In spring 2018 I attended the BMW Performance Center Rider Academy with Continental Tire. The assignment resulted in a written review and video review. I composed all text and shot all the video included in the original article, which can be seen here: Review: BMW Performance Center Rider Academy with Continental Tire.
Excerpts from the article are included below.
“I opted for the F 700 GS because it’s a bike I’ve thought long and hard about owning, but I’d not yet been able to take one for a spin. I’d come to find that the power delivery in the low rpms on the 700 puts you at quite a disadvantage over the R 1200, which pulls like a tractor just off idle, so I got a lot of practice working the clutch. That’s really the only bad thing I can say about it. For technical off road use, something with more torque down low would be nice but it’s a great bike otherwise...”
“…Our first drill mimicked the slow speed maneuvering we did previously out on the road, but this time was staged in a gravel pit, with the cones spread out wide. The task was to stand on the pegs and feel how shifting body weight and focusing on the line ahead makes turning tight corners simpler and more stable. It was a challenging prospect, but as with all the drills we did during the day, once we figured out the inputs and got a good flow, it became much easier. Another nice point about this particular drill, and a few others off road, is that the instructors set up two different courses, one a bit easier for the less experienced and another that was more difficult…”
“…There’s no getting around the fact that these bikes are big and heavy. But as we exited the course on the way to lunch I couldn’t help but be impressed with how maneuverable they were on the trail. Even the F 700, which required a lot of clutch work and higher revs than the 1200, is a fantastic dual sport machine. For really gnarly terrain, I’d still want a more dirt-bike styled bike, but it became crystal clear why BMW have had such success with its GS line among adventure riders. These bikes, in the right hands, are truly capable of doing it all…”