BMW GS
Buying a classic bike is an expensive business and mistakes can prove costly financially and in time, effort and stress. Wouldn't it be great if you could take an expert with you? With the aid of this book's step-by-step guidance from a marque specialist, you can! BMW's GS series is one of the world's milestone motorcycles, in production for over 25 years. It pioneered the adventure sport‚ category big bikes that are capable of traveling off-road, in many ways, it's the Range Rover of...
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BMW’s GS series is one of the world’s milestone motorcycles and has been in production for over 25 years. It pioneered the ‘adventure sport’ category − big bikes that are capable of traveling off-road and, in many ways, it’s the Range Rover of motorcycling. It's now more popular than ever, thanks in part to the massive publicity surrounding the film Long Way Round starring Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman.
\ From the PublisherReview from Classic Bike Guide, June 2008\ UK magazine\ \ OK, so, you're tired of the flashy hyperbike scene and fancy something different. The retro scene and old motorcycles has started to appeal but the problem is you're completely new to old motorcycles and know nothing about them. Yes, you've seen them about and have probably even heard of a few of the makes like Triumph and BSA but beyond that ... well. What do you do to find out if the scene will suit you and what bike could be the one for you?\ A useful first step could well be one of 'The Essential Buyer's Guides' by Peter Henshaw and published by Veloce Publishing if you're fancying a BSA twin or a Triumph Bonneville - OK and BMW GS as well. The buyer's guides are not an in-depth look at every machine, that would be difficult in a 64-page 7 11/16in x 5 7/16in soft back book. Instead they are squarely aimed at the newcomer and advise on model changes, recognition points, pitfalls and other things to be aware of when seeking out a classic.\ A long time classic owner will find the information fairly run of the mill but if you're just starting out then it's all new and after reading 'The Essential Buyer's Guides' you should be able to spot a Bonnie from a T'Bird or an A7 from an RGS.\ Ian Kerr for inter-bike.co.uk, 2008\ UK biker website\ This is the latest in the essential series from Veloce Publishing and written by well-known journalist Peter Henshaw. The small soft-back A5 format is designed to be slipped into a jacket pocket to be available as an invaluable handy reference source when looking at a machine with the intention of buying it. Viewed in that light, the book like all the others in the series, gives the reader sufficient knowledge and confidence to view a machine and investigate any areas that might prove costly without the knowledge imparted in the book. As a pre-read for those intending to purchase, it is also excellent and it points you in the direction of other more in-depth publications or specialist websites should you want to go further. Good use is made of experts and technicians who know the flaws in the various models and you also get a good idea of what the running costs will be like. Likewise those riders who have clocked up serious high mileage on the models also contribute to the informative text, which is totally independent of the manufacturers input. My only slight criticism of this particular book is that more care could have been taken with the photography. This at times, gives the impression of a series of snaps quickly taken at a dealer, rather than images planned to illustrate the points being made in the text. However, this is just a small point as the book does exactly what it sets out to do at a very reasonable $19.95, which could be money well spent.\ -\ webBikeWorld.com, 2008\ We have a ton of books queued up and ready to review in the webBikeWorld library. I've been having too much fun reading them and, as I'm sure you'll remember from your High School days, it's a lot easier to read a book (well, sometimes anyway) than it is to write a book review. But I have to get cracking so first up is this slim – very slim – guide to buying your first (or second) BMW GS motorcycle. 