Greetings from Romania! Planning to visit Scottand this year with mine; a 2001 with 173 k kilometers and 39 countries visited until now!

I pefer this gentlemans review of the BMW F650 GS then any corporate journalist and or popular magazine! Well done!

"Friendly" perfect word to describe the bike. I've had mine for two years now: 2001 with 115,000 km and no issues, just regular maintenance. Solid bike, comfy.

On the verge of buying one of these and this video was really useful thank-you.

I bought one for when Camping in the USA it's sits behind my camper just to Putt around the campground and maybe a little trip uptown and some dirt road short trips. Now I preparing for my first 2,000 mile trip with just it  I'm truly excited

I've worked out that I've been riding (if you count going round and round the garden) some 44 years, 15 of those as a test and development rider. I've often been testing prototypes on the same tracks at the same time as these "journos", all of them dolled up in free gear, swanking about etc.
Imagine the hilarity of watching a group of them at Bruntingthorpe on superbikes get spanked through the corners by a scruffy oik on Bonnie 120. Laugh, I nearly crashed. they have to pander to the advertising revenue, we don't.

They don't like anything under 200mph and £40,000 these days. Some of the best rides I've had have been on "modest" machines. I own the precursor to your GS in my 99 Aprilia Pegaso. It's possibly the best two up bike I've had yet. Plenty of punch, handles well and like you say, is a friendly bike. I am quite keen on old 80s and 90s bikes where you have to grab them by the scruff of the neck, but sometimes you just want to get on with it without the mental workload.
I often see gaggles of old boys on huge GS1250s and the like struggling to handle the things or pottering about because their scared to death of the things, I even "advised" one tragic case that maybe he should consider downsizing to something he could manage more easily? It was like i told him he had to be castrated! Loose the ego and gain the pleasure, which is why the go-to bike in my stable is a silly little 125 underbone Thai built Suzuki. I look like an idiot but I'm having more fun than the rest.

David's very sensible comments most welcome.  Ah Scotland...

I have a 2007, and I love it! Wonderful motorbike.

I got mine 2 years ago, done a bit of work, and have really enjoyed it. This was meant to be just a passing bike , over this period of time, I have looked at so many others . I am talking about new bikes as well ,with the current climate of bike dealers not find anything better. 😅

That run brought back memories as those roads were my old stomping ground before I moved to hungary in 2011. I'm from England but in Scotland I had a few bikes including a Honda XBR500, A Cagiva 650 V twin, a Triumph Trident 900 and a Royal Enfield Lightning 535. I'm considering buying a 2002 BMW F650CS with belt drive.

I'm currently in the market for one of these.  But roughly 17 years ago, I bought a Suzuki GS500 and did almost 70,000km on it before I sold it. Within the GS500 community there was lots of moaning about its lack of hp. Seems the dissatisfaction came from buying a bike with carbs and unchanged technology from 1980 with only 47hp but expecting an R6 in performance. The guy like me who got their licence in the 80s or 90s and who had been riding for some decades could appreciate the bike for what it was. It was the younger ones who viewed it as a beginner bike and weren't happy. They have bought into the hype. Which is good for the industry and leaves these bikes for people who will really appreciate them.

I have a 2007 F650GS, a 2014 G650GS Sertao and a 2017 FJ-09 (Tracer). They all make me smile and laugh equally but my 1,300 watt ebike that waves goodbye to all rush hour traffic as we pass by doing 35mph is by far the most exciting, fun and healthy machine.

Very well presented review. Covered all aspects of the bike. 👍

Yes you are right, when the new gs 1200 came out all the journalists were super hyped about it and this gem was underestimated. Everyone said it was the GS wannabe but on the end it is a very practical bike. It is a very well refined thumper , double spark, counter rotating shaft, abs, under Seat tank to prevent from being top heavy ( tenere 700 👋🏻) Jack of all trades. I did Sardinia twice fully loaded and lots of trips across middle Italy. I even used for moving from one flat to a new one i loaded 60x60x40 boxes on it. Never had a problem. I sold it for a f800 gs but i regret. I am considering buying it again. It was my very first bike and I want it back.

I bought a 2001 2yrs ago and haven't rode it yet, but my brother rides it !

this is very good bike, all these bmw 650 engine bikes are brilliant

Just noticed the audio higher volume on the left. thanks for the video. Love my 650gs 2007. Just got it this year.

F650GS is definitely a Great stuff! 👍 thanks for your video.
Greetings from Poland 🇵🇱

An excellent review!  I have a 2001 650 and it's a fine machine. I do quite a lot of fire roading  with mine and the roads can be quite rough.  I find that the Mitas brand tire works very well in off road conditions. They feel a little "heavy" on the black top but once you get used to the feeling you can take the corners quite fast if you wish. My only real complaint is that it needs a 6th gear!! The 50 hp motor has plenty of power to pull it. Here in the US if you hop on a major highway, you need to be able to cruise at 70-75 mph. You can certainly do it with the 5 speed gearbox but it's not very comfortable as you're sitting at over 5000 rpm. Being able to click into a 6th gear would be soo nice. It's a shame BMW didn't have Rotax do that one change. If they had, it would have made a great machine even better!!   Happy Holidays!!!

I’m shopping for my next adventure bike - torn between a DR650 and the GS; it will likely come down to local availability but I didn’t realize how close they are functionally.