BMW F800GS/F650GS LAUNCH TEST: The Twin Offroad Twins

Fresh from producing 102,000 bikes in 2007 and selling every one, an increase of 2.49% over the previous record year, BMW is still filling in the gaps in its expanding and increasingly extensive product lineup. So if the best-selling but undeniably tall and heavy R1200GS Boxer is just too much motorcycle for you to think about taking it offroad with any real confidence, and the new G-series singles are simply too little, BMW now offers you a rational alternative in the shape of the dual purpose F800GS– a bike that’s been the German company’s worst-kept secret since its Rotax-engined parallel-twin family of middleweight models made its debut two years ago with the F800S/ST tarmac duo. But that’s not all, for to be sure of checking all the boxes, BMW’s engineering team headed by former Superbike racer Franz Berkmann – whom I remember rubbing handlebars with in early ‘90s German Superbike rounds, except he was on a Suzuki back then, not a BMW! - has replaced the existing F650GS enduro single, now seven years in the marketplace, with - an F650GS enduro twin. While not (yet?) sold in some markets like North America, this is anyway more of an onroad model than an offroader, even if it’s powered - somewhat improbably, going by the model number - by the same 798cc parallel-twin engine as the new F800GS, only in detuned form. Confused? So was I, before spending a couple of days riding both bikes at the BMW press launch in South Africa’s KwaZulu Natal province, including a 370 km. ride aboard the F650GS (exactly one tankful!) inland to Pietermaritzburg from Durban’s Indian Ocean coast - mainly on tarmac, but including a few gravel highways which represent just about the sum total of this model’s offroad capability. But that came after a more testing 350 km. day spent riding its F800GS partner along every kind of road, from a four-lane freeway to dirt trails bordered by sheer precipices cut into the picturesquely-named Valley of a Thousand Hills, between traditional Zulu villages consisting of thatched rondavaal circular huts interspersed with sugar cane plantations. I couldn’t have asked for a better mount for exploring the African outback, because while certainly less powerful than its Boxer brother, the F800GS is also around 30 kg. lighter and much narrower - little wider than an F650 single. This makes it a lightweight, more practical and certainly more accessible go-anywhere ride than the R1200GS - a true off-roader for all riders, whatever their level of experience and expertise.  To this extent,  the F800GS fulfils rather well the objective that BMW management identified in creating these twin offroad twins not like the others, namely to exploit a gap in the marketplace worthy of creating a fourth family of Berlin-built bikes, alongside their existing F650 and now G-series singles, R-series Boxer twins and K-model four-cylinder products. “Our aim is to provide some different motorcycles which are fun to ride and have a good level of performance, but aren’t as challenging for less experienced riders as our more powerful Boxer twin or four-cylinder models,” former BMW Motorrad president Dr.Herbert Diess told me two years ago at the F800S/ST launch, the man who oversaw the German marque’s remarkable flow of 17 new models in four years. “We want to provide a range of bikes one step beyond the entry level, which newly qualified riders can enlarge their horizons on. And we also want to provide something that returnee riders who’ve been away from motorcycling for a while, and are now coming back to it again, as many of them are, can enjoy and feel comfortable with.” In offroad terms, that’s me - and, I suspect, quite a few others..... For the F800GS is one of those bikes that’s all things to all men, one that instead of falling between two stools suits every kind of rider from the serious enduro expert to the ordinary weekend trailbiker. It’s a capable and confidence-inspiring twin-cylinder all-rounder – what the Italians call una moto totale, with polished capability offroad and on, for it makes a very good easy-to-ride real world road bike, too. As a commuter in town it handles traffic easily, the 880mm height of the comfortable seat that’s slightly challenging for shorter riders to mount a leg over, providing a good view over traffic ahead, with the refined fuelling of the Bosch EFI delivering clean pickup and easy response at part throttle. Stop/go travelling is practically a pleasure with the light action clutch and clean, easy pickup from low throttle openings, and a smooth operator of an engine, whose vibration is minimal in F800GS guise, thanks to BMW’s ingenious counterbalancing system (see Technical sidebar).  