BMW GS Motorbikes - Gear Shift Assist - Explained 

Hi Alex - Thank you so much for the kind feedback, it really means a lot to hear that my videos have been helpful. This is exactly why I do them. Wow, you didn't waste any time getting up to 5,000km!! That's awesome. All the very best, and of course, I hope to keep making helpful videos.

+SuperDotComMan ... You're very welcome, thanks for letting me know it was helpful.

Glad that helped you. Yes, first time for me too with cruise control. Never thought I'd ever need it, but useful as well when using your right hand for the sat nav, or cleaning your visor. Just a great feature I probably can't live without now!

+mosley022702 ... Glad it helped. Thanks for watching. Ride safe. 👍🏻

Yeah, I hired a Honda Shadow from 'Rider Share' to when I was in Florida... did the whole State, and the Keys. Amazing. But yeah, I felt the extra work and realized I'd been spoilt to the point of no return!!

+APS - Pictures... Awesome, glad it helped. Thanks for the feedback. 👍🏻

+Carlos Huerta... Thanks, Carlos. Good point, thanks for sharing.

You're welcome. Thank you.

+Pauly Flyer... Yes, I'm very used to mine as well. I couldn't imagine not having it now.

+clive manning thank you.

+MOTO MELTDOWN ... Agreed!!

Haha - plenty of waving and scratching nowadays! Sometimes I say the weirdest things in the moment. 😄

My wife on the back does the scratching for me anyway.

@@paulyflyer8154 😆🤣

+Ken Henry Jamisola... You're welcome. I appreciate the comment. Ride safe, too.

+Andy GSA Tractor... Thanks, Andy. That's the same issue I had in the first 1,000 km. I couldn't even put it in Neutral. They fixed it on the first service, so it's definitely adjustable. I should have mentioned that in the video. Someone else mentioned theirs being clunky too. Thanks again for your sub. 👍🏻

That’s a good insight. I have a problem engaging 2nd gear. The bike has 860 miles on the clock. Will have to take it to the BMW.

I still use the clutch as well going down the gears in slower traffic - just a muscle memory I can't quite eliminate. Great words, fully agree!

@@MotoBrit good to hear from you again, northern ireland here, going into the doom season, but, hopefully still able to ride, last winter wasn't to bad, but roads were constantly greasey, anyhow, look after yourself❄️

@@geecee4746 You too... I hope the chilly seasons are not too bad. Be safe.

Happy that helped. 🤘🏻😎🤘🏻

I've not changed the seat, it's the standard one that came with it. But I have an airflow mesh cover from Badass Motors, which I strapped on, and still have. Congrats on the new bike. Enjoy! And thanks for watching my vid, I appreciate you. 👍🏻

Yes, I still use the clutch around 1st and 2nd gears to be honest. Combination of habit and preference.

+Si_in_Finland... Good question. Yes, there is no difference to the resistance or sensitivity on the gear lever. Thanks for the question and feedback, much appreciated. 👍🏻

Well. I have to apply more pressure to change the gears. Sometimes I am afraid I will break something.

That's awesome. Congratulations. Ride safe and far! 🤘🏻😎🤘🏻

I appreciate the comment. Thank you.

Yeah, I just make fun of myself half the time.

Glad it helped. Thanks for letting me know. 👍🏻

I appreciate that, thank you. 🤘🏻

+Philip Tompsett ... Thanks for your comment on my vids, much appreciated. I've only ridden the Tiger XCX 800. To be honest, I loved it, and almost bought it a few months before my 750GS. For me there wasn't much in it in terms of the features I wanted on my wishlist, and both these bikes came out neck and neck. Then, whilst I was pondering the decision Triumph pulled out of Colombia (probably because of pressure from BMW to be honest) and with a BMW dealer being a few blocks from my house, that seemed to be the obvious choice. Possibly fortuitous, because I do really like the GS more now, and made a lot of friends I wouldn't have by joining a local BMW riding group. Let me know which you decide, and where you are in the world. Good luck.

@@MotoBrit Thanks for the feedback. I'm hoping to do a bit of a South America tour next year as just retired (60) and good point about availability of dealers. Maybe Triumph isnt such a good bet for South America. Thanks again.

+Philip Tompsett ... Good luck. Let me know if you're ever in the 'coffee triangle' between Medellin and Cali.

Ok, this is common when new. Make sure to tell the mechanic so they can reset the autoshift. Mine got very clunky after the few few hundred kms. By the time I took it in for the first service I couldn't even find neutral. Even the slightest up touch from 1st just clunked into 2nd. And visa versa. It was very annoying at traffic lights when I wanted to free up my left hand. So make sure they wire it up to the diagnostic machine and reset all the gears. Good luck. Let me know if it's smoother after the service.

+Expat ADV Rider... You're welcome. 👍🏻

I had a similar issue going from 1st to neutral and 2nd to neutral at traffic lights. I mentioned it in my service and they smoothed it out on the diagnostics computer. I assumed it was something electronic rather than mechanical, so maybe yours is the same. Worth checking and asking each time you have a service so they can reset whatever it is they tweak.

+Jose Mocholi... Hi Jose. Here is a link to the ones I have. They fit over the existing grips. amzn.to/3xWKGuN

I'll check out the vid on your channel. Sounds like there's a lot of big changes and interesting info. Yes, I'm definitely overdue a new video. There's been quite a lot of rain the last few weeks, which has foiled my plans of some rides. But will try and get one or two in before the end of the month.

