BMW’s F 900 GS is everything I wanted the F 850 GS to be – lighter, faster, slimer and just, well, better!

Words: Pete Vorst / Photography: Motohead

BMW’s F 850 GS is a nice enough adventure tourer. It’s not too heavy, not too tall, easy to get along with, and doesn’t place too many demands on its rider as long as you play sensibly off-road. In short, the 850 is a solid all-rounder. But—and I don’t mean to aggravate the 850 owners out there—let’s be frank, it’s not the most exciting nor capable adventure machine on the planet.

BMW has seen fit to rectify that with the release of its F 900 GS, and this bike is an entirely different beast—and I do mean beast.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time on BMW’s F 850 GS over the years, especially in recent history on various tours with Compass, which has and continues to use the 850 extensively.

The 900 is a big, big departure from the bike it replaces. Obviously, it looks far sexier—if you like your adventure machinery looking like it’s ready for combat. With its sharper, more modern design comes a far slimmer bike with far superior ergonomics, especially when the going gets dirty. Quite simply, the 900 is lighter, more powerful, and far more capable off-road without losing much when it comes to punching out tarmac miles.

I have a limited word budget, so let’s get to the numbers quickly. Horsepower has increased from 95 hp (71 kW) on the 850 to 105 hp (77 kW) for the 900. Torque is also up and now sits at 93 Nm. Weight is down, with the 900 tipping the scales at a claimed 219 kg, fuelled and ready to ride—around 14 kg lighter than the 850. Seat height is up by 10 mm to 860 mm, but with the 900’s skinnier waist, the real-world experience of getting your feet on the deck will feel much the same. These figures are very, very similar to KTM’s 890 Adventure R, arguably the most off-road capable adventure bike on the market.

Where the 850 feels a bit soft and lounge-like, the 900 feels far tauter—more enduro-bike-like. It’s not uncomfortable as such; it just feels more sure-footed, ready for action, and perhaps more aggressive. Where the 850 felt like a road bike playing at being an adventure machine, the 900 is completely at home on the dirt and on the road.

Sometimes, it can take a while to get your head around a new bike, but that wasn’t the case here. From the moment I climbed aboard, I felt comfortable. I wasn’t even 10 metres into the first dirt section before I was hanging the back end out and having a whale of a time.

The suspension package deserves much of the credit for the 900’s abilities. The F 900 GS Enduro you see here sports 45 mm fully adjustable Showa forks and a fully adjustable Sachs shock at the rear, delivering 230 mm of travel up front and 215 mm at the rear. The suspension is superb, and if you’re finding the limits of the 900’s standard kit, you’re either really bloody fast or really bloody—ah—generously proportioned.

As I mentioned, the 850 was a comfortable and capable adventure machine as long as you stayed sensible off-road. But there was a glaring problem for those who like to hit the road and stop infrequently: its piddly 15-liter fuel capacity. And in an interesting plot twist, BMW decided to reduce the fuel capacity further, giving the 900 a 14.5-liter tank. Sure, you have the option of purchasing the F 900 GS Adventure if you want the extra gas, but then you lose the weight advantage that the 900 has eked out over the 850.

The 850’s limited fuel range has been a factor on some Compass tours, where 15 litres pushes the friendship of reaching your destination—so 14.5 litres will make things even tighter when the 900 joins the fleet.

The 900 is much closer to KTM’s 890 Adventure R than it is to the 850 but retains enough of the 850’s user-friendly nature that it shouldn’t deter 850 owners from stepping up. If you’re comparing the F 900 GS Enduro to the KTM 890, the equation becomes significantly more difficult. The KTM is the better off-road machine—it just is. The harder you push it, the better it gets. The KTM also has a 23-liter tank, but that extra payload brings its fully fuelled weight to around 246 kg, 27 kilograms heavier than the GS Enduro. That said, if you opt for the 900 GS Adventure with its 23-liter tank, it weighs in at a claimed 246 kilograms—so, same-same.

But there’s one whopping great tick in the BMW’s box: its reputation for reliability over the KTM. Whether there’s an actual difference is debatable. The internet is awash with horror stories of KTM cam issues, but I owned a 990 Adventure R years back, and it didn’t miss a beat in the time I owned it and I put 80,000 kilometres on that trusty rig.

As much as I love KTMs, I think I’d rather be on a BMW when I’m in the middle of Namibia’s desert regions or powering up a mountain range in Kyrgyzstan with night falling—because I just know it’s going to make it.

If you’ve got an 850 and you’ve even slightly hesitated about upgrading to the 900, I say go for it. With a starting price of $21,655 for the base model F 900 GS (the GS Enduro tested will set you back just over $27k), it’s a better adventure bike—possible way except fuel capacity. It’ll have you feeling mighty and capable when you hit the dirt, and when you’re feeling confident, you ride better and have more fun. And that’s why we do this motorcycle thing, isn’t it? To have fun.

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