All Test Drives – BMW F800GT Test Drive: the GT roadster! – Squaring the circle

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BMW F800GT test: the GT roadster !

All Test Drives - BMW F800GT Test Drive: the GT roadster! - Squaring the circle

Shunned by bikers, the BMW F800 ST has never really found its audience. BMW therefore revises its copy for 2013 and offers an improved version called F800 GT. A small road bike “ made in Munich ”, more efficient and versatile. Test.

Squaring the circle

Designed in 2005, the F800 ST then attempted the perfect synthesis between a mid-size roadster and a GT motorcycle. The objective was to offer a very versatile motorcycle, both light and easy to use on a daily basis, but also capable of cutting the road quickly while offering the comfort and protection of a real GT (read our).

Alchemy has unfortunately not taken, for lack of an insufficient dose of “GT” in the formula to the taste of (too) many users. Some particularly deplored a driving position that rested too much on the wrists, sensitive vibrations on the handlebars, others a perfectible comfort in solo as in duo, insufficient protection and too low loading capacity with the original suitcases. . Criticisms a priori justified, which will however have taken nearly six years to be fully taken into account…

BMW Motorrad is partly forgiving this long wait by equipping the new F800 GT with its two-channel ABS braking system as standard and by offering, as an option, innovative technologies such as the ESA piloted suspension (Electronic Suspension Adjustment) – adjustable in three positions only at the rear -, the ASC stability control or the RDC tire pressure indicator.

Options available to the motorcycle made available to us for this test and which come in addition to optional accessories such as LED indicators and heated grips installed by BMW France on this "Full equipped" model.

As too often at Behème, the use of the "Options" box is therefore a necessary step on this new 2013 feature. All the more so as some nonetheless basic equipment is also to be found on the side of the famous "packs" or to be negotiated with the dealer: we think in particular of the central stand, the on-board computer, the case supports and … the cases themselves, naturlich !

On the technical level, the F800 GT retains the main strengths of its predecessor, in particular its robust double aluminum beam frame, its attractive rear single-sided swingarm, as well as its practical secondary transmission system by toothed belt..

It also benefits from a Rotax twin-cylinder engine whose power has been increased from 85 hp to 90 hp, with no change in torque: 86 Nm at 5800 rpm (read our). Finally, the exhaust sound is made more husky and manly thanks to the adoption of the silencers and manifold of the F800 R roadster.

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