The rear shock has gone on my Deauville thanks to my enthusiastic approach to London's speed reduction measures (the sign says 30, so surely the humps should allow me to travel at that speed!?), and coupled with a rotten exhaust, bald tyres, missing plastics, a cable tied radiator, and a nearly expired MOT, I'm thinking a replacement is due and the GS may be the boy for me. I've seen a few around the 5500 mark. It's got to live outside and put up with my lack of maintenance (I like shafties).
What do I need to know?
Corrosion to forks which should have been done under waranty, but many slipped through.
A lot of people do take these off road
So look for off road style damage, dinged rims, trees in strange places, buckled wheels etc.
Single sparks can suffer from surging which is annoying but fixable.
Make sure diff is smooth and not graunchy (sp? if even a word
) or leaking oil.
Anything else you would check any other bike for. Overall very robust and capable of big mileages.
BMW servcing is pricey. So, meet
Neil harrisson or Steptoe as he's known on the ukgser boiard. He's an all round good egg and very knowledgeable servicer of all BMWs and supplier of cheap new and secondhand parts. Located in Richmond by the Robin Hood roundabout, and has a GS loan bike for when he's servcing yours.
Sine Charlie and Ewans endeavours, GS prices are at an all time high. Unless you specifically want to off road or off road styling, check out the Rockster or Supermoto GS as I heard it refered to the other day
, represents much better value for money.
