THE BIG READ

40 YEARS OF THE GS

‘WE DESIGNED THE

GS BY ACCIDENT IN
TWENTY
MINUTES’
The designer of the original BMW
R80G/S tells us the untold story
of how the legend really started

The prototype Note the re-routed

shows the way exhausts here

The new bike sparked

major press interest

34 | May 6 2020 www.motorcyclenews.com

 Cobbled together from
other bikes, it was a two
wheeled Frankenstein’s
monster that emerged
By Jordan Gibbons
I
NEWS EDITOR
t’s exactly 40 years since the
first ever BMW GS went on
sale: the R80G/S. No one knew
it would go on to be the most
popular bike in the company’s
history and that it would
help to change the course of
motorcycling forever. Over the years
various tales have come out about
the development of the machine
and where the idea came from, but
the truth of it – the very seed of the
concept – all came about because one
man didn’t like the weather.
Rainy days
In 1969 Hans Muth was a designer
at Ford, who were based in the
Rhineland, and while he enjoyed the
job the weather was rubbish. All of
his friends told him he should move
to Bavaria for the mountains and it
helped that the local car company
was on the up and up. Before long
Muth upped sticks to Munich and
found himself as the Head of Interior
Design for BMW’s car division. As a
treat, he bought a cottage high up in
the mountains and so he could get
there, he bought one of those new-
fangled 4x4 things (don’t worry –
this will make sense later). Soon after
though, his attention switched back
to two wheels.
G/S hits the trails
“I used to see these bikes they
made and they were dreadful,”
says Muth. “So I went to the head of
in Wales in 1983 motorcycling technical development
to ask ‘who designs your bikes?’
and he said ‘we do’. I told him ‘yes
I can tell’, so he said ‘well if you like
motorcycles so much, you do it!’
and I did.”
Muth’s first proper go at it was the
R90S – a bikini fared masterpiece
that was BMW’s first ever sportsbike
PICTURES BMW, HANS MUTH
and is widely considered the
machine that saved the motorcycle
business from bankruptcy. In fact it
was so good, the R90S one-twoed the
Muth with his first AMA Superbike race at Daytona
GS800 prototype although with time to reflect Muth
is rather disparaging of the machine
The bike saved
BMW from doom
describing it as an “older lady in an
orange bikini with black stockings
and high heels.”
Pressure point
In 1977 BMW Motorrad faced its
own problems: saddled with an
aging range of air-cooled boxers and
perceived to produce only expensive
tourers, their’s was an image in total
contrast to its ‘performance driving
machines’ car division. Worse, the
hoped-for solution, the all-new,
high tech, liquid-cooled K-series,
remained years away. By autumn
1978 BMW were looking around for
ideas and did a major study on what
bikes of the future young people
might want to buy. They wanted
something ‘pure, light and modular’
was the reply – the same things they
want now, notes Muth. But what
could they do that was new?
“I came out of a meeting with
Hardy Müller [in charge of product
planning] and we sat by my desk
trying to think of new ideas,” says
Muth. “When I looked out of my
window and parked right there was
O ‘Isaid…‘let’s
makeatwo-wheel
RangeRover’
andsowedid’
this Range Rover I’d bought. It was
well made, comfortable, could go
off-road and also go long distances.
“I turned to Müller and said ‘let’s
make a two-wheeled one of those’
and we did.
“We spent about 20 minutes
sketching the idea out and the whole
thing came together entirely by
accident. There was no marketing
request, no official project. We
actually thought the management
would hate it but we knew the
testing department would love it
Continued over
65 years of MCN May 6 2020 | 35
THE BIG READ

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because of their own experiments.”

