothole in the street) and had to get the wheel replaced.

Known issue for that vintage is the stator overheating and failing, which also happened to us on the road. There's a re-designed flywheel which ventilates a lot better. Check with the owner if the original has been replaced with the new design, if it hasn't, it's a very expensive fix (~ $1500 parts+labour).

If you are going to take the bike into the dealership for service, be aware that the F650GS is one of the more expensive BMW bikes to service in terms of labour. There are lots of plastic and fiddly bits to remove to get to the engine and it's not as straightforward as the boxer engines with its exposed cylinder heads. They'll charge you about an hour's worth of shop time extra for the same maintenance interval service. My R1200GS was consistently ~$100-$200 cheaper than the F650GS at the dealership.

Not applicable if you're doing the work yourself. Parts are parts, not any more cheaper or expensive than any other BMW parts.

Bottom line, it's a very good bike. I wouldn't hesitate to buy one as a street bike if one came up for sale for a good price.
 
We have a 2012 F650GS, owned since new.

It's a fantastic street bike, but as an Adventure bike, it's capabilities are on par with a V-Strom - power about the same as well. Will handle light gravel roads fine, but the only thing that's favourable for taking it on gnarly tracks is the upright seating position. The real Adventure model in the line-up is the F800GS and the suspension is the biggest difference between the two bikes, with the F8 getting longer suspension travel, higher clearance and a 21" front wheel.

We've taken the F650GS over some tough terrain and the suspension lets the bike down, the tires spending more time in the air than on the trail. In Mexico, the speed bumps (topes) are excessively tall, and the low-clearance 650 was continually scraping the bash plate - on the street!

Cast wheels are prone to denting and cannot be repaired like the 800s spoked wheels. We dented one (again on a pothole in the street) and had to get the wheel replaced.

Known issue for that vintage is the stator overheating and failing, which also happened to us on the road. There's a re-designed flywheel which ventilates a lot better. Check with the owner if the original has been replaced with the new design, if it hasn't, it's a very expensive fix (~ $1500 parts+labour).

If you are going to take the bike into the dealership for service, be aware that the F650GS is one of the more expensive BMW bikes to service in terms of labour. There are lots of plastic and fiddly bits to remove to get to the engine and it's not as straightforward as the boxer engines with its exposed cylinder heads. They'll charge you about an hour's worth of shop time extra for the same maintenance interval service. My R1200GS was consistently ~$100-$200 cheaper than the F650GS at the dealership.

Not applicable if you're doing the work yourself. Parts are parts, not any more cheaper or expensive than any other BMW parts.

Bottom line, it's a very good bike. I wouldn't hesitate to buy one as a street bike if one came up for sale for a good price.


a bit off topic but, are the parallel twins found on the F800/850 as reliable and bulletproof as the older air cooled boxer twins?
 
a bit off topic but, are the parallel twins found on the F800/850 as reliable and bulletproof as the older air cooled boxer twins?

Yeah, no less reliable than the air-cooled R bikes. Close to 150,000 kms on our 650 so far, no engine problems. Never owned an 800/850.

I would say the 650s are more reliable than the F800s because they are less tuned. 70hp from a 798cc liquid-cooled engine is not stressing that powerplant at all. Another nice thing is that it runs perfectly fine on 87 octane, whereas the more tuned F800s recommend mid-grade. Helps when you're touring in some places where there's only one grade of gasoline at the pumps....

With the BMW Adventure bikes (the new R1250GS excluded), the engine is not the weakest link. Tons of stuff will fail before the engine: stator, fuel pump, shaft drive, RF immobilizer. I've had all these things fail on me on the road, but of all the Beemers I've ever owned, none of the the engines have ever let me down.

Oh, and to the OP, don't let your fuel level run below 1/4 tank in extremely hot weather. The fuel pump is cooled by gasoline and will overheat and fail if there's not enough gas in the tank. We're talking like mid-30s and higher. If it does fail, *DO NOT* replace with another BMW fuel pump, it is super-expensive. The Bosch fuel pump is exactly the same and where we were when it failed, with import taxes, etc. the Bosch fuel pump was 10% of the cost of the BMW unit. "10% of", not "10% off".
 
From my perspective I think the chain driven BMW's are probably more reliable that those with the shaft final drive. I think that's the weak point with BMW.

Its not a matter of if the final drive goes, but when it goes. And I don't think you would get a lot of change out of $3k for parts and labour to replace it.

My current GS has 280k with no issues so its a bit of an anomaly, but I had a new final drive in my 2006 that lasted 13k

I have a friend with 110k miles on her 650 without any major problems.
 

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