For the 1st time in my life I had the first real experience in off-road terrain ……. and with a BMW R1150GS! Yeah, those who do own one would most probably say that I must be crazy and, to be honest, I thought that too, before I eventually did it. Well, to be more precise, it’s wasn’t rough off-road but being my first experience on such roads, I still call it off-road and some parts of it weren’t that easy!! The only other time I’ve been through some off-road parts was on my way to an agritourism in Sicily. I can now say that that was absolutely a normal road …… I’ve had to pass through much worse today and for much longer time! Why? Well, I wanted to try the bike. Why drive a BMW R1150GS when you’re not using it for its purpose? And I did today, was with another biker and decided to go and try out some secondary roads!
To begin with, he took me through some parts of Malta I’ve never ever knew they existed š Yeah, been living in Malta since I was born and had no idea there’s such routes š Some are really nice too and I’m sorry I didn’t have the camera with me to share such views but will do so next time, even though I’m a bit afraid to have theĀ camera with me in such terrain. Anyway, going back to my experience, before I got into these “roads” I was a bit sceptical about what I might find in there, how I’m going to cope, whether I’m capable of handling such a beast, etc …… Being with someone I had more courage to try this out and it was the right time to do it. If I had thought about it more than I’m sure that I would turned back!
The first part of it was quite normal, just some leveled Ā gravel with trees on either side and some branches in the middle too. That was ok, had no other option than to go through them š However, as we entered even more inside the road was getting worse and worse and at one time I was getting bit worried. We arrived at a point where there was a piece that had to pass through a steep hole and back up, with not much play in between. I stopped š After just a couple of seconds staring it at I decided to go for it. I have lately began to watch the DVD called Dual Sport Rider and, believe me, it helps. Every now and then I was passing through some bumpy roads to try and drive standing up and feeling the bike how it handles and finding the right position. Not sure whether I would have done this should I haven’t seen this DVD!
How I managed to pass through this part? Well, it was simple …… I just got the courage inside of me, used what I learnt from this DVD, standing position and movementsĀ while going down and up and that was basically it …… passed it without any difficulty! The feeling was great, the bike went through it without any problems, down, up and there it went straight ahead. It wasĀ like, as we say,Ā eating aĀ piece of cake for it ….. and it made me feel really secure!!! As most of you know, this particularĀ bike is damn heavy but I can now undertand how come people like Ewan McGregor, Charley Boorman and others, have went through all that on this kind of machine. Believe me, this bike is amazing!! The more time passes the more I realise what a great bike the BMW R1150GS is! I always knew thatĀ but I’m getting to experience it’s capabilities in person now.
Thus, I now know that going off-road with a BMW R1150GS is not much of an unimmaginable thing …….. to the contrary, this bike does gives you confidence and after you’ve done it once you would want to do it again and again. Enjoy it guys, gals but always be careful!!
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