Well riding on the success of the CF Moto 450 MT or the Ibex as it is called in some markets, the big players are fighting back, and the latest contender to be announced is an all new BMW F450GS Adventure bike which joins the KLE500 we talked about previously.
To be clear, this is just a prototype, but it is a very finished looking prototype with a promise that it will be in showrooms by the end of 2025.
Now being a BMW you would likely think it is not going to be cheap, and we may get a dulled down version by the time it comes to market, but we don’t know either of those things yet, so we shouldn’t make assumptions.
What I am going to do here is look at what we know so far and what is likely to come.
To be straight, I do really like the look of this bike in general, although there is something I will comment on later from a visual perspective.
What I have decided to do is a short straight talking introduction to explain what I think the Good the bad and the ugly bits about this bike are.
First , and as this is a prototype, this is conjecture, but this is information from BMW, so I guess you could say it is the best we can hope for.
They say it will follow the A2 licence regulations, will produce 48HP and weigh in at 175kg wet.
Well the regs say 0.2KW/Kg, so 47HP is the limit at 175Kg so I guess we can give them that one.
They do say it is a wet weight too, but as we all know, manufacturers all seem to have dodgy scales and a weird idea of what actually constitutes a wet weight.
It is probably very doubtful that that weight is with a full tank.
We didn’t get figures, but the prototype did look very high, both in terms of seat height and ground clearance. So from that perspective it looks very off road focussed, but then you notice it only has a 19” front wheel.
So who is the target market?
I guess if you consider there are a few bikes now fitted with a 21” front wheel that in reality have more road focussed geometry, BMW seem to have gone the other way and used geometry more akin to a real dirt bike, with a 19” front wheel to give you better road manners.
They are tubeless spoked rims on the prototype, which would be very nice if they carry forward into production.
The 19” front is a novel idea, and it could maybe work well, but I do think there is a chunk of the market that just wont accept anything other than a 21” front. Not only because it rolls over obstacles better, but simply because there is a better choice of off road tyres.
Looking at it there is something that looks very familiar about it. Maybe BMW kept some of the old Husqvarna Nuda drawings in the back room and took the X Country and Nuda as inspiration, but there is also something of the old F650GS Dakar in there too, so it does look a bit of a bitza, but I do think it looks pretty good.
The white steel trellis frame is more akin to the KTM and Ducati frames than any BMW of the past I have seen, and it is striking.
They seem to be marketing it as a true 50/50 on/off road bike, we will have to wait and see how well it does at both.
They say if you stay stood up on the foot rest that it rides like a dirt bike, and if you ride it sat down it feels like a road bike.
Can it really do both?
Many have tried, but few succeeded.
There was a lot of talk about power delivery and that it is both punchy at low revs to give you the grunt to handle steep climbs, but that it will rev far better than most twins, with no noticeable drop off in power as the revs rise.
So there are a lot of bold claims being thrown around, even before it goes into production.
What BMW were adamant about is that this bike will be in showrooms before the end of 2025.
We will never get details for sure at this point but the suspension looks to be pretty long travel and the front upside down forks are fully adjustable on the prototype.
With the rear, its harder to tell, but it looks adjustable for damping as well as preload, I would assume it is fully adjustable on the prototype.
On release it may be that if they think the demand is there, they might do a base model with fairly basic suspension, and then a better equipped version with fully adjustable suspension front and rear.
Brakes are Brembo’s, with a 4 piston radial caliper on a single disc at the front and realistically that should be plenty of stopping power.
Footpegs are good and sturdy off road style pegs but again, that could just be for the prototype.
I said a while ago that this segment would be the new battleground and with more bikes coming all the time it is hotting up.
The new Himalayan 450 and Triumph singles sold like hot cakes and the CF Moto 450MT or Ibex, is doing much the same, so it is a very competitive market sector. It will be hard for BMW to compete on price unless they have Loncin make it for them, and the tech on the CF Moto and Kove mean it would be hard to put a less well equipped bike up against them in marketing terms.
Personally, I hope they keep it simple. I want a cable clutch and cable throttle, ideally with a dedicated ABS on off button, but we do seem to get the 4 way mode switch used on many of the BMW’s now. The clutch does look cable driven but I’m not so sure on the throttle.
Styling is unmistakably GS1300 derived with what looks like many crossover parts and styling cues. That signature X shape headlamp is very distinctive and they have made it look like everything fits together very well aesthetically.
If anything, I would say it looks better than its big brother.
We have to mention the engine anyway. Precise capacity isn’t released but is a bit irrelevant as long as we are in the ball park. What is interesting is BMW’s statement that the firing order has never been seen before.
The thing is, they haven’t said what that firing order is.
Now I know someone has been spreading the rumour that it is a 125 degree firing order, and it may be, but I have dredged all the sources I know and even crawled through endless patent applications to find out the truth of the matter and honestly I have come up completely empty handed.
I know who first said it, but I have absolutely no idea where the 125 degree figure actually came from, so I can’t verify it.
For those that don’t know, the old British parallel twins ran a 360 degree firing order in general, then came the time of the 180 degree crank, and that system does have its advantages. Honda still use it on the CB500X.
These days though it is the 270 degree firing order that is most popular, although the KTM LC8C twins do run the theoretically better balanced 285 degree firing order.
Now if it had been a 90 degree or even 75 degree firing order, that would have made sense to me. It is simply a variation of the 270 or 285 degree idea. But I honestly cant see a reason or benefit of a 125 degree firing order. The equivalent would be a 235 degree firing order, which as far as I am aware has never been used on any twin cylinder internal combustion engine.
In theory it would sound like a wide angle 125 degree V twin engine, which again as far as I am aware has never been built. I will await you telling me where it has though.
So I guess we shall have to wait and see with the engine. I can find no recent engine patents anywhere under the BMW name.
What I will say, is there are a lot of rumours about BMW moving production of the smaller to mid capacity engines back to Rotax instead of using Loncin. Again I will say, nothing is confirmed. They are just rumours, but they do keep coming up.
With all the bikes available, from the KTM390 and BMW GS310 up to the CF Moto 450, CB500X and the many similar offerings, it is becoming a crowded and highly fought over sector of the market.
The 400cc category was after all the only sector of the UK market to show any growth last year.
So to conclude and summarise a little.
The Good first.
If this is a 47HP bike with a fuelled weight of 175kg, that will make me very happy. I like the fact they have included tubeless rims and fully adjustable suspension, and I do think it actually looks good except for one thing I will come to shortly.
Then we have the Bad,
That is, that it isn’t here yet, and that the design may be watered down for production or be very expensive. I also don’t know if it has a ride by wire system so can only say that if it does, that may be a deal breaker for me and I hope it hasn’t,
Lastly we have the Ugly,
and on a bike I honestly think looks far better than most bikes I have seen over the last few years, who the hell designed and decided to wrap that horrible plastic cowling around the radiator? It makes the bike look twice as big as it would be, and for what reason? It looks like they took 2 bits of a car bumper and cut a shape out of them to make them fit.
I guess at least they didn’t give it wings so we can be thankful for that.
Well that’s it for now, I do look forward to seeing and riding this one.
Let me know your thoughts below in the comments.