@B, @nivag and I went for a ride after work today. Bit of green-laning around the Surrey Hills. @nivag showed the way on his trusty KTM enduro with me on my R1250GS and B on his Grom!
I was super eager to take the GS off-road after fitting some crash bar to see how it would hold up on the 80/20 (road/off-road) split tyres it came with. The short answer is, bloody well! I was the limiting factor. Near the start there as some deep and lose rocks which I had a hard time with, thorough once through, B helped set the tire pressures to something more suitable off-road. After then it was a dream!
Amazingly no offs, though I did have one near miss going through some mud, drifting out to the side near the bushes!
Also, I swapped bikes with B and took his Grom for a bit… of course it has to be just as we came to (what felt like a massive) mud bath, I had to power through to avoid stalling and got completely soaked! It was worth a laugh
Unfortunately I think I also gave the Grok a puncture. It couldn’t be fixed at the roadside so we limped to a petrol station and repaired it with some tire weld.
Very happy with the GS’ performance. It’s inspired me to try some more off-roading with it.
Also, good quality road gear needs attention to wash whereas some of the offroad stuff is less sensitive.
I always had a second pair of gear which I didn’t care too much about to use when offroading. But you are spot on, very heavy, and offroading is hard work
Off-road gear is also surprisingly cheap, apart from the boots I found…
Also top marks for taking new bike like that off-road. 3years with my adventure and I never went once… The weight of it scared me
I thought it handled surprisingly well. The weight is something to be aware of, but at the gentle pace we were going at, it was perfectly fine, in fact fun! The Enduro Pro mode on the bike really helped.
Hah, so embarrassingly, I looked at the video I took this morning and the bike was set in Dynamic Pro, not Enduro Pro, so more sensitive throttle and firmer suspension! Still felt awesome off-road. Looking forward to finding out what Enduro Pro is like next
Enduro Fall? NEIN! No falls! Fools though? perhaps…
When I was riding it it was on that mode, I was going to ask if it was right once we got to the next lane.
It’ll be interesting it see what’s it like in Enduro Pro.
Thanks for the test ride @Jay. Great to catch up with you and @nivag and explore the Surrey green lanes.
Your GS1250HP completely surprised me.
It’s big, heavy and the tyres weren’t ideal.
But none of that showed in the slightest when I rode it.
It was silky smooth and took no effort to ride. Absolutely no jarring over any terrain and I did try to upset it. The Magic Carpet.
I would have ridden it all day if you had let me. Very impressed!
It went through the mud bath pretty well unlike the Grom
Thanks guys for the help getting me back on the road
The GS and the KTM are nice and all that but I much prefer @B’s Grom
One of them with a set of knobblies would be great fun off-road by the looks of it!
