Choosing my next bike

**orangekiwi** · 19th October 2009, 10:07

After many years of driving around on my trusty suzuki volty I am upgrading to a larger bike.
I have decided to go for a bmw650 but still deciding between a GS or Dakar model.
95% of the use would be for my commute . I would love to give it a go on the odd day away and do adventure/offroading. I am watching 2 bikes at the moment, both are 2000 models, one is a GS model, perfect for road. The other a dakar model, set up with knobblies, perfect for offroad.
No matter which one i get, i thought of getting another set up of wheels & tyres to do either.
Am i thinking way too complicated here and just forget about wanting to do this? I cannot afford to buy one for the road, and an old cheap one for the odd bash around.
Your thoughts please ?

**clint640** · 19th October 2009, 12:17

The BMW 650's are a good pick for commuting - comfy & they get great fuel mileage. They're a heavy beast for offroad unless you are experienced, but if you mainly just want to do gravel roads they're ok.

Price up another set of wheels for the bike before you think that it is a cheap option - I'm betting you wouldn't see much change out of $2500 for the set unless you get lucky with some 2nd hand ones. Changing tyres yourself isn't too bad once you've had some practice for another option.

Cheers
Clint

Originally Posted by orangekiwi

After many years of driving around on my trusty suzuki volty I am upgrading to a larger bike.
I have decided to go for a bmw650 but still deciding between a GS or Dakar model.
95% of the use would be for my commute . I would love to give it a go on the odd day away and do adventure/offroading. I am watching 2 bikes at the moment, both are 2000 models, one is a GS model, perfect for road. The other a dakar model, set up with knobblies, perfect for offroad.
No matter which one i get, i thought of getting another set up of wheels & tyres to do either.
Am i thinking way too complicated here and just forget about wanting to do this? I cannot afford to buy one for the road, and an old cheap one for the odd bash around.
Your thoughts please ?

**michael** · 19th October 2009, 12:19

Ya might want to wait to see what happens with ACC before you buy a bike larger than 600cc

**dino3310** · 19th October 2009, 12:33

Welcome orangekiwi

,
a lot of us are useing dual purpose tyres for both road/gravel, guess it would depend on how much road work your looking at doing.
if its only the odd weekend away on the gravel i would be inclined to have two sets of tyres 1 road set and 1 dualsport set and just change the tyres over myself when needed, would be cheaper that way than buying two sets of rims aswell but can be a pain having to change tyres all the time, where as an extra set of rims is only a 5-10min job.

**orangekiwi** · 19th October 2009, 12:44

fantastic answers everyone. i think i am inclining towards the 650gs model, and just get a good set of dual purpose tyres, although the dakar model ...

**Dakar** · 19th October 2009, 13:36

Ive had both,
but much prefer the Dakar model, its taller, im over 6 foot and the GS felt small,
the main benefit i feel is the 21" front wheel, off road its so much better, the Gs has a 19" i just fell of more (but that could be me!!)
its still a heavy bike to handle off road but just take it easy until you get the hang of it.

Google Chaingain and have a read through, http://faq.f650.com/main.html

i also commute with my Dakar just about every day and its all good.

good luck with your purchase

**The Baron** · 19th October 2009, 14:08

Good luck with your new bike. The GS is a comfortable bike. They have made over 105,000 of them so they can't be too bad.
If you are tall go for the dakar if not go for the GS.

**shards** · 19th October 2009, 14:14

I agree with Dakar, get the 21" front wheel. I have owned 2 x F650GS's but now I ride a Yamaha XT660R (21" front) mostly on the road and, even just for that, the extra size wheel smoothes out all the bumps, seems more stable all round and handles almost as good (on the road) as the 19" wheel.

**pampa** · 19th October 2009, 14:43

Hi, I started the Adv riding on a F650GSD and was great for commuting, liked the abs. It was going strong at 85000K when I sold it.

It was a tad heavy for off-road but then again you could still go places, I guess it would bother you if you have experience with other lighter bikes otherwise you don't know (at least in my case). Main problem is that sometimes you may need help to lift it unless of course u r stronger than myself (quite possible

)

Another nice thing is that there is a lot of info on the web to diagnose problems, fix it and improve it (I could point some threads out if u r interested).

I have now moved to a lighter version and G650X with more power slightly better suspension but almost same engine and still is very good. Doesn't have fairing though.

Cheers,
Pampa

**offrd** · 20th October 2009, 20:18

I would go for the dakar, Why?
I found the GS too low.
The dakar has a 21" front
Dakar looks better.
Higher dakar does not bottom on rocks.
Dakar lane splitting at speed standing on pegs looks better than a GS.

They go ok on the road and offroad, only dropped mine twice due to faulty rear brake pads.

However a DR650 is a hell of a lot cheaper for parts!

Te side cover by the seat on my dakar was $550 + GST ex overseas!

**orangekiwi** · 23rd October 2009, 19:36

so can one put a 21" wheel on a regular 650GS non dakar model?
there was a nice white dakar 2000 dakar model for sale and i missed out on that one. still a 2000 red gs model going for my budget.
on another note, what are the ktm 640 lc4 's like?

**junkmanjoe** · 23rd October 2009, 20:22

buy my bike mate....good deal...

**warewolf** · 23rd October 2009, 20:25

GarryW converted his Funduro to a 21" front, way back before the Dakar was released. Try searching one of the f650 sites (chaingang? f650.com?), they're bound to know.

KTM 640s are brilliant, but then I'm biased

or more accurately it does exactly what I want of it. Plenty of good reading on advrider.com, esp. the KTM LC4 (640) Index Thread.