Acceleration is spirited rather than vivid, however, and it’s best to short shift at around 6000rpm to surf the quite meaty torque curve of the middleweight motor with the aid of a close-ratio six-speed gearbox, which is so slick you don’t really need to use the clutch changing gear in either direction. That’s a big help when you’re fishtailing the BMW along a gravel road and suddenly realize you’re heading too fast into a tight downhill turn, so to get some help from the engine braking to slow you down, you must notch it back a gear – NOW!!. Nice and confidence inspiring, again - and the engine is so flexible that I could open the throttle wide open in sixth gear at just 1500rpm, and feel the parallel-twin motor pick up revs smoothly, with zero transmission snatch - just a totally linear pull of power up to the 9000 rev limiter. Together with the tight turns permitted by the 42-degree steering lock, this not only makes the F800GS an improbably good city bike, but also makes easy work of slow going out in the sticks, picking your way round hefty boulders lying in tight offroad turns, or working the taper-section aluminium handlebar to avoid a junior crevasse in the dirt road, where the Zulu summer’s biggest storm just the night before had washed away part of the dirt surface, exposing the jagged rocks beneath. The well-mapped ECU’s gentle, forgiving throttle response at low speeds makes riding quite challenging dirt roads very satisfying on this bike. For while it’s a more than capable real world roadbike, the F800GS truly excels offroad, and while appearing much narrower than the 650 single it essentially replaces, it’s so compact and well balanced to ride it makes you feel you can handle anything it or the road surface can throw at you. Yet the new BMW is a mileater, too, comfortable even when cruising the highway at 200 kph with the needle of the oval tacho on the comprehensive dash parked at the 8000 rpm mark, with 1000 revs to go before the limiter cuts in quite harshly. But the riding position is so well thought out, you’re rather surprisingly not holding on too tightly at such speeds, though 100 mph/160 kph with the engine turning over at 6500 rpm is a more relaxed autobahn-friendly pace. For at that speed there’s no trace of a shimmy or any steering weave, as you sometimes get riding dual-purpose offroaders with 21-inch front wheels at those sorts of speeds, nor any shake, rattle and roll, either - the articulated counterbalancer BMW has fitted to the engine does its job well on the F800GS, leaving in just enough residual vibration to remind you you’re riding a twin-cylinder motorcycle, not an electric scooter. Yet the engine feels quite different from its closely related counterpart in the F800S/ST – there’s definitely more midrange torque, and rather surprisingly it sounds better, too. Rorty, even – higher-pitched than a comparable gruff-sounding best-of-British two-up 360-degree parallel-twin, and infinitely smoother and faster-revving than one of those, too. The 798cc motor picks up engine speed very fast when you wind the throttle wide open, while proving torquey and tractable at low rpm, but not at the expense of a jerky response of brusque pickup. The Bosch EFI is well mapped. A real downside to my day spent exploring the Zulu Kingdom on the F800GS were the Bridgestone BW501/2 Battle Wing tyres (that’s some name!) fitted to the test bikes. These have minimal tread blocking and while acceptable on tarmac, need more tread for dirt roads and are hopeless in mud. BMW hadn’t finished homologating something more knobbly, according to Franz Berkmann, but if the bike comes with these Bridgies as standard, they’re the first thing that’ll be changed by any serious adventure touring off-roader. They seemed less than adequate on the very loose stuff, where the trick is to not let the front wheel get away from you and to let the rear do the fishtailing. I’d really like to ride this scenic part of the world again, but on proper knobblies. But the balance of the bike gives you plenty of confidence when riding it, even to the point of helping compensate for the tyres’ inadequacies on loose surfaces, aided greatly by those upright cylinders and the location of the 16-litre fuel tank beneath the seat. The relatively budget suspension was good, too, with the non-adjustable 45mm Marzocchi upside down forks offering plentiful travel and compliance, and the Showa rear monoshock provided sufficient preload/compression adjustment to dial in an acceptable ride quality allied with adequate grip within the limitations of the tyres. It did well ironing out the worst washboard surfaces you occasionally come upon out in the sun-bleached EssAy outback, and at the end of my long day in the saddle I was able to walk quite comfortably – hasten, even – to the bar for a long, cool, Windhoek beer to wash the dirt down.... Another slight disappointment on the new BMW was the brake package – although offroad the F800GS’s Brembo brake package worked just fine, with lots of control and modulation, delivering good braking on loose surfaces in a very controllable way, especially at the rear. But it was a surprise to find the twin 300mm front brakes not really up to scratch in tarmac use, however – they’re especially wanting in initial bite, such as when you round a bend up in the Natal highlands, and find a cow standing in the road contentedly