- 19 hours ago
The 2027 BMW F 450 GS marks a major shift in the lightweight adventure segment, bringing big bike technology and premium features to a 450cc platform. With a new 420cc parallel twin engine, a full suite of rider aids including traction control, multiple ride modes, and a 6.5 inch TFT display, BMW is aiming to deliver true GS performance in a smaller, more accessible package. We traveled to Sicily to test whether this small displacement ADV can balance real off road capability with on road comfort, and if its premium approach makes it worth waiting for when it arrives in the US in late 2027.
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Check out the full story at https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/bmw-f-450-gs-first-ride/
Find us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/cw/CycleWorldPodcast
Become a Channel Partner: https://octanemedia.co/home/become-an-advertiser/
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6CLI74xvMBFLDOC1tQaCOQ
Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/
Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld
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SportsTranscript
00:00Good morning from the not-so-sunny island of Sicily. This is the 2026-27 F450 GS
00:08and this is the first ride of this thing for us. We don't know when it's coming
00:12to the US exactly. We don't know how much it's gonna cost but we are gonna find
00:16out how good is it as a small adventure bike. We got a little 450 parallel twin
00:22under there. This is BMW's latest GS and it looks like a big GS almost doesn't it?
00:29So we're gonna go take it for a ride. We'll see what it's all about. We're gonna
00:32ride it off-road. We're gonna ride it on-road. We have two different models.
00:35This is the trophy edition. We have a sport edition. We're gonna ride both. We'll let
00:40you know how it is. Stay tuned.
00:50Let's talk about this little engine of BMW's. It's an interesting engine for
00:55sure. So it has a 135 degree crank spacing on it rather than a 270 like
01:02everybody else. And that's interesting. I think it lacks a little bit of
01:07character in comparison to the 270 motors that feel a little bit more clumpy. But
01:13this thing is sporty. Makes 48 horsepower claims and 32 pound-feet of torque and it is
01:23stout. It comes on strong with the bottom. It revs really well. It's just a very very
01:31nice motor. It's a little viby though. You feel it transfer to you a little bit. But
01:38it's quite a nice nice engine for sure. Especially when you compare it to some of
01:44the cheaper offerings in comparison to this bike. It definitely outclasses those.
01:52We're on the GS Trophy first. We just finished us under riding. We're going
01:56through town. So it's a perfect time to talk about it. We got the easy ride
02:01clutch on this bike. So it's a centrifugal clutch. It's quite interesting. It has a
02:08centrifugal clutch on the crankshaft. Then two fiber plates. Then the backing plate
02:15or the of the or the basket of the main clutch. Normal clutch. Then the slipper
02:21hub and pressure plate. So it's it's got a lot going on in the clutch and I can't
02:28say I'm totally sold on it yet. It's quite nice. You don't have to use the clutch
02:33when you're running around town. You don't have to use a clutch when you're
02:35shifting downshifting. But it really doesn't start to grab until about 2,500
02:42rpm. And then it it locks up fairly quickly. So match that with a kind of
02:52sluggish off-bottom throttle setting. And it feels pretty mushy right off the
02:59bottom. Once you're you're up in the revs totally fine. Totally good. But right off
03:04the bottom I'm still not sold. And it's interesting when you're trying to do
03:10very slow speed maneuvers in the dirt and you know you're standing in the pegs
03:16and you're wanting to use the clutch to you know feed in the power against the
03:21front brake and the rear brake. It it doesn't do well in that situation and you
03:27lose a bit of control there because it doesn't want to actuate until 2,500 rpm.
03:32So your your revs are quite high when you want to keep them kind of low doing those
03:37things. So it makes it easy in some situations but it's not a it's a bit of a
03:45trade-off. But once you're once you're moving it acts just like a normal clutch or
03:52you know it locks up pretty decent. And it's supposed to remain locked up in
03:59first gear second gear whatever going down a hill. So you don't lose engine
04:05braking. But we haven't we haven't had the chance to test that bit yet. But
04:10overall engine's awesome. Easy right clutch cool but it's not for everyone and the
04:18transmission is a little bit notchy on this guy. But it may be exacerbated by all
04:26these things going on with a kind of laggy throttle, a quick shifter that's not
04:31super snappy and a centrifugal clutch attached to the main clutch. It all
04:38probably adds up to a less than we'll say tight experience. The GS trophy
04:45edition has the sport suspension. So fully adjustable in the front for compression
04:51and rebound damping. At the rear it's preload adjustable and rebound damping
04:58adjustable but not compression. The suspension is actually sprung pretty
05:03nicely even for for my weight. You know 240 pounds with all my gear on and stuff.
