BMW R1200 GS

The term 'modern classic' may be an overused term, perhaps not quite on the scale of 'genius' however, by any standards BMW's R1200GS surely falls within this category.

BMW have been building bikes for over 70 years - you'd think they just about got it right but every now and again they pull something out of the hat where the sum of the parts are very much greater than the whole.

Until Messrs Boorman and McGregor did their 'Long Way Round' trip, BMW were probably best known (in the non-motorcycling world) for making big expensive touring bikes - either owned by middle aged blokes, or painted white and used by the police.

In fact the original GS concept was developed in the late 1970s, and defined the 'Big Trailie' .

GS stands for Gelände/Straße - which is German for offroad/ street.
The earliest model made came out in 1980 and was an 800cc model which differed very little from its road counterparts except for having a slightly wacky paintjob and an orange seat, and being a bit 'ruggedised'.

The 'R' series engine is BMW's trademark 'horizontally opposed twin' (or 'Boxer') based on a 1920s aircraft engine. Capacities have increased over the years and instead of having twin carburettors and entirely air-cooled, modern engines have computerised fuel injection, incorporate an oil cooler, eight valves and two spark plugs!

The Germans have a bit of a thing for the boxer engine configuration - it was the powerplant for the original VW Beetle, Camper and the Porsche 911.

The R1200GS is still a 'landmark' machine.
For starters it's 30Kg lighter than the preceding R1150GS model and features 'helical gearing' (to overcome the notorious 'clunky' gearbox of previous BMWs).

The weight reduction is partially achieved by use of 'sensible' materials - the petrol tank, for example, is now plastic, although what *looks* like the tank is actually a plastic cover.
What this results in is a lowering of the centre of gravity, which for a bike, is generally regarded as a good thing!

Although tipping the scales at around the 200Kg mark, it tends to be a little on the heavy side, as soon as you're moving, this seems to disappear, and from personal experience, feels about the same as a 500cc bike I had which was 25% lighter.

Now if you've never ridden a BMW, you may be asking yourself - so what?

My previous BMW was a ten year old R1100R - whilst it had a lower saddle, the geometry of the steering head and the steering damper made this quite difficult to push backwards and forwards in confined spaces such as a garage. (It only really felt safe if you were sitting astride the bike)

The lighter weight, wider handle bars and new steering geometry means that the GS can be pushed and shoved whilst standing alongside it.

The GS also comes with a centre stand as standard (which would cost you more than a hundred quid if fitted to the R1200R model!)

Rather like 4WD cars, around 90% of GS users would never dream of taking their bike anywhere dirty, and even fewer would repeat a 'long way round' treck.

The torque from the engine is almost unbelievable, and whilst the top-end speed is nowhere near the same as your typical Japanese 'sportsbike' it more than makes up for this in handling.

Despite my local council's obsession with installing traffic calming, the standards of your average city road are little short of appalling - the GS's offroad pretentions take this in it's stride.

BMW has always had a bit of an image problem - probably due at least, to their bikes being jolly expensive. You don't see many teenagers running around on them (complicated rules restricting power and weight of machines notwithstanding).

A typical GS with standard equipment and options will still set you back the fat end of ten grand (sterling!) whereas a Jap sportsbike is roughly half the cost.

So why would the R1200GS be BMWs best selling model in over seventy years - simply because it's the most fun to ride, and it's one of the most versatile machines they've built.

In its favour - BMWs tend to hold their value better than your 'average' bike - partly because if you have one, you tend to look after it better, and partly because high millage isn't seen as such a problem - 45,000 miles isn't considered excessive - indeed, many would argue they're not run in properly below 20,000 miles!

Typical owners are in their forties, like to think they know a thing or two about riding, and like to kid themselves that if only they could take a six month sabbatical from their jobs at the bank, persuade the wife that it would be easy to look after the kids in their absence, and with a bit o sponsorship they probably COULD make it to New York, Dakar, Melbourne or Capetown without too much trouble (the reality is often that as soon as it looks like rain, or getting a bit chilly it's back to the car!)

From my point of view, these are about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on.

There is, however, a long-term fly in the BMW ointment.

There are increasingly stringent emissions laws in Europe.

It's widely anticipated that there will be at least one more variant of the aircooled engine, to be announced in 2008. It's highly questionable whether or not the GS will be able to remain in production - or whether BMW will have to continue to develop the lighter leaner engines used in the K, F and X series machines.

That - of course, would be good news for existing GS users because there will always be a market for the 'original' configuration.
Just about the only criticism which can currently be levelled at the bike is that it isn't best suited to the shorter rider.

I'm just 5 foot 7 inches tall - or 170cm, which is, by European standards, relatively short for a bloke. There *is* a 'low saddle' option (probably initially developed for women, but I don't know many short legged chaps who'd appreciate being told they had a 'girlie' seat!) If it wasn't for this I'd find it almost impossible to get on and off the bike!
A minor niggle concerns that of the toolkit;

BMW used to be famed for the quality and range of 'standard toolkits' - it was suggested you could just aboud do a full 'engine strip' with what they supplied, and the quality was second to none (none of your Japanese spanners made out of 'cheese')
Alas - these days are now behind us, if you're serious about maintaining your own bike, you'll need to but at least a set of 'star sockets' and a few combination spanners (wrenches) - to be fair, these machines require very little maintenance nowadays, but there isn't very much you can do with the standard toolset except adjust the suspension and possibly change the occasional blown bulb.

So - in summary;

PROS: fantastic ride, excellent riding position, immensely forgiving machine, easy to ride and is more than capable of tackling forestry commission tracks. Tends to keep its value because it's only affordable by 'sensible' middle agers.

Cons: Expensive, not ideal if you're under six foot and in spite of the weight saving, is still a bit heavy.