In 1980 a motorbike was introduced, the desendants of which would go on to change the face of motorcycling forever. It was called the BMW R80 G/S and not only was this ‘adventure tourer’ a radical new concept for two-wheels, its arrival was a pivotal moment in the survival of BMW Motorrad. Quite simply, if the G/S had flopped, there is a very good chance BMW would have pulled the plug on its whole two-wheeled operation and instead focused all its attention on cars. And even nowadays, with Motorrad firmly established as one of the world’s leading motorcycle manufacturers, if you take the GS out of their model range, they would be in a very sticky situation. And it all started thanks to the enthusiasm of one of the firm’s R&D engineers...
Although several of BMW’s employees were instrumental in the G/S’s early days, the ‘father of the G/S’ is generally accepted to be test engineer Laszlo Peres. A very keen off-road rider, Peres built himself dirt bikes powered by BMW’s venerable flat twin engines, with which he competed in various events within Germany. Although he had been creating such bikes since 1964, it was only in the 1970s that other riders noticed his machine, encouraging BMW to build limited-run versions of the GS800 bike for customers who wanted to race it in 1977. It was these bikes that also caught the eye of BMW’s somewhat desperate management.
In the 1970s BMW Motorrad, like all the other European manufacturers, was struggling. Faced with far higher-performing rivals from Japan, bikes such as the R90S and R100RT simply couldn’t cut it. The two-valve boxer twin was no match for the Japanese inline fours and sales were in freefall. In an attempt to stop the decline, a new team took over the struggling Motorrad (motorcycle) division in 1979. It was described as ‘almost dead in the water’ by BMW’s management and, recognising they needed a new model that was both exciting and fresh, development began on the K-series, the firm’s first four cylinder motorcycles. However, these were four years away from production and a quicker fix was needed. The product to inject new life into the brand was discovered in the R&D department, covered in mud.
When Karl Heinz Gerlinger, BMW’s new head of sales and marketing, paid a visit to the R&D department he spotted a boxer-powered off-roader that was even road-registered (in 1978 a new 750cc racing class was introduced that required the bike to be road-registered). BMW’s prayers had been answered and the R80 G/S – which stood for Gelände/Straße (off-road/road in German) – was launched at the Cologne Motorcycle Show at the end of 1980 after less than 21 months of development. It was a huge gamble, but one that paid off.
Promoted under the slogan “Sports machine, touring machine, enduro…Welcome to a motorcycle concept with more than one string to its bow” the G/S introduced the world to a whole new concept of bike. At the time they were called ‘dual sports’ but ultimately the adventure tourer was born. With serious off-road credibility (it won the German championship in 1979 as well as two gold medals in the International Six Day Trial), the G/S was also a refreshingly lightweight, yet still practical, tourer. Weighing just 167kg, it was over 30kg lighter than the R80/7 model and yet promised equal levels of practicality thanks to a 19.3-litre tank and even came with a revolutionary monolever swingarm that combined a hassle-free shaft drive into a cool-looking single sided swingarm. Despite the fact it only made 50bhp, which was far less than rival tourers, BMW had hit the magic formula and the R80 G/S was an instant success.
By the end of 1981, a total of 6631 G/S models had been built, twice the number the factory had estimated and representing one in five BMW motorcycles sold that year. Keen to further demonstrate its off-road credibility, the G/S was entered into the Paris-Dakar Rally, where it gained victory in 1981, 1983, 1984 and 1985 – results that saw the cool ‘big-tank’ Dakar Replica G/S launched in 1984 (only 3000 were built and all sold out instantly). And its blend of off-road ability and touring practicality also caught the eye of adventure riders with Hans Tholstrup (who held the record for fastest circumnavigation of the world on a motorcycle, which he did in 1974 on a BMW) riding a G/S around the world in 1981.
These ‘big trailies’ initially proved more popular on the continent than they did on the British Isles, where they were seen as a bit of an oddball. British riders may have sniggered at this so-called off-road bike but when Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s Long Way Round broadcast in 2004 the die was cast. The pair rode their R1150GSs 19,000 miles and made a TV show and book. It was huge. Sports bikes started to take a back seat and adventure bikes came to the fore. BMW, as you would imagine, took full advantage of the publicity and the GS became a global phenomenon.
By the time the R80 G/S was replaced in BMW’s model range by the R80 GS (note the slight name change) and R100 GS in 1987, the original model had sold an incredible 21,864 units. But more than that, it had created the adventure bike genre, saved Motorrad from closure and kick-started a dynasty of GS models that remain the bedrock on which BMW Motorrad’s success and growth is built upon. It is, without doubt, one of the most influential and important motorcycles ever built. Thank goodness the R&D team weren’t on a coffee break when Karl Heinz Gerlinger popped in for a chat...
Specs:
Engine: 797cc, air-cooled, 4v, SOHC, boxer twin
Power: 50bhp @ 6500rpm
Torque: 56.7Nm @ 5000rpm
Seat height: 860mm
Weight: 167kg (dry)