chewing the cud. You must hang onto the lever really hard to bring the Beemer to rest in such situations, while stamping like crazy on the more effective rear stopper. Possibly the sintered rather than more usual organic pads in the low mileage bike’s four-piston calipers needed more time to bed in - but given that I was riding solo, without any luggage, there’s a questionmark how good the brakes’d be riding with a passenger and a couple of bags aboard. Still, that good engine braking helped a lot at the end of long downhill runs offroad, when I’d need to brake hard for a turn, and that not too knobbly front tyre needed all the help it could get in stopping. The cockpit is impressive – it’s the same on both bikes - with the oval speedo mounted above the slightly smaller revcounter, both very readable in good old analogue format with real written numbers plus a needle, although there’s a digital readout on the right giving the usual fuel and temperature readings, as well as a large selector display showing which gear the bike is in. Full marks to BMW for this - it’s űber-natural and all other manufacturers should do this, so that you can easily check which gear you’re in at a quick glance, especially on a smooth-running motor like the BMW’s. Less so is BMW’s idiosyncratic switchgear, which it’s hard not to conclude only remains on their bikes – and only theirs: nobody else feels the urge to adopt it - simply due to stubbornness and a desire to be different. Still, by the end of my 350 km. first day I’d even more or less got re-adapted to it, though that still didn’t stop me blowing the horn while trying to manually cancel the direction signal, after turning into the hotel driveway at journey’s end….. You may have got the impression I liked the F800GS, and I did - a lot. It’s a bike born well, which looks set to be a big sales hit for BMW in a way that neither of the street F800S/ST parallel-twin models have been– well, how many have YOU seen on the roads in the past two years? Makes you wonder why BMW chose to release them ahead of this exact two-wheeled equivalent of its own X3 four-wheeled ATV, with the R1200GS as the X5, rather than the other way around as unaccountably happened. For this is a bike that’s set to carve its own niche in the street enduro market, since no other dual purpose twin really compares with this one – the rest are mostly larger capacity bikes and this has been single-cylinder territory for the target customer the F800GS is aimed at, who’ll get the confidence to try doing stuff with the new BMW twin he or she never did before with anything more than one cylinder, and maybe not even with that. The F800GS is a light, purist midrange enduro with excellent balance and good long distance abilities - yet while it’s as agile and easy to ride with confidence on offroad, it has a lot more power than the F650GS single it essentially replaces, as well as a higher level of all-round comfort, and equipment. Any rider of whatever offroad skill level is likely to enjoy riding this bike both on tarmac and in all terrain conditions - a dirt devil will revel in its easy, confident behaviour on all types of surfaces, whereas a wheels-in-like tarmac tyro will get a kick out of the way its relaxed, confident gait offroad allows him to imagine he’s a master of the universe when it comes to the dirt, as well as the chance to explore places like KwaZulu Natal where tarmac roads are few and far between. And on faster, paved highways the F800GS is a surprising mileater, capable of covering long distances at high speed with relative comfort. It’s the best of both worlds, at reasonable cost. And whereas with a big twin like the R1200GS an average offroad rider like yours truly starts to feel overawed, with the F800GS, I’m in charge - and I like it that way. You will, too. Riding the F650GS the next day, fitted with the same 798cc parallel-twin motor but in detuned form, identified this as the modern equivalent of the F650 Funduro that BMW entered the street single sector with 15 years ago. This means that it’s essentially a soft-centered roadbike with let’s-pretend offroad capability of a very basic level, calculated to appeal to a broad target audience of widely varied ages, riding skills and also different genders – this is likely to be a female-friendly model, in just the same way as the Funduro was, over 30% of whose target audience were women. However, the F650GS certainly won’t appeal to riders of widely differing statures, because at 5’10” tall I developed numb-bum syndrome quite early on in my 380 km. riding day on it – in complete contrast to the F800GS the day before, which was an extremely comfortable all-day ride, more than 120 km. of it offroad. That’s due to the altered shape of the F650GS seat, which delivers a much lower 820mm height via a stepped shape, and combined with a similarly-curved (though less costly straight-section steel) handlebar and the same footrest location as the true enduro model, results in a flawed riding stance for taller riders – your knees are pushed up higher