The G/S made a
Muddy future new home for the
At the same time, following the
R80 boxer
announcement of a new 750cc+
category in the German enduro
championship, BMW stepped up
its interest. First, BMW’s technical
director, Hans-Gunter von der
Marwitz asked Laverda to create
a prototype enduro racer based
around a R60 boxer engine. At the
same time, separately, another
dirt-racing BMW employee, head
test rider Laszlo Peres, built his own
‘home-brewed’ boxer enduro, a bike
he rode to second in the German
championship the following year.
“We knew the testing department
had been messing with their bikes,”
says Muth. “But in truth it just
wasn’t a big story for the company
at the time. They had even had the
monoshock system ready for two
years but the management couldn’t
give it the go ahead.
“At the time BMW didn’t have
much money for development, so we
borrowed their bits (as well as parts
off existing machines) to create the The 1980 R80 G/S
very first concept.” created a whole
new biking genre
Big changes
Then a senior management change
arrived at just the right time. Karl-
Heinz Gerlinger joined in early 1979 Finished product iconic motorcycles of all time then. be tested properly, including the
and was tasked with either saving And the result, all wrapped up in Not a bad record, eh? trademark high exhaust, and the
the whole BMW Motorrad division – brash BMW Motorsport white, red rest is simply history.
or closing it. By this point Muth had and blue, and unusually launched to The ‘Red Devil’
taken his idea to Ekkart Rapelius, the press first in Avignon, France, As you might expect the original G/S ‘The new GS is
chief of the test department and on September 1, 1980 before being was just a bitsa – made from parts too big and heavy’
Rüdiger Gutsche, Manager of publicly unveiled at the Cologne of existing bikes and things that lay There are two camps with the
Development. Show two weeks later, caused a around the testing workshop. The current incarnation of R1250GS
“BMW now have this story sensation – sort of. frame, subframe and swingarm – those who say it’s a natural
that involves them finding this In truth, the world didn’t quite came from a BMW R65, which was progression of the original machine
prototype in the testing department know how to react. Remember, a smaller touring bike BMW made and those who say the only thing
and declaring ‘this is the future,” ‘adventure bikes’ didn’t exist in at the time. The R65 mainframe it shares is the name. Muth is
says Muth. “Sadly it’s simply not 1980. But with the press surprised was the same size as all the others, somewhere in the middle.
true. Politics has shaped the whole by its off-road ability and reassured enabling them to fit an R80/7 “It can’t be the same idea because Complexity was kept to a minimum at the start
story. Everything there was a little by its road handling and comfort, engine into it but the subframe and the base idea is having a motorcycle
accident – zigzags and the rest. respect quickly grew. The public swingarm were shorter. The small that you can travel with off-road,”
There was no single direction to was more impressed. By the end petrol tank off the R65 was also used, says Muth. “We developed what I
anything we designed.” of its first year, 6631 G/Ss had been as well as a single seat that was fitted call a mountain goat – it was slim
Contrary to popular belief, G/S sold, more than twice the number to Police spec R100RTs. and light. It’s too big now and too
also originally stood for Gentleman’s originally hoped for. The forks were the standard ‘ATE’ heavy with too much plastic. Now
Scrambler but Muth left before the And what came of Muth after this? units from an R100/7 that had been it’s a travel machine but it followed
project was completed. In a bid to Did he fade away into obscurity? Not extended by a member of the test the trend of the consumers, so I
retain BMW’s traditional virtues the quite. Shortly afterwards he founded team who liked to take his machine understand why it has changed.
concept was softened to something Target Design and not long after off-road. The wheels were also off an “Things are very different for
more road focused, with a broader that he got a phonecall from Japan. R100/7 although the front wheel was designers now. I respect what they
appeal. It also led to the new bike’s “Design us something special,” relaced with a 21in rim off Herbert achieve with all the pressure from
designation – G for Gelande (or they said and so he did: the Suzuki Scheck’s ISDT bike. A few other bits upstairs but it’s not a job I would like
‘terrain’) and S for Strasse (street). Katana. So that’s two of the most were cobbled together so it could to do myself.” Gentleman’s Scrambler or Gelande/Strasse?

