Author Topic: My first ride off road on a GS.  (Read 4338 times)

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Offline TomL

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My first ride off road on a GS.
« on: July 12, 2019, 12:23:09 pm »
My first ride off road on a GS back in the 80's. BMW had set up a bit of land near the Ring and let us play on these boxer things. We thought that they would never catch on. We were on a BMW rider course at the ring at the time.


No doubt some of you will know exactly which model it is.

Of course I was on a totally inappropriate bike for the Ring

I was chairman of the London section of the BMW club at the time, but don't hold that against me.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2019, 08:03:43 am by richtea »
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Offline Matt

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Re: My first ride off road on a GS.
« Reply #1 on: July 12, 2019, 05:30:49 pm »
Wow, great pics Tom. They look far smaller back then than the things inhabiting the showroom at the moment!

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Offline Phmode

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Re: My first ride off road on a GS.
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2019, 08:45:11 pm »
That's because they were much smaller. Even my R1150GS was a tiddler compared to the current 1250.

And asfor off-roading in leathers Tom, what a hoot ;)

Offline drumwrecker

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Re: My first ride off road on a GS.
« Reply #3 on: July 12, 2019, 11:15:15 pm »
I can remember the first GS800 coming out. All trail riding members of out club couldn't believe anyone would want to take something that heavy and cumbersome off road, after all everybody used 250cc or at the most 350 for trail riding. Isn't it amazing how thing change over time.
Was chatting with TomL today about this very thing. Didn't BMW win the Dakar with it but it was Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor who made them sell?
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Offline black-k1

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Re: My first ride off road on a GS.
« Reply #4 on: July 13, 2019, 01:44:22 am »
In my opinion,  that's the only GS worth having and if I was planning a round the world trip  (and wasn't getting bikes for free like Ewan and Thingy) it's definitely one of the bikes I'd consider,  even now, 30+ years on.

Great pictures Tom. :D
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Offline Phmode

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Re: My first ride off road on a GS.
« Reply #5 on: July 13, 2019, 10:26:16 am »
...and, my recollection of the planning phase of The Long Way Round was that Charlie was desperate to use KTM's (cos they are kings off-road) but Ewan favoured BM's but let Charlie have his way.

The subsequent negotiations amounted to a resounding one word response from KTM. 'NO!'

BMW jumped at the chance and the rest, as they say, is history..

Offline TomL

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Re: My first ride off road on a GS.
« Reply #6 on: July 13, 2019, 11:23:58 pm »
That's because they were much smaller. Even my R1150GS was a tiddler compared to the current 1250.

And asfor off-roading in leathers Tom, what a hoot ;)
I'm riding off road in leathers because I was doing a BMW course at the Nurburgring and a man from BMW comes along and drags us off to see and try these things called R80GS's and I had to ride in my Ring clothes. You'll notice that I'm even wearing my Schuberth flip front lid which they gave us all to wear on the course.

Nasty bit of scrubby mud that they taped off for us to ride on.
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Offline black-k1

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Re: My first ride off road on a GS.
« Reply #7 on: July 14, 2019, 12:39:47 am »
...and, my recollection of the planning phase of The Long Way Round was that Charlie was desperate to use KTM's (cos they are kings off-road) but Ewan favoured BM's but let Charlie have his way.

The subsequent negotiations amounted to a resounding one word response from KTM. 'NO!'

BMW jumped at the chance and the rest, as they say, is history..

"Thingy" was definitely up for KTMs but a now long-term unemployed KTM marketting man said NO! :D

Old air cooled twins would still have been a better bet though! Small enough that they could easily have fit a couple of spare bikes in the support vehicles but large enough to carry luggage. :D
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Re: My first ride off road on a GS.
« Reply #8 on: July 14, 2019, 09:09:13 am »
Eyes ful, of concentration, lips tight as the hands on the grips, enjoyment was not the objet.  But the pictures are nice.
Embrace the wind.

Offline Phmode

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Re: My first ride off road on a GS.
« Reply #9 on: July 14, 2019, 10:53:46 am »
Old air cooled twins would still have been a better bet though! Small enough that they could easily have fit a couple of spare bikes in the support vehicles but large enough to carry luggage. :D

I don't think even BM would have supported a RTW ride on models they no longer sold.

The 1150GS's used on TLWR were air/oil cooled and about as simple a load-lugging 'big' bike as you could get.

Almost anywhere in the known world, the girl from the local chippy can fix an 1150 with not much more than a fish slice and a bucket of used chip oil and any farmer worth his salt can re-weld the sub-frames when they (always) break.

By the time it was TLWD, BM were flogging 1200GS's and so the complexity grew.

Either way it made BM's fortune and sold a gazillion GS's to RTW wannabe's.

As for support vehicles...you mean it wasn't just the two of 'em and the camera man?  ;)

Offline drumwrecker

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Offline TomL

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Re: My first ride off road on a GS.
« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2019, 11:40:42 am »
Without the G/S BMW Motorrad would have gone to the wall.  https://silodrome.com/brief-history-bmw-r80-gs/
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Re: My first ride off road on a GS.
« Reply #12 on: July 15, 2019, 08:24:48 pm »
If you ride a GS you need a lot of friends...

in case you ride into a ditch,

... or fill it up with diesel instead of petrol.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2019, 09:30:24 pm by richtea »

Offline Swindon Andy

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Re: My first ride off road on a GS.
« Reply #13 on: July 15, 2019, 11:38:23 pm »
I had a GS1250 loaner today. It surprised me, a very capable and swift bike. Loads of torque. It felt like a diesel. I don't really like the boxer engine characteristics, so can't see me ever getting one, but I can see why there are so many about. Was glad to get back on my 1300S, after the GS it felt like i was on  sportsbike.

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Re: My first ride off road on a GS.
« Reply #14 on: July 16, 2019, 11:43:27 am »
I had exactly the same reaction to the one I rode