because you’re sitting lower, but with the same height footrests, meaning there’s more weight on the base of your spine. This isn’t too bad on short hops round town, where the lower seat means it’s easier to throw a leg over the F650GS, too – but on longer runs much over 100 km. in length, it does become uncomfortable. You can alleviate this slightly riding on a freeway by lifting yourself up on the footrests and parking your bum on the passenger section of the seat – but this isn’t an option for more congested conditions. Otherwise, mechanically, the F650GS is the same only different than the 800, with the engine retuned to deliver nearly 20% less power and around 10% less torque, but with an even better pickup down low thanks to an altered torque curve – you can accelerate wide open literally off the 1200 rpm idle speed all the way to the same 99000 revlimiter, with an ecen more linear build of power. The fact the six-speed gearbox has the same quite closed-up ratios as the 800 means you can row it along easily through the gears, and the shift action is so smooth and light you honestly don’t need to use the clutch changing gear up or down in the bottom four ratios. It’s an incredibly easy-rider, literally, meaning that crossover customers like scooter riders or car drivers will find the F650GS easy to operate. You don’t need to be Casey Stoner to ride this bike in something approaching anger. Being lower than its true enduro counterpart, the F650GS does feel lighter steering and also less physically bulky, probably a function of the rider being positioned so much lower in the wheelbase, albeit less comfortably so in my case. The even easier steering is surely a by-product not only of the 17-inch cast aluminium front wheel, which fitted with a tubeless 110/80R17 Bridgestone BW501 isn’t much suited to anything too serious in terms of offroad use, but also BMW’s decision to delete-option one of the 320mm front discs. But while this predictably results in making the F650GS steer even sharper thanks to the reduced gyroscopic effect, as well as playing a key role in letting it slash those six kilos off the weight of its sister bike, there now really is insufficient brake for hard stops, even with just the rider aboard, without any passenger or luggage (and BMW does have an extensive array of aftermarket accessories for both bikes, including.a range of hard luggage and soft bags). Really, Berkmann & Co. should have specified at least a 320mm front brake from Brembo, especially as there’s no motive to keep the smaller single disc in terms of economy of scale, since the F650GS uses quite different Marzocchi 43mm conventional forks from the F800GS’s 45mm upside-downers. Funny, that, when the rest of the bike is so well thought out – but, there again, the riding position isn’t the best, so go figure….. Where the F650GS really scores is in delivering the light build, narrow stance and sense of control that one of BMW’s offroad singles has always provided, but here expressed now in a twin-cylinder context. No single with even the strictly theoretical levels of dual purpose capability that this new bike displays, ever delivered the more than acceptable degree of real world performance that this twin does, accompanied by an exhaust note that’s even more stirring than its twin twin. It’s a pity, then, that the old BMW bugbear of engine vibration through the footrests at sustained freeway speeds has now resurfaced in this bike – yet not in the F800GS, which seems curious. At exactly 5000 rpm your feet begin to tingle as if someone flicked on the footrest vibrator button, and considering that in top gear this means you’re traveling at 140 kph, it’s quite an issue. OK, that’s effectively the high end of the speed envelope at which a likely customer in going to be cruising – but still, the vibes last felt on the R1100S seven years ago have now returned, and on an engine fitted with a counterbalancer that’s proven to be effective in its other applications, especially the F800GS sister bike. Must be a question of engine installation in the frame – but whatever it is, it needs fixing for any customer wanting to ride the F650GS at sustained high speeds in any comfort. And the slash-cut clear plexiglass screen fitted to the bike that’s lower than the one on the F800GS will allow you to do that, deflecting air turbulence away from your helmet quite effectively. The quite effective mirrors on both bikes work well, too – there’s zero vibration and a clear view behind you, and while I didn’t ride either one at night, the assymetrical headlamps that are such a trademark of BMW design guru David Robb’s two-wheeled creative ethos worked well when the sky darkened under an impending tropical deluge on my way back down to the Indian Ocean again from ‘Maritzburg. Looks sharp, too.  The F650GS denomination is well chosen, for this is indeed a twin that thinks it’s a single, just offers quite a bit more performance at not too much of a penalty in weight. It’s a competent but rather uninvolving real world road bike that is a product positioned at the entry-level end of the market, whereas its F800GS sister embodies more passion and room for flair, and is rather more tailored towards a mature, experienced motorcyclist who doesn’t want the physical hassle of trying to cope with the R1200GS Boxer in dual purpose mode, but to enjoy going exploring in some comfort, with relatively acceptable levels of performance. BMW has boxed clever in building two such disparate bikes on the same twin-cylinder base – even if neither of them is a Boxer! 