05:10It's not too soft. I hit the bottom of the struggle a couple times but it's been
05:15pretty big G outs rather than you know just small bumps or something. Handles
05:23like a GS. It feels like if you're familiar with the GS 1300 1200 1250 you know it
05:32feels like that. It's got a 17 inch rear and a 19 inch front. This bike is
05:37accessorized with I think a taller seat and handlebar risers which I think I
05:45think they should come standard with the risers because if you're going to be
05:48riding this off-road you definitely want the riser because it's not I think
05:54with you know a bit lower on the bars would make it a lot more difficult to
05:59stand up. It would be a little less it would put your body in a bit too far bent
06:05over position for an average height person. So if you're tall six foot definitely
06:10want the risers maybe if you're below 5.7 you don't need the risers. Handling in the
06:18dirt is man I mean it's it's got a 19 inch front so it's not super responsive when it
06:26gets soft. It pushes a little bit it's a little mushy but it works pretty good.
06:33A lot on the street 17 and a 19 it's very very nice. That's a compromise. I think
06:40it's a solid compromise. It makes sense for this bike. It would have been nice for
06:46the off-road fans for to have a 21 and an 18 but I think it also makes total sense
06:53for this bike. They were looking for a compromise between road handling and
06:57off-road handling. Something that was just as good in each discipline and that
07:04requires a 19 and a 17 setup. It's got 185 millimeters of travel that's 7.9
07:12inches. It's sprung with these the sport suspension on this model. Rebound is maybe
07:20a little fast for my liking but I haven't played with the clickers yet. The rear end
07:24seems to react well. It doesn't pogo. It doesn't rebound too quickly so that's
07:29nice. Overall it's quite a nice suspension setup for a small lightweight
07:36adventure bike but it is a BMW. It's a GS and it's a it's a premium lightweight bike
07:44I would say. Price range we don't know yet. It's 7,000 pounds. Great British pounds.
07:54Which would make it around $9,400 if it's just a straight conversion but of course we
08:00have tariffs and other things to come with that number so who knows where it'll be
08:06when it comes to the US but I think it will start around 9,000 and this GS model
08:12may creep its way up a bit but what is nice is there's four models. Each variant has its own
08:23color white blue and red colors of the GS trophy red for the sport and then the
08:30two lower ones are black. They do come packed up pretty decently there's not a
08:35lot of packages in like you would expect on the other GS models and most BMW models
08:45where you have the premium package, the ultimate package, the tech package, the
08:49whatever. They you know basically you get what you get when you buy a certain model.
08:56Now there are accessories like these wheels that are on this bike there spoke
09:00wheels are an accessory. The handlebar riders are an accessory. You get a taller
09:06seat, a lower seat. So there are add-ons but it's not like all the other models
09:11which is quite nice. I think it's it's a lot more simple and it makes a lot more
09:14sense. GS trophy variant this guy is the only one that comes with the easy ride
09:23clutch. That being said accessory wise you can use this stop on the trail why don't
09:32we. You can add it to the other bikes as an accessory but it's it's only standard on
09:40the the top of the lines which to me is interesting. I think that they should have
09:44put it maybe on the sport rather than this bike because it seems like if you're
09:49more of a GS trophy type rider you're running knobbies and things like that you'd
09:56want this you'd want the control of the clutch and the command of the more direct
10:07feel maybe. But maybe not. Like I said it's not for everyone. I think if you're an expert
10:15rider you're probably not going to be riding a 450 GS anyways. Maybe you will because it's
10:19kind of nice. Like I like how light it is. The engine has plenty of power. So maybe you
10:25wouldn't want a GS 450 or F 450 GS. It's a little muddy up here. It's doing okay. I've got
10:35it in
10:35Enduro Pro. So you got four modes. Rain, Road, Enduro and Enduro Pro. All standard which is nice.
10:49gives you the opportunity to do whatever you'd like. Enduro Pro right now allows you to lock the
10:55rear tire. It's got an ABS setting off-road. Lower trash control setting and then you can turn
11:02the trash control off with a button right here. Piece of cake. Very nice. So I'm getting used to the
11:07easy clutch pulling away. You're letting the clutch out and then really doesn't kick in to about 3k. So
11:16you just rev it up a little higher as you let the clutch out and then things are cool.
11:20Do a little slow speed action here. So I'm at 3000 RPM.
11:30If you're down on the 2s, you don't have engine power to work against. It doesn't kick in until
11:41right there around 3k. Which gives you kind of a herky-jerky setup here. We're in rain so let's do
11:54rain mode.
