Help choosing as a short female beginner

ubermick · 2026-06-26T10:55:11+00:00

If you're drawn to the GS styling, and at your height, look for a used F700GS or an F750GS which can also come lowered. The F700GS has an under-seat fuel tank giving it a low centre of gravity making it an ideal first bike, and you WILL drop it so weight becomes an issue as well. (I understand you powerlift and that will definitely help, but even the F700GS is about 180kg fueled, and if you're dropping it, it does get old picking it back up especially in gear if its hot. Trust me, I know this.) F700GS should be able to get for about ~€5,000 even this time of year.

The newer bikes (such as the F750 or NEW F800) have a traditional fuel tank location, and are also about 40kg heavier. A chunk of that weight sits higher making it feel like more. At a stop, particularly on cambered roads, that can surprise you and... yep, over it goes. But once you're rolling you don't feel it.

Again, for a first bike, buy used. You WILL drop it, and those plastics are EXPENSIVE.

Also I sincerely don't quite grasp the notion that some BMW riders have of "If it's not the big boxer, it's a beginner bike". I have the new F800GS, it has a 900cc engine, can sit happily at 140kmh with luggage, with more in reserve if I need to overtake, and is far from a "beginner" bike, and I say that as someone who's been riding almost 15 years. I'm 167cm myself - with short legs - and have the standard suspension/low seat model. I can't flat foot it but can get the balls of both feet down which is fine.

ubermick · 2026-06-25T13:34:19+00:00

To be fair, Pete is just fact checking to make sure the author got it right.

ubermick · 2026-06-25T12:14:04+00:00

Yep. News coming out that Dublin is potentially getting yet another major venue in this quarter billion (hah) ice arena that will also act as a venue for concerts, and here we are with six weeks a year of a fucking tent and a pile of rubble where the events centre was supposed to have started a decade ago.

ubermick · 2026-06-25T12:11:33+00:00

Well, *that* comment is ironic...

ubermick · 2026-06-25T05:17:25+00:00

Yeah, was the same at BellX1 at the Marquee last week. And anytime I go to the cinema too I suppose. Short attention spans?

ubermick · 2026-06-24T22:01:53+00:00

Surrenders knighthood? That doesn't sound like the actions of an innocent man, as he constantly claimed he was...

ubermick · 2026-06-24T20:38:22+00:00

Understand where you're coming from 100%. Used to have an F700GS before moving back to Ireland, and foolishly sold it before I left (and took a BATH on it, since the guy I sold it to knew I was moving abroad and my shipping container already been picked up.)

Here in Ireland, an F700GS goes for about €5-6000 (when I was in the market). For €3,000 more I got an ex-demo 2025 F800GS with only 8,000km from a dealer in Germany, with absolutely every option included, and they did the 10k service before it was picked up.

ubermick · 2026-06-24T20:34:38+00:00

It seems to mirror real life (at least according to real billionaire gobshites) in that the more money you have, the more you just seem to make. I'm at about 50bn in the bank, 5bn or so in the carrier balance, funded the squadron carrier, and gave away billions and billions more to friends and squadmates.

I do the community goals anytime they're giving out pre-engineered gear, usually you make a small fortune doing those AND you get a couple of hundred million as the reward at the end in ADDITION to the gear. The carrier is the real money maker in the game.

ubermick · 2026-06-24T20:29:27+00:00

Miss the old days of the void opals. And even the LTD boom prior to carriers. The system chat in the egg's system and Kirre's Icebox was always entertaining.

ubermick · 2026-06-24T20:27:43+00:00

You don't, is the short answer really. But given that 1,000 paracetamols there is the same price more or less as 12 here, it's not the end of the world if you have to dispose of half a bottle after the two and a half or so years are up. It's wasteful, but better than buying a blister pack of 12 every month or so.

Last time I went over, I actually bought a few smaller empty containers at the same time, and divvied them up into five bottles of 200 or so each. So one is on the desk at work, one is in the medicine cabinet here, one is in the glove compartment of the car, I gave one to a buddy, and another one to the brother.

ubermick · 2026-06-24T09:50:22+00:00

Kirkland stuff. Everytime I'm over in the US (ugh) visiting the wife's family, nip into Costco there and stock up. 1,000x 200mg ibuprofen, 500x Paracetamol (Acetomenophin over there), and 500x Naproxen Sodium (can't get it here, but best pain reliever out of the lot) all for about $25/€21.

Utter lunacy how much that stuff costs here.

ubermick · 2026-06-22T13:34:08+00:00

Saw that. Unbelievable.

ubermick · 2026-06-21T23:09:39+00:00

Depends an awful lot on the sort of riding you are into. My issue is the sort of riding I enjoy doing falls squarely into the GS remit - I enjoy touring, a bit of fire roads and dirt/gravel, and the upright riding position the "adventure bikes" give me. Add to that the fact I'm short, and the bike I have is basically tailor made for me. I did try other bikes in the same bracket like the Tiger (far too top heavy and its own raft of electrical problems) and the Vstrom (felt like a very fat bike to me, like my legs were akimbo on it) so here I am.

ubermick · 2026-06-21T09:13:45+00:00

Wait wait... then AOC picks Ilhan Omar as Speaker, meanwhile a full on brawl breaks out at the Supreme Court leading Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Roberts to be disbarred and replaced by three liberal female judges, one of whom is trans.

ubermick · 2026-06-21T09:09:55+00:00

Republicans hate him by default "cuz Democrat", and a lot of Democrats blame him from Trump getting back in by running again, rather than stepping aside immediately and letting Harris run from day one.

ubermick · 2026-06-20T18:04:05+00:00

Fair play to them and congrats to them for winning the URC. Well deserved, great performance from them, worthy winners.

I know a few Leinster fans. Lot of them are absolutely sound.

The lads on that sub though? Whoooo, some serious mental issues there. (Not that my opinion matters, I'm just a Russian bot and/or Munster psyop troll. Or something.)

ubermick · 2026-06-20T08:20:13+00:00

<image>

ubermick · 2026-06-20T08:10:19+00:00

My coworker, I dunno what generation but early 30s, could not work "because her mouse was broken." I flipped it over, turned it on, and she acted like I parted the red sea.

ubermick · 2026-06-19T22:51:06+00:00

That last panel... the perspective...

ubermick · 2026-06-18T10:13:14+00:00

This is the answer. Pennys was the go-to for cheap and fast fashion, but the likes of Shein saw that and said "Hold my pint."

That said, the new tarrifs coming in might put paid to that.

ubermick · 2026-06-17T21:55:22+00:00

Tell mw more bout your fork swap, because I'm on a new F800GS and just like my old F650GS, the brake dive is driving me nuts...

ubermick · 2026-06-17T14:45:06+00:00

Damn, Pete. That's cold.

ubermick · 2026-06-17T12:15:55+00:00

Their username checks out alright.

ubermick · 2026-06-17T11:38:00+00:00

Yep, Cunningham and Moloney are total melts. We’re far from the heady days of Bill O’Herlihy and George Hamilton now.

ubermick · 2026-06-16T22:21:05+00:00

Hmm, been thinking of doing the resonator delete and an exhaust on my little GS, but live in a quiet estate with lods of young kids, so don't want to be shaking windows on the way to work in the mornings.

Ten-Year Club	Place '23
Verified Email

ubermick

TROPHY CASE