Yamaha near top of survey with BMW near bottom

[dcstrom]

Any of these float your boat?

tr650
dr650
650 enduro r
xt660
klr650

Not in the slightest - all underpowered and chain drive...

 

[Koinz]

and I had a $250.00 discussion with a nice officer on the side of the road one day

Graham, That's funny

 

[dcstrom]

This is NOT what I'm talking about when I said they should do an updated R80/GS. It's a phony copy - weighs too much and too complicated. Try again!

http://motorcycleraw.com/index.php/custom-bikes/176-concept-bmw-r120-pd-spirit

 

[GearheadGrrrl]

I've got a BMW R80ST with 111k miles on it, already done the heads, new rings, and transmission rebuild. Gettin' tempted to strip the frame and repaint it, then go through everything else... Nobody makes anything like it today.

 

[GrahamD]

Graham, I'm with you in wishing that BMW (or someone) would come up with a light, simple, powerful (enough) bike in the vein of the R80/GS. What's not to like about a 400lb, 50hp (ok make the new one 60, that'd be alright) bike that's reliable and easy to work on. I did over 100,000 miles on mine, and while it did have some issues, a lot of those could be fixed with better designs, and modern materials and manufacturing (worn rocker gear, and gearboxes, for example). Add FI and some other modern tweaks, while keeping it simple, how hard could that be?

So what has the same rev range, pretty much the same weight, pretty much the same torque curve, half the fuel consumption and half the price of an R100 and will probably last 200,000 km if you looked after it like a $15,000 bike?

 

[dcstrom]

close, but... needs to be in a different chassis, needs shaft drive, and is not easy to work on. Would only accept something like this if the engine needed close to zero maintenance (apart from fluid changes). Hydraulic valve lifters might do it?

 

[GrahamD]

close, but... needs to be in a different chassis, needs shaft drive, and is not easy to work on. Would only accept something like this if the engine needed close to zero maintenance (apart from fluid changes). Hydraulic valve lifters might do it?

and has screw adjust valves...?

OK suppose we will have to wait until either BMW do another R80 or Honda do a 1/3 scale Jacked up naked Goldwing.