'The Essential Buyer's Guide' series has been popular in the UK for some time. The books are published by those wonderful folks at Veloce, who have brought us all sorts of interesting reads over the years. In fact, I also have a couple of other Veloce published books in the queue: 'Moto Guzzi Sport & Le Mans Bible' and 'The Ducati 750 Bible,' both by the highly prolific author Ian Falloon. The 'Buyer's Guide' series mostly covers automobiles of various types (my favorite: 'The Essential Buyer's Guide to the Fiat 500 & 600'), but they're starting to cover motorcycles also. Veloce has an 'Essential Buyer's Guide' for the Triumph Bonneville and BSA 500 & 650 Twins, and probably others on the way. I'll get to the 'Bibles' soon, but in the meantime, I pulled 'The Essential BMW GS Buyer's Guide' out of the pile for several reasons, not the least of which is that it should be an easy book to review because of its size! The size of the book – 64 pages, counting the index – is problematic at the price they charge. I'm actually of mixed emotions on this one – the list price seems very high for what is essentially(!) the same information one could probably glean from the Internet before buying one of these very popular motorcycles. But here's the good news: many webBikeWorlders have suggested that we put a link to Amazon.com so they can buy a copy of the books that we review. We sort of resisted doing this for a variety of reasons, but starting with this review, you'll find a link at the top of the page where you can buy the book. And Amazon is charging only about $14.00 currently for the 'BMW GS Essential Buyer's Guide', which I think is much more reasonable, and at that price, you probably should definitely get a copy if you're planning on buying a GS ... or even if you just want to learn more about the breed. The guide does condense pretty much everything you need to know into a handy size that you can take with you when you're looking at a used example, although you'll probably look a bit dorkish if you do. They even included little check boxes that the potential buyer is supposed to fill out: 'Ex Gd Av Po' (Excellent, Good, Average, Poor), but I'd leave that for homework rather than doing it in front of the owner.\ The BMW GS series (G/S = "Gelande Strasse", or "off-road/street") was basically dismissed by the rest of the motorcycling establishment when it first appeared in 1980. But BMW doesn't make a decision to bring out a new model lightly, and they either got lucky or knew what they were doing, because I'd venture to say that the GS has probably saved the modern BMW Company in many ways. I've ridden an older R100GS but never owned one (and someday soon I might), although I've owned a half-dozen 'Airhead' and 'Oilhead' BMWs over the years. I know BMWs pretty well, so there really wasn't much in the book that was a surprise, but I could see where a new-to-the-GS rider would benefit by having everything from a brief history to a compendium of 'What to look for' in one volume. 'The Essential Buyer's Guides' follow a standard format. For the GS, it starts with an introduction and a chapter on 'Is it the right bike for you?,' followed by 'Cost considerations,' 'Living with a GS' and going on to help with choosing the right model and learning as much as you can 'Before you view.' Some of the information is helpful, like the chapter on the 'Fifteen minute evaluation' ('walk away or stay?') and the tips covering the various options that were available on the bike. The way it works is that the guide starts off with a quick 'make or break' evaluation and then goes into the detailed specifics of what to look for, covering everything from paint and badges to suspension, engine and gearbox. Obviously, this isn't going to make you a master BMW mechanic in 64 pages, but I think it does provide enough information to get you going. And by the way, about 1/3 of those 64 pages cover semi-filler (depending upon your point of view), like 'Auction Pros and Cons,' 'Paperwork,' 'Do You Really Want to Restore' and 'Paint Problems' and 'Problems Due to Lack of Use.' I haven't used an 'Essential Buyer's Guide' to actually purchase a vehicle, but I don't think this is all I'd use to arm myself with information prior to looking at a used example. But here's the deal: I think that if you all of a sudden got a jones to buy a GS without having been a BMW owner or knowing little to nothing about the marque, the book would be a very handy and – dare I say it – essential guide to get you 'the knowledge.'\ For example, if I really was going to buy one of those Fiat 500s – or maybe a BSA twin, of which I know nothing about – I'd probably shell out the dosh for an 'Essential Buyer's Guide' to get me started.\ The way I figure it, if I learned about one little quirk of a particular bike – something that is really important to look for on a used example that may not be obvious unless I knew what I was supposed to look for – it could save me the price of the book and more.\ "If you're looking to buy a used BMW GS, this is one handy book. If you're not, it's pretty well useless, but there you go. It'll fit in the pocket of your average touring jacket ... It's only 64 pages, but it's jam-packed with information. There's a list of websites, books, clubs and auction places. It's a great idea." – www.bikeme.tv\ "Henshaw's writing is concise and his points are also well illustrated with plenty of colour photographs. This is the book to have in your back pocket if shopping for a GS." – Inside Motorcycles\ \ \