BMW F800GS + F650GS TECHNICAL: Twin Topics To create both the true dual-purpose F800GS and enduro-lite F650GS versions of their growing family of middleweight models, BMW’s R&D team took the parallel-twin motor with two-up 360-degree crank powering the tarmac-only F800S/ST introduced two years ago, and adapted it to putative offroad use, mounted in an all-new chassis having nothing to do with the existing models. This means the watercooled 82 x 75.6 mm 798cc dohc eight-valve engine developed in conjunction with Rotax, in whose Austrian factory it’s built, now has its cylinders inclined forward at just 8.3 degrees, so more nearly vertical compared to the 30-degree slant of the street version’s cylinder block. This provides the space needed to accommodate the much larger 21-inch front wheel on the F800GS, plus its extended 230mm of travel compared to the roadbikes’ 17-incher. As on the S/ST, this more upright motor weighing a kilo less than its street counterpart, has a plain-bearing crankshaft which has a blind third conrod turning on a crankpin positioned between the crank webs. This represents an adaptation of the vibration-killing articulated conrod counterbalancing system (originally derived from diesel engine technology) successfully employed on Ducati’s mould-breaking Supermono racer - still the most innovative production single-cylinder bike engine yet conceived, 15 years on after its 1993 debut. While each of the bolted-up proper steel partners flanking it carries a three-ring piston delivering a quite steep 12:1 compression ratio on each model, this slave conrod drives an articulated link pivoting on the crankcase wall, which has a counterweight incorporated in it which mostly offsets the vibration of the 360-degree crank format - and in doing so, according to BMW, consumes less power than a conventional gear-driven counterbalancer. It operates moreover in a sealed chamber within what would normally be the oil reservoir of a conventional wet sump engine, but BMW characterises this as a semi-dry sump layout, on the grounds that the oil is carried all around this chamber, from which a pump scavenges oil after it’s been through the bearings. Oil is then pumped through the square heat exchanger externally mounted above the forward-facing oil filter in front of the horizontally-split crankcases, which replaces a bulkier conventional oil cooler and is also fed by a short pair of curved hoses leading to and from the waterpump that’s gear-driven off the right end of the inlet camshaft, then through the gearbox and the rest of the motor, before falling to the sump, where a second pump sends it back into the circuit again. All very neat. The extremely compact F800 motor’s eight-valve cylinder head design is derived from that used on its K1200 series big brothers, and features offset chain drive on the left of the cylinder block to the twin overhead camshafts, which are slightly modified from those in the S/ST tarmac versions, with altered valve timing to improve midrange torque. The 32mm inlet/27.5mm exhaust paired valves are operated via follower arms, which in spite of the high valve lift require checking only every 20,000 km./12,000 miles. Fuel injection is controlled via a Bosch BMS-K engine management system incorporating an oxygen sensor and three-way exhaust catalyst as standard in the 2-1 stainless steel system, which on the F800GS features secondary fresh air injection to permit Euro 3 compliance, with a single injector and 46mm throttle body per cylinder, and an optional map which allows the engine to run on lower-octane fuel where required - useful for a go-anywhere adventure tourer. Precise fuel metering, thanks to an EFI/ems whose patented design varies not only fuel delivery through the injectors but also fuel pressure in the rail, allows BMW to claim a very frugal 3.8 lt/100 km. fuel consumption in regular non-urban use (3.7 lt/km.100 on the F650GS), and better than 5.0 lt/100  km. offroad, good enough for the 16-litre fuel tank to deliver a more than adequate range in excess of 250 miles/400 km. in tarmac use (and potentially over 300 km. offroad) from an engine delivering a claimed 85 bhp at 7500 rpm. This is the same power output as the S/ST versions but delivered 500 rpm lower, with a torque curve peaking with 83Nm at 5750 rpm in F800GS guise (against 71 bhp at 7000 rpm, and 75 Nm at just 4500 rpm for the F650GS). So compared to the S/ST the F800GS has increased torque but not at the expense of higher fuel consumption, says Franz Berkmann – and without sacrificing