welcome to MOTOTREK! i'm Dusty Wessels professional motorcycle instructor with
west 38 moto so i made the switch i went for my 1250 GS Adventure to the 1250 GS standard
for about the last seven years i've gone back and forth between owning these motorcycles here's what
i like more about the standard GS the standard GS is lighter and it's not as tall as the adventure
the bullet points will tell you the weight of this bike is not much less than the adventure but when
it gets technical this is a lot lighter to manage most of the weight savings on the standard GS is
in the fuel tank without all that weight up high when i get into more technical terrain it feels
much easier for me to manage on the standard i can flat foot with knees bent i have much more control
on the adventure i had to sit one foot on the peg all the time with my short inseam the one thing i
missed on the adventure on long pavement stretches was the cockpit a lot more comfortable more
flat like i'm sitting on a big Cadillac the first upgrades i install on a new motorcycle headlight
guard upper and lower crash bars and a skid plate a headlight guard is not just for off-road riders
you can catch a rock in the headlight riding down the pavement i install a headlight guard because
i go on group rides a lot i've caught a rock that went through the lens of the motorcycle i
was riding at the time i had to replace it now i got lucky and i didn't have to replace the whole
housing but on a bike like this and depending on the bike you're riding this is really cheap
insurance for not having to replace the whole housing the upper crash bars not only protect
these really expensive plastic pieces but they protect vital pieces like the radiator and the fan
which can leave you stranded if those get broken on a box or motor the lower crash bars are here
to protect the cylinder head on any bike the lower crash bars protect the integrity of the motor so
i've also installed cylinder covers these are here to protect what the crash bar misses a factory
mounted skid plate is good for the occasional rock ding when you ride off-road you want a
strong frame mounted skid plate that protects the bottom of the engine from major impacts some skid
plates are engine mounted which leaves the motor vulnerable to impacts that could crack the case
handguards of some sort i think are a must they protect some vital pieces up here i stuck with
the stock ones from BMW i prefer plastic injection molded i installed a kickstand switch protector if
your kickstand switch gets damaged it'll disable your bike so that's how i protect the bike here
are some things i've added to customize it so i'm about six feet tall and i've tried multiple
heights of risers over the years currently i'm riding without risers what i like about
it is i'm into the bike i'm closer i feel like i can steer better i can manage the weight and i
can really put the front tire where i want it i'm losing a little bit of comfort in some situations
but right now i like riding without risers these foot pegs are wider and longer than the stock foot
pigs the stock foot pegs are pretty narrow and they dig into the arches of my feet and over time
that's just really taxing the other thing is i like a wider platform to operate the controls from
but also the most important thing is when i ride off road and stand up i'm steering with my feet so
really having a good spot for my boots and my feet to influence the motorcycle is important to me
this is the BMW brake lever that comes on the adventure i put it on my standard
to give me a little more room when i'm standing up off-road reaching the brake pedal so i've upgraded
to woody's wheels these are stronger lighter and i can still use tubeless tires i always replace
my stock mirrors i've tried a lot of different mirrors what i like about these is they're easy
to adjust i can put one in an up position leave one in the down position so when i'm sitting or
standing off road i can still see the group behind me the other thing i like about these mirrors
is while i'm riding with one hand i can move them to keep them out of harm's way i installed this
fixed charger what i didn't like about the plug-in charger is it would bounce around and come loose
when i was riding off-road i've tried a lot of different phone mounts i really like the quad lock
it's shock mounted i don't need a cord to charge it and the phone has never fallen
off riding in the toughest conditions so this is just a general battery tender that you can
install on any motorcycle goes directly to the battery and provides constant power i use it
for my pump to pump up my tires i also use it to plug in any of my devices for USB my phone
my Sena charger my InReach i can charge anything from here with the bike off
so instead of installing the really expensive lever i just cut the end of this off what it
does is when i really need to hold onto the bike but still operate the clutch lever i can have my
whole hand around the hand grip do a one finger or two finger pull without hitting my other fingers
so GPS navigation has come a long way i currently still use a GPS i also use a phone for navigation
but the reason why i specifically like the GPS is if i'm following a track and i want to know
how far it is to the next turn or i want to know how far it is to pavement i put in a waypoint
i tell a GPS to go i now have distance and time to the waypoint that i've entered
so i'm back to the 1250 GS standard i'm sticking i'm staying i'm not going back to an adventure
the type of riding i do the type of trips i take this bike just fits me so much better
you