11:55This has got a softer throttle response in higher trash control settings. But still the same 48
12:04horsepower. They don't reduce the power. They only change the throttle response. Road is more aggressive.
12:12Sport throttle response is what they call it. And then Enduro has the soft throttle response again.
12:22And then Enduro Pro has the sport throttle response. Each mode has a touch control tied to it as well
12:30as
12:30ABS settings. And you can go in and change your ABS settings if you would like in the Pro mode.
12:39And you
12:40can turn off trash control just a nice press a button right here on the left hand switch gear. What
12:48is a nice
12:48feature on the Sport and the GS Trophy is heated grips. Right now I got them on three. It's raining
13:02and it is
13:04eight degrees C. So that's 40 something degrees I think. And my hands are not cold for the most part.
13:15Only the bottom base model doesn't come with the Enduro foot pegs. And they're quite nice. They're nice,
13:22large, motocross size, dirt bike sized foot pegs. Comfortable, grippy, really good. The tank is actually
13:32really nice and narrow. There's plenty of space to move around the bike. It's narrow. It doesn't have
13:39any weird protuberances to get in the way of your knees. It's really nice standing up or sitting down.
13:45You have plenty of space for your knees. I really like that. It feels quite narrow beneath you.
13:51Which is always a nice thing when you're riding off-road. And it's more comfortable on-road as well
13:55too. Braking performance is quite good on this bike. With different modes of ABS as well. Tied to the ride
14:04modes usually. But you can go in and change it in the bike settings. But it's yeah the front lever
14:12is
14:14responsive. It's got good initial bite. It's not too strong. So for the people riding off-road that
14:21maybe aren't you know they don't want a completely megabyte grab. But it's strong enough that uh an
14:33expert rider will find it lacking. But it's also friendly enough for a beginner rider. It's quite
14:39quite good. Lots of power. It'll drag it down. The rear though is um quite sensitive. It'll lock up quite
14:50easily. It's very strong. This is a good thing. But it's also uh can if you're in enduro pro mode.
14:59You can turn off the rear ABS and the rear end will lock quite easily. But with the ABS on
15:06it it doesn't
15:08lock obviously. Um it will pulse and modulate if you get too deep into the level. But overall it's off.
15:17The front tire likes to... I wouldn't say it knifes. But it feels like it wants to knife. The front
15:25tire's
15:25not the greatest. Uh it's got a weird feel to it where it wants to resist turning for a second.
15:34And then
15:34once it turns in it really tips in almost to the point where it feels like it's tucking.
15:43Uh on this road today where it's wet and it's cold. Um it doesn't inspire the most confidence. A couple
15:51times we've crossed over some gravel and uh it does push pretty easily. So that's the end of the day
15:57of
15:57riding the F450 GS. We rode the trophy edition off-road. We rode the sport on-road. And I have
16:04to say
16:04the bike overall is really really good. It's another wonderful addition to the lightweight adventure
16:11category. It's a little bit more premium than a lot of the other offerings and it feels like a big
16:16GS
16:16when you're riding it. It has the same switch gear. It has the same dash. It has all these things
16:20that
16:20make it very much a GS. Just like any other GS. Just a smaller displacement. Tons of power. The
16:26engine's awesome. It's got a different character than almost all the other parallel twins in the class.
16:32And it's got a ton of power. It is very very powerful. Very torquey. Might be the most powerful
16:39one in the class in terms of feel. Overall the easy ride clutch has some pluses has some minuses.
16:45It may not be for you. It might be for you. If you're learning to use a clutch or you
16:50like the
16:50ability to not stall the motorcycle in off-road situations, it's great. It works really really
16:56well. If you are more accomplished and more of a experienced rider, you may find some some issues
17:03with it. It engages a little later than you would want it to for slow speed work and things like
17:08that.
17:09And it mutes the power a little bit. The sport does not have the easy ride clutch on it and
17:13it felt
17:13much more connected to your right hand. What I think you should do if you're shopping for an F450
17:21GS and you don't want the easy ride is to buy the sport and put on the wheels, skid plate,
17:29all the
17:29things that you can get on the GS trophy, but on this bike and then you'll have a more unique
17:34bike
17:34because it'll be red instead of white, blue and red like everybody else. Overall though, awesome motorcycle.
17:41How much it's going to cost? We still don't know in the United States, but I think it is an
17:46awesome
17:47offering and one that you should consider and maybe even wait for. If you like what we're doing,
17:52hit the like button, subscribe, hit the notification bell so you get all of our videos and we'll see
17:57you on the next one.
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