36 | May 6 2020 www.motorcyclenews.com


O ‘We knew the
testing guys had
been messing
with their bikes’
DAKAR DAYS
A DEMON IN THE DUST
There were BMWs in the Paris-
Dakar right from the beginning,
including a privateer entry in 1979
on a stock R65! BMW’s first proper
entry to the Paris-Dakar rally
came in 1980, when BMW France
entered two bikes. The star rider for
the team was motocross hot shot
Hubert Auriol, but he was forced to
leave the race halfway through due
to a gearbox failure. Cyril Neveu
won for the second year in a row on
his Yamaha XT500.
That Range Rover In 1981 BMW stepped things up,
harks back to handing over three machines to
Muth’s concept tuning specialists HPN. They rebuilt
the bikes from the ground up adding
The G/S ruled the
Dakar during the
early 1980s
Auriol and Rahier
celebrate Dakar glory
lengthened twin shock swingarms,
braced frames and huge 42l tanks
that incorporated the airbox. In
the process they gave it five extra
horses, 70mm more suspension
travel either end and managed to
lop 17kg off the dry weight. Auriol
flew and beat the closest XT500 to
Dakar by three hours.
The following year was a disaster
with the entire team out by the rest
day with gearbox faults, but the
BMW operation put it behind them
and went on to win the next three
Dakars on the bounce, cementing
the GS into the off-road history
books in the process.
65 years of MCN May 6 2020 | 37
THE BIG READ
1980-1987

BOXER
R80G/S

TRICKS
Even the G/S creators couldn’t Power 50bhp @ 6500rpm

have predicted its huge legacy Wet weight 186kg

Key changes Very first model, from 1984 a ‘Paris
PRICE THEN £3850
Dakar’ version was available, which came with a 32l
tank signed by factory rider Gaston Rahier.
PRICE NOW £12,500

2007-2010 2004-2007
R1200GS R1200GS

Power 105bhp @ 7500rpm Power 98bhp @ 7000rpm

Wet weight 229kg
Key changes Engine mods boost power, improved
PRICE THEN £9195 Wet weight 225kg
Key changes Uprated, enlarged engine, reduced
PRICE THEN £9235
ergonomics, revised styling and instruments, but
no ground-breaking updates.
PRICE NOW £6495 weight, new suspension, new digital instruments,
CAN bus wiring, new styling.
PRICE NOW £4995

2010-2012 2013-2017
R1200GS R1200GS

Power 110bhp @ 7750rpm Power 125bhp @ 7750rpm

Wet weight 238kg
Key changes New DOHC ‘Twin cam’ cylinder heads,
PRICE THEN £10,275 Wet weight 238kg
Key changes All-new liquid-cooled engine, Paralever
PRICE THEN £11,650
new head covers, but otherwise largely unchanged
from the previous generation.
PRICE NOW £8495 swaps side, electronic riding modes, radial brakes,
adjustable windscreen, new styling.
PRICE NOW £10,490

38 | May 6 2020 www.motorcyclenews.com

1987-1990 1990-1993
R80GS & R100GS R80 & R100 GS PD

Power 50bhp @ 6500rpm (60bhp @ 6500rpm) Power 50bhp @ 6500rpm (60bhp @ 6500rpm)
Wet weight 210kg
Key changes The second generation model got
PRICE THEN £4249 Wet weight 215kg
Key changes : New frame-mountedfairing, new
PRICE THEN £5450
a Paralever, cross-spoke wire wheels, uprated
suspension/brakes, bigger tank and flyscreen (on 100).
PRICE NOW 7495 switchgearfromK-series,new shock,clocks, filler
cap, silencer,seat,and highorlow frontmudguard.
PRICE NOW £7950

1999-2004 1993-1999
R1150GS R850GS & R1100GS

Power 85bhp @ 6750rpm Power 70bhp @ 6250rpm (80bhp @ 6750rpm)

Wet weight 249kg
Key changes Enlarged engine, six-speed (from 5)
PRICE THEN £8200 Wet weight 240kg
Key changes All-new model with oil-cooled engine.
PRICE THEN £8295
gearbox, shorter Paralever, new exhaust, new front
fairing with asymmetric lights, enlarged oil cooler.
PRICE NOW £4500 All new chassis with Telelever front and Paralever
rear. New styling with first ‘beak’.
PRICE NOW 3295

2017-2019 2019-Current
R1200GS R1250GS

Power 125bhp @ 7750rpm Power 136bhp @ 7750rpm

Wet weight 244kg
Key changes Uprated electronics package, updated
PRICE THEN £12,370 Wet weight 249kg
Key changes Enlarged ‘ShiftCam’ engine takes
PRICE THEN £13,415
styling to make it sharper and more focussed, uprated
Dynamic ESA suspension option. TFT dash optional.
PRICE NOW £11,495 capacity to 1254cc, TFT dash now standard PRICE NOW £13,415
fitment, uprated electronics package.

65 years of MCN May 6 2020 | 39