Staff Blog: Bagging the F800GT

Another weekend, another trip down to Somerset to catch-up with friends and family. It was also another weekend when the heavens have opened and I’ve had to ride the F800GT down in the pouring rain. And hailstones.

Come to think of it, I don’t think that there has been a time when I have had a ride where I have seen just the sun without some showers. Still, for this ride it was pretty useful as it meant that I was able to give my new Shark Vision-R GT helmet a good test, as well as my panniers on their first use. It was the perfect time to see if they were as waterproof as BMW claim. The not-so-surprising answer is, yes, they are. Extremely so actually, because the rain I rode through was so severe that it permeated through every other article I had on the bike; gloves, textile suit, under-armour, the lot.

Outside of the slighty-less-than-premium feel of the boxes themselves (which I go into in a little more detail in next week’s paper), I’ve been impressed with every other aspect of the bags. The only real niggle – and it’s nothing more than that – being that they’re side-opening which means that if you don’t pack ‘cleverly’ you can have your luggage fall out on you – but the clever, large scoops on the underside of the outer-lid help alleviate this to some degree.

So what next for the F800 GT and me? Well, I’m planning a bigger tour for the summer which I hope will see me give the GT a real test of its abbreviated suffix and I’m also looking to address some of the negative feedback I’ve had from commenters on the looks of the machine.

BMW Motorrad do some nice extra little ‘bits’ that should help with that – and I’ve a plan to do a little something with the aesthetics of the paintwork as well.

It’s going to be a good few months. Here’s hoping for some actual sun along the way!

 

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