#dirtbike #adventure #offroad #motorcycle
Dirt Bike Magazine tests the BMW 900GS on some back grounds in the pine trees of Southern California. We first got a look at this bike about a month ago on a ride with BMW’s new Superbike racer JD Beach, who did some pretty amazing things on it. Now that we have one of our own we get it; this bike is a big leap forward over the F850GS. If you’re not familiar with BMW’s middleweight adventure line, it can be a little confusing. In 2019 the F850 was a complete redesign over the older 800. It was the most dirt oriented middleweight twin of the day. It had a new 798cc parallel twin motor that was manufactured in one of BMW’s Asian facilities. It was lighter and had better suspension than the previous 800, which had been around since 2012.BMW has come a long way in its offroad capability. They had to; even though these guys have been in the adventure bike game longer than anyone, they’ve recently spawned some pretty intense competition from other manufacturers who take offroad performance very seriously.
Up front, we have to say that the standard, unmodified power power delivery is wonderfully smooth. If you’re looking for something with a wild surge that has the front wheel coming up and your eyes watering, this isn’t it. The BMW has massive torque and has such a smooth delivery that it conceals that 105 horsepower rating. We rode it back to back with a KTM 890, which feels completely different. That bike is noticeably more powerful but it hits harder and demands more from the rider. On a dirt road, the unaltered KTM is going to spin wildly until you engage some level of slip control. The BMW, on the other hand, is perfectly controllable without doing that. The power output is smooth, controllable and super easy to use.
That’s a good thing, because BMW’s traction control is still fairly limited. With everything enabled, the F900 has five ride modes; Street, Rain, Dynamic, Enduro and Enduro Pro. Each has its own mix of output, throttle response, antilock braking and Dynamic Traction Control (what BMW calls “DTC”). You can also go into submenus to cook up your own recipe. The default setting for Enduro Pro has disabled rear brake antilock, slightly reduced throttle response and a moderate amount of traction control. As it turns out, that reduction in engine output mixed with the bike’s naturally smooth power delivery is perfect for the dirt without any traction control at all. Even in its most minimal setting, DTC comes across as an engine miss. In deep sand, it can actually bring you to a halt. For a quick elimination of DCT, BMW has supplied a dedicated button that you can use on the fly.


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