Happy first birthday to my F800GT! One year ago today, it rolled off the assembly line in Berlin, not knowing it would soon be shipped to Portland and BMW Motorcycles of Western Oregon, where it would wait patiently on the showroom floor until I bought it in August.
We’ve now shared nearly 1,900 miles including a short weekend road trip to Hood River and a whole lot of commutes between NoPo and The Other Side Of The World. I can safely say I’m really thoroughly enjoying this bike (save for a couple of weeks when I was having some really odd riding anxiety issues that saw me riding worse than when I was a noob – surprising solution was to stop watching CNN all the time – I’m now less stressed and much better rested, and am having all the fun I’m used to having on two wheels). It’s a little shorter than my F650GS which makes stopping on banked lefthand corners much easier, and the belt drive provides a much smoother ride than the single cylinder drive of my F650GS. It’s also noticeably less sail-like in the wind – I’ve noticed that where my F650GS would get forcibly moved around in the lane, my F800GT just kind of undulates – I find it much less nerve-wracking and somehow more predictable, particularly in crosswinds.
Next up to buy – a set of BMW hard bags so that I have somewhere to lock up my Aerostich when it’s rainy and I want to ride to brunch. I love running my Mosko soft bags, but there’s just no way that my Aerostich will ever fit in those.