The F800GS had done me well for the 15 months and 10,000 miles I owned it for. It’s great for touring, great MPG, comfortable with the add ons I had and pretty bulletproof however the weight and height was something I never got used to. I don’t know why bikes need to be so high and heavy, I guess it’s because people want all the bells and whistles on them and a lot of it is more “form over function”. It’s not just the BMW’s either – The Honda NC700 and its variants as well as others are > 200kg.
Anyhow, before the 800GS I had a 2004 F650GS which was lovely. Not as powerful or perhaps stylish as the 800 and I’m sure those are the 2 reasons I was drawn to it. So a compromise was needed. I like the characteristics of the 650 single cylinder engine but didn’t want to go back to the F650GS, I wanted something even lighter and hopefully a few years newer.
Enter the G650X Country. Yes, it’s yellow, just like all my previous bikes.
It’s a 2009 model, hence the yellow. The same 650cc engine as before but ever so slightly more BHP and best of all, a weight around 159KG. That’s at least 50KG less than the 800. It has a few flaws which I’ll sort out shortly but for now I’m having a great time on it. Happy days!