My love for adventure bikes started as a crush on one of my colleague’s bike. My bike infatuation persisted for about two years; I would see it mostly twice per day in our office basement parking! Things could have been better. I say this because then I was still ripping around on a superbike, needless to say – superbike characteristics are contrary to adventure bikes. My colleague’s name is Joe. the bike crush in question is a 2018 Honda Africa Twin CRF1000L manual, not just any Africa Twin but a bike that was ridden by a 2018 Honda Quest Competition champion. From what I could gather from Joe, his weekend adventures sounded like great fun, even though on some occasions he would come back home with a bruised ego from dropping his bike on off-road trails! Riding superbikes is fun, but only in small doses. That is be attributed to the sitting position and cramped up ergonomics - riding them on long road trips is a big no for me.
Fast forward to the second weekend of October 2020, late Saturday afternoon I received an unexpected Sunday morning ride invitation from Joe, I enthusiastically accepted on the spot! This invite came at a good time as I had just recently welcomed a 2019 BMW F850 GS Adventure into my mancave. I guess it was high time I took it out for a proper adventure rip. For a change of scenery from Pretoria – Joe and I were keen on a ride to Magaliesburg and surrounding areas. It didn’t take us too long to agree on Askari Lodge and Spa as a ride destination of choice, their mouth-watering breakfast buffets speak for themselves.
Sunday morning came, surprisingly we woke up to full cloud cover and some rain drizzle. The weather Gods were not in our favour; however, we were not dithered by this, the ride was much more important than the weather. We clutched out around 7:15 am from our Pretoria East meeting point, making our way to the nearest fuelling station for some fuel first. After refueling our bikes, we proceeded to join the N1 Freeway in a Southerly direction, we then nonchalantly continued riding in a Westerly direction along the N14 freeway towards Krugersdorp. On the open road, I realized to keep things in check via cruise control on the BMW F850 GS Adventure was nice to have, and also the ability to keep my hands warm via 3 levels of heated grips was a cherry on top, especially on such a cold morning.
We rode along the N14 Highway West until the Lanseria Airport Off-ramp, turned right onto R512, but instead of riding straight as if we were going to Lanseria Airport, we took a short-left turn into R552 in a South Westerly direction as if we were going to the Cradle of Humankind. The BMW F850 GS Adventure TFT dashboard kept me abreast with a whole host of bike information, from what I could read out from the screen, with the odometer locked at 130km/h I was able to achieve an average fuel consumption of about 4.8lt per 100km on my bike. By now the weather Gods were beginning to smile at us, for the first time we were beginning to see clear skies and some sun. Now we could enjoy beautiful views of Magaliesburg and surroundings areas!
Besides a positive weather spin-off, frustrations were growing strong in other departments. After spending about 1 hour and 30 minutes on the tarred road, there were still no signs of gravel roads. Luckily our frustrations didn’t have to last for that too long, we found a left turn into a gravel road R763, this was like finding an oasis in a desert! R763 is a gravel loop road which traverses through farms, a few meters in we had to stop our bikes so that we could engage suitable off-road riding modes and turn ABS off on our machines. It was all fun and games on the gravel loop road before we reluctantly re-joined the black stuff on the R24.
We continued with our ride on the black stuff and after Buffelspoort road things took a slightly different turn of events, a more exciting one to be specific. We had arrived at a rocky gravel road section that traverses over Breedtsnek Pass. About 3km in we came across a steep rough rocky section, Joe misread his line and was forced to bring his bike to a halt. To rescue his bike from this sticky situation proved to be awkward, at some point we lost our footing and the bike unceremoniously fell on its side. Luckily his bike was safe from any harm, thanks to the aftermarket scaffolding fitted around it, but sadly the same cannot be said about his sunglasses, they took a bit of a knock.
The BMW F850GS Adventure’s off-road manners proved to be exceptional, the bike goes anywhere you point it, and it can tackle any obstacle you throw at it. The bike handled the mountain pass ascent and descent like a pro, which could be attributed to the Enduro riding mode, standard knobby tires, long suspension travel, and electronic adaptive rear suspension to name but a few.
On the other side of the mountain pass, we landed in the vicinity of Askari Lodge gates, we made our way in, to our dismay because of Covid-19 their restaurant was still closed to the public. So, this means gone are those days of buffet breakfasts and lunches at Askari, as a consolation though we made our way to a nearby Blackhorse Breweries & Distillery restaurant. We had a well-deserved rest and enjoyed our breakfast.
The ride back home was an all wet road affair, this meant we had to ride our bikes extra carefully. I used this as an opportunity to explore the capabilities of the BMW F850GS Adventure’s in the wet, I must say there was no noticeable power difference on my bike when I engaged Rain mode there was enough usable power even at a lower rev range. While riding in the rain, as a test I intentionally gave the BMW F850GS Adventure’s throttle a generous hand, traction control deployed just in time to save me an embarrassing situation. Our travel route home initially traversed along R563 towards Krugersdorp, N14 North to Centurion, and then it proceeded onto N1 North. A couple of kilometers away from my house I had to make an emergency stop at a busy traffic light in the wet, the ABS Pro brakes fitted to the BMW F850GS Adventure’s brought the bike to a complete standstill from an ugly two-wheel slide.
The bike has good built quality, and the electronics package fitted to it is class-leading. In the middle-weight adventure bike segment, in my opinion, the BMW F850GS Adventure is competitively priced at R243 000.00 - with most optional extras selected. On the road, it does almost everything seamlessly, performs even better off-road. I think it is a befitting bearer of the ‘TouringEnduro’ bike tag given to it by its Bavarian manufacturer. Without a doubt in my mind, the BMW F850GS Adventure is an awesome proposition in the middle-weight adventure motorcycle segment, one you cannot ignore if you are on the market for a new adventure.
For more about the 2020 BMW F850 GS Adventure, click
https://www.bmw-motorrad.co.za/en/models/adventure/f850gs-adventure.html