BMW GS oil cooled vs water cooled

[alexkemaris]

Hey guys, been thinking of selling my street triple to upgrade to a BMW GS for a few days now.

Problem is, I've been reading so much on oil vs water cooled and it seems that the verdict is the latest GSA water cooled is superior.
But the real issue here is that I'm offered a pre owned, well maintained, fully loaded up GS oil cooled with tons of accessories worth half the bike itself for a very good price.

Anyone here rides (any of the) GS models?

Appreciate some advice!

[mikeylacroix]

[mikeylacroix]

Do it alrdy man

[alexkemaris]

Jesus mikey you're king troll of DWC (Malaysia Branch)!

[mikeylacroix]

Jesus mikey you're king troll of DWC (Malaysia Branch)!

just enabling u brotha.
don't it look good in them pix?

[Nomadz]

The oil heads are solid bikes. I put around 78k on a GS and it was barely broken in. Great capable bike but heavy. There was one being serviced at BMW Seattle a long while back with 500k miles on it doing a round the world. Lots of guys have heavily abused them. They are easy to maintain and the aftermarket is huge.

[Captdave]

The oil heads are solid bikes. I put around 78k on a GS and it was barely broken in. Great capable bike but heavy. There was one being serviced at BMW Seattle a long while back with 500k miles on it doing a round the world. Lots of guys have heavily abused them. They are easy to maintain and the aftermarket is huge.

Have a buddy who rides two of them all over the world. He ships them to Africa and Australia. He swears by them and has massive miles on them. Like Nick said easy to maintain and work on and take a lot of abuse.

[cdnwatchguy]

Either one can run forever, not sure which is better. Check out this guy who has 193,000km on his GS1200 and been on the road since 2012.
http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/ ... ys.801516/
http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/ ... s.1000417/

[carlodwc]

While it is true that they are great bikes it is also true that they need maintenance and that is expensive - done at the BMW dealers.

The newer model is surely better in terms of performance, weight and upgrades but both are pretty heavy and powerful. If you are uncertain as to which one to get, it means that there is something that causes this, what is it? Price? New one is pretty expensive. Used ones are also pretty expensive but less of course and usually they come with accessories that make the price more palatable.

How many miles does this one you want to get, have? Sure people say that they can run for hundreds of thousand miles, but that does not mean that one does not pay to keep them on the road in terms of repair and maintenance. That can be pretty high...

It also makes a difference as to what mileage you will be doing.

If I was using it for low mileage on Sundays then I would get a used older one. At least you would know it is reliable since tested and ridden already.

[CGSshorty]

What you really want is a Harley Davidson Stealth.

[toxicavenger]

^^^they wanted something that stayed running Chris.

[Nomadz]

^^^they wanted something that stayed running Chris.

Those boxes on the Harley are for the parts that rattle off the bike as you ride.

Maintainace on an oil head is relatively easy. I did all my own work on the bike. Parts are plentiful and reasonable. One of the pluses for the round the world guys is BMW are everywhere. They will also drop ship any part anywhere quickly. Great factory Support. I owned a Triumph triple for a while. Nightmare getting parts. Ducati same nightmare.

[alexkemaris]

While it is true that they are great bikes it is also true that they need maintenance and that is expensive - done at the BMW dealers.

The newer model is surely better in terms of performance, weight and upgrades but both are pretty heavy and powerful. If you are uncertain as to which one to get, it means that there is something that causes this, what is it? Price? New one is pretty expensive. Used ones are also pretty expensive but less of course and usually they come with accessories that make the price more palatable.

How many miles does this one you want to get, have? Sure people say that they can run for hundreds of thousand miles, but that does not mean that one does not pay to keep them on the road in terms of repair and maintenance. That can be pretty high...

It also makes a difference as to what mileage you will be doing.

If I was using it for low mileage on Sundays then I would get a used older one. At least you would know it is reliable since tested and ridden already.

The uncertainty comes from whether the water cooled is a tried and tested bike as compared to the oil cooled. With so many electronics, I do worry about cost of breakdowns and cost of service.
Of course the pre owned oil cooled I'm being offered is really cheap with every single accessory on it. A fully loaded year 2010 GS with only 22k miles.

I guess in terms of mileage, it should be mostly weekend riding with the occasional long distance cross country road trip twice a year...

[alexkemaris]

^^^they wanted something that stayed running Chris.

Those boxes on the Harley are for the parts that rattle off the bike as you ride.

Maintainace on an oil head is relatively easy. I did all my own work on the bike. Parts are plentiful and reasonable. One of the pluses for the round the world guys is BMW are everywhere. They will also drop ship any part anywhere quickly. Great factory Support. I owned a Triumph triple for a while. Nightmare getting parts. Ducati same nightmare.

I second you on that.

The triumph is indeed a nightmare to get parts. Not aftermarket parts, but stock parts to get the bike up and going after a breakdown or a crash..
Also part of the reason why I want to sell it off.

[jeckyll]

Just do it on the pre-owned oil cooled.

If it's the right bike for you, you can always pick up a new water cooled later.

[CGSshorty]

The extra power of the new one is enticing, especially for street only guys like myself.

[carlodwc]

While it is true that they are great bikes it is also true that they need maintenance and that is expensive - done at the BMW dealers.

The newer model is surely better in terms of performance, weight and upgrades but both are pretty heavy and powerful. If you are uncertain as to which one to get, it means that there is something that causes this, what is it? Price? New one is pretty expensive. Used ones are also pretty expensive but less of course and usually they come with accessories that make the price more palatable.

How many miles does this one you want to get, have? Sure people say that they can run for hundreds of thousand miles, but that does not mean that one does not pay to keep them on the road in terms of repair and maintenance. That can be pretty high...

It also makes a difference as to what mileage you will be doing.

If I was using it for low mileage on Sundays then I would get a used older one. At least you would know it is reliable since tested and ridden already.

The uncertainty comes from whether the water cooled is a tried and tested bike as compared to the oil cooled. With so many electronics, I do worry about cost of breakdowns and cost of service.
Of course the pre owned oil cooled I'm being offered is really cheap with every single accessory on it. A fully loaded year 2010 GS with only 22k miles.

I guess in terms of mileage, it should be mostly weekend riding with the occasional long distance cross country road trip twice a year...

It is obviously up to you as to what you prefer, but it sounds that the older model you found is a good deal and probably totally workable for your usage.