its eagerness to rev, either. BMW also offers a 25kW/34 bhp low-power option at no extra charge, which can be reverted to full power when appropriate by simply removing the throttle stop which limits the opening angle of the throttle butterflies. Both GS models employ the same six-speed close-ratio gearbox as the F800S/ST, but with the street duo’s toothed belt final drive and single-sided swingarm here replaced by a more conventional chain, and cast aluminium twin-sided swinging fork. This pivots on needle-roller bearings directly in the engine crankcase, unsupported by the all new tubular steel spaceframe chassis. This incorporates the solidly-mounted engine as a fully load-bearing element, with a sturdier new bolted-on square-section steel subframe carrying the seat, beneath which the 16-litre fuel tank common to both models is positioned. This not only lowers the cee of gee for easier handling and better stability, but also makes space for a larger airbox, to help maximise torque. The light but strong chassis package helps deliver a contained 185 kg. dry weight for the F800GS (6 kg. less for the F650GS), which is fitted with non-adjustable conventional 45mm leading-axle Marzocchi telescopic forks - no Telelever, no Duolever on this less costly dual purpose bike - set at an angle of 26 degrees with 117mm of trail (97mm on the F650GS, which carries less rugged 43mm conventional Marzocchi forks) Matched with the cantilever monoshock rear end employing Showa shocks on both models, which are devoid of linkage but adjustable for preload and compression damping, and provide 215mm of rear wheel travel on the F800GS, this delivers a rangy 1578mm wheelbase on both models, which gives good space for a passenger on either version, with an easy-access external knob to crank up the preload on the rear Showa, in such an eventuality. Every bike should have that.  Twin 300mm Brembo floating front discs are bolted to the F800GS’s front wire wheel and gripped by four-pot calipers emblazoned with the Brembo name to provide added value, as well as the bling factor on a cost effective model like this one. These employ steel brake lines and are matched by a 265mm rear disc with single-piston caliper on both bikes. BMW’s proven two-channel Bosch ABS system is among the host of accessories available as a factory option, including the very effective GPS system fitted to the South African launch bikes, and can be turned off when not required, although as on the F800 tarmac twins this doesn’t need power assistance nor an integral function, thanks to the reduced weight of the bike compared to a bigger, heavier Boxer twin like the R1200GS. The F800GS’s 21-inch front wire wheel’s aluminium rim wears a 90/90 dual-purpose Bridgestone BW501 tyre that is however more on-road friendly than off, matched to a 150/70-17 rear. The choice of a 17-inch rear wheel is rather curious, given the restricted range of true off-road tyres in this size. Apart from the distinctions already mentioned, the more street-focused entry-level F650GS differs from its dual purpose counterpart in having different camshafts with reduced lift and softer valve timing, resulting in 14 bhp less power - or a reduction of 20% in overall terms to the F800GS. However, the catalyst exhaust doesn’t feature secondary air system as on its sister bike, since with less power there’s fewer unburnt gases entering the exhaust system, which does however still feature a lampda probe, like its more potent counterpart. The conventional 43mm front forks fitted to the F650GS are still from Marzocchi but equally unadjustable. These offer 170mm of front wheel travel and carry a 2.50 x 19 inch cast-aluminium wheel that’s actually lighter than the F800GS model’s wire-laced equivalent, shod with 110/80 rubber. Together with its 3.50 x 17 inch rear counterpart shod with 140/80 rubber, this helps deliver that six-kilo weight saving over the dual purpose model, further aided by the provision of just a single rigidly mounted 300mm front Brembo disc, and corresponding four-piston caliper. At 820mm the seat height is quite a bit lower than the F800GS’s 880mm throne, though either can be reduced a further 30mm via an accessory kit, and there’s a still more radical 765mm option likely to be especially interesting for women riders but available only on the F650GS, on which there’s a conventional plain steel handlebar that’s slightly less pulled back than the taper-section aluminium ‘bar on the F800GS. Finally - apart from an even lower price (EDITOR: Please check your own local prices!), the F650GS comes with a more tarmac-focused look for the distinctive GS family bodywork, with its false ‘beak’ front mudguard, which however incorporates a lower clear plastic screen that’s little more than a wind deflector, compared to the rather better protection from mud splashes and suchlike offered by the taller F800GS version.The bikes come available in contrasting colours, the F800GS in yellow/black and silver/black, and the F650GS in blue metallic, silver metallic or red. Each has a black seat.