It will go up and down at any revs and usually quite easily. Only when you are at a steady rev it has problems changing smoothly going up. So to be smooth and super quick, you need to be accelerating.

+Kevin Kedrovsky... That made me laugh, thanks for the comment. Yes, I sometimes get shampoo recommendations, so I know the feeling!!

I bought them directly from the dealer. I tried to be cheap at first, and bought a set online, but they just felt and looked inadequate when they arrived, so I just went to the dealer to buy their recommended BMW bars. They're great, and yes, I've dropped the bike more times than I can remember. Even with just engine bars, and not tank bars, I've had no damage at all. So I defo recommend them. Thanks for your support on my channel, much appreciated.

@@MotoBrit I will talk to them about it. I love your build and want to push mine in the same direction.

It needs to be reset. Mine did that for a while, and during a service they wired it up to the analytics screen and made the necessary adjustments. It was very smooth after that. There was no extra cost, literally part of the service. I think!

+NOBOUNDARIESMC ... No clutch needed once you have pulled away in 1st gear, you can click up to 2nd gear without the clutch.

@@MotoBrit Thank you for the info and your videos riding Colombia!

When I do this. The quick shifter is lock. And don’t function

+Jerod Zakson... Very good question. Yes it can. On my first 1,000 km service I complained about it being clunky going between 1st and 2nd in both directions, and after the service they said they had adjusted it. They didn't refer specifically to the shift assister, but it can definitely be fine-tuned when linked to the diagnostic machine so that the shift assister is smoother. Good luck.

@@MotoBrit Thanks, I’m at about 5k miles, I’ll mention it at my next checkup. Happy riding, thanks for having a channel that highlights the somewhat overlooked 750gs.

I'm sure I would miss it now if I suddenly didn't have it. I forgot to mention in the video that sometimes I use the clutch through the gears to remind myself of what is normal - and to be honest, I like the feel of using the clutch as a brake when slowing to a gradual stop, especially knocking down from 4th to 2nd in one go, and then opening the clutch to get a pull on the engine to take the work off the front brake. I still do that a lot actually. But, yes, it's definitely a luxury in most riding conditions.

@@MotoBrit I wonder how it is to have the DCT on the Africa Twin. With the qshift you have the possibility to ride it with clutch. I have only owned cars with manual transmission. But when driving automatic transmission I rarely miss to shift gear manually. Especially when reversing with a trailer it’s really convenient with automatic transmission 🤔

+Joones Adventures MC ... I must confess, I prefer auto in cars too. By far. My old 1977 Land Rover is manual, but that's good fun to drive. 😄

+Ray Weeks ... Hi Ray. On AliExpress. I was going to put a link but there's so many available. I'll put a link in the description section anyway, and from there you can see other sellers and accessories. They're on Amazon, but those sellers just get them all from AliExpress anyway

+Mehmet Goren... Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. I don't actually have any testing of commuting fuel consumption. It's a very good point, so I will try and monitor it to make comments and observations in the future. There is an electronic feature measuring consumption, so I'll display it next time I fill the tank and see if there's anything useful I can share and discuss.

@@MotoBrit thanks a lot..

First make sure that you are accelerating when trying to go up the gears. As shown in my video, if you're holding a constant speed and try to change up, it just refuses, and the gear display even goes blank because the system gets confused, but you stay in the same gear. If it doesn't change up whilst accelerating, then you'll need to take it to a dealer to be hooked up on the diagnostics. It will likely just need a software update rather than a physical adjustment. I had the same issue, and it got sorted during a service. Let me know how you get on, and for others with the same issue. Much appreciated.

@@MotoBrit During the inspection they realized that it had two loose cables from the shift assistant, they were soldered and it worked perfectly, I suppose the connection to the scanner also had something to do with it. Saludos desde Medellin co

+san tiago ... Thanks for the follow-up, good to know these things can happen. Ride safe. 🤘🏻

😄😄

+Alex ... it shouldn't do that. The BMW service will include a computer check of the gear alignments, but definitely mention it and get a mechanic to reset it, and check with a test ride. Hope you get a smoother ride soon.

@@MotoBrit hmm! OK will give it a shot. Thanks for the tip!

+ed.T. Hansen Yep.

Yep! 😄

+Menno ... whoops 🤫😬

+Frédéric Dirr ... something is too much? Sorry, I didn't fully understand your comment. Thumbs down pic? Was that for the shifter, or me? Or both 🤷🏻‍♂️

+Ed... Ok, thanks.

Yep. I get pretty much all of my accessories from AliExpress. Let's face it... so do all the sellers on Amazon!!

+Bum... Yes, it feels like it's blocked. Quite often I've been in slow traffic at a constant speed and wanted to go from 2nd to 3rd just to bring the revs down, but it always jams, exactly like I shown in the video. I assumed it is normal, as perhaps the gear cogs themselves need to be increasing cadence for the automatic shift to work. It's a little frustrating, but I'm used to it and simply revert to the old fashioned method in those scenarios... of using the clutch.

@@MotoBrit Ah ok thank you for the answer. Thought i was doing something wrong. Thanks for the video nicely explained :)

@@Prof_Bum I appreciate the feedback, thank you. 👍🏻