Kiwi Rider November 2024 Vol.1 | Page 70

section several times to see what happened . I ’ m comfortably over 100kg in my riding gear , so I ’ d conclude the suspension has the adjustability to deliver the goods for the majority of riders . Front wheel travel is a decent 230mm , while the rear is a little less at 215mm . The Showa forks are 43mm USD items and offer full adjustability . It ’ s the same deal at the rear courtesy of the ZF Sachs monoshock – it ’ s adjustable for spring preload , rebound damping and compression ( both high and low speed ).

LIGHTER BUT NOT LIGHT The steering is accurate , despite the slow-ish angle , and effortless on road and gravel while in sand it was a bit of a mixed bag depending on how soft it was . Deep sand is ALWAYS hard work and the bigger the bike the harder the work , that ’ s just an inescapable fact . And 219kg of wet weight does put the F900GS in the heavier bracket - but it ’ s still 10kg lighter than the 229kg F850GS , so the engineers have clearly put a lot of thought into shaving weight from the new bike . However , I HAD just upped the rear shock spring preload for greater resistance , which wouldn ’ t have helped it in the sand . With more time and an intention to ride sand regularly , I would lower the rear preload as much as possible , stiffen the damping to control bottoming and hit the sand with more confidence that the front would not tuck readily in the deeper stuff . One thing I noticed while paddling in a tricky spot is the pillion peg brackets are in a prime location to smack in to the back of your legs and even kinda trap them in deep sand , but you could avoid that by unbolting them if going somewhere intrepid . The 900GS is reasonably tall with a fairly flat dirtbike style seat . I found it very comfortable and great for moving around on . At first it feels a little firm , but with a little time in the saddle for body heat to warm it up , it softens and is spot on . At 870mm high , the seat is

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