I’ve spent more time in the saddle of BMW’s big GS than on any other press motorcycle I’ve ridden. Actually, I have owned one of the German boxers in the past, an original R80 G/S, which I had bought new in 1986. Having been introduced in 1980, the G/S was the grandfather of all adventure bikes. My ’86 model was six years into its life cycle, yet it was nearly identical to the original — changes came at a much slower pace back in the early 1980s. There were also very few variations; in ’86 you could get the standard G/S, or the Paris-Dakar version, with a larger 32-litre fuel tank, a solo seat and a luggage rack. The latter is the one I had.
Forty-four years and several generations later, evolution has produced the most radically redesigned and most potent GS ever: the 2024 R1300GS, a direct descendant of the R80 G/S. We flew to Málaga, Spain, where we spent one day on the road, and a half day off road on the big ADV bike. We learned that while it’s still very much a GS, it is a very different GS.
The Nuts and Bolts
As its moniker suggests, the GS’s liquid-cooled boxer has grown in displacement to 1,300 cc from 1,254 cc, via a larger bore, but a shorter stroke (106.5 x 73 mm vs. 102.5 x 76 mm), though it has the same 9,000-rpm rev limit. The engine is 3.9 kilos lighter, and to improve the engine’s weight distribution, while also giving it a symmetrical appearance (boxer cylinders are inherently offset), the left cylinder has its cam drive at the rear, and
