BMW R1250GS
The R1250GS’S moniker suggests tinkering. And, yes, much of the new GS is the same as the old. With the exception of an exceptional new engine…
First ride of the new GS plus expert analysis of that new engine.
UPSTART RIVALS HAVE been circling the R1200GS for a couple of years now, sensing weakness in the pack leader. The king of adventure bikes is still mighty, but it’s been six years since it got watercooling and not much else has changed since then. Rivals such as Ducati’s Multistrada are faster, while Triumph’s Tiger 1200 is more opulent. BMW’S response is focused. Rather than tinker with everything, they’ve
concentrated almost entirely on the engine, giving the GS an extra 84cc and a device the size of a fig roll in the cylinder heads. This little actuator changes the cam profiles, which along with the capacity increase produces 9% more power and a thumping 14% more torque. But is that enough? And will the variable valve timing gadget muck up the world’s most loved torque curve like Honda’s VTEC did with the VFR? We head to the world launch in Portugal to answer the key questions.
Will R1200GS owners feel the difference?
From 3500rpm onwards, yes, definitely. The 1250 accelerates like no GS before it, feeling more like Ducati’s indecently fast Multistrada than the old 1200. Just minutes into the test ride in Portugal, I overtake a car coming out of a village onto a long straight. Pulling out, the GS is at 2500rpm in second and there’s no period of winding up, no hesitation. It bounds off up the road with a muffled farty exhaust note beloved by GS owners the world over. Is that low rev shunt more impressive than the old bike’s? Probably – BMW’S numbers say it undoubtedly is – but from the saddle it’s hard to tell for sure without a back-to-back test. The old GS is no slouch at the bottom end, after all. Higher up, it’s easier to feel the increases in power and torque. Holding the throttle open down the straight, a hard-edged, booming racket chimes in around 4000rpm that sounds more like the old bike with an aftermarket can. The GS pulls strongly enough to test your grip strength if you’re sitting bolt upright like a tootling copper rather than leaning forward into the bars. And then the front wheel lifts gently off the ground and hovers until I kick the quickshifter into third at 7500rpm (the redline stays the same at 7750). Blimey. The old GS never did low sexy wheelies quite like that. Watch out Ducati and KTM. That huge spread of torque and extra 11bhp of peak power makes the new GS even more of an effortless bike to ride quickly on real roads, a point which the engineers were keen to emphasise: the new engine is not all about the 136bhp peak. ‘Power and performance improvements are important of course,’ says R1250GS product manager Reiner Fings. ‘But our main priority was rideability – this is more important than the maximum output. When you ride the bike you might not think it is as spectacular as the maximum power, but when compared with the 1200, the 1250 is gone. The 1200 is not slow, but the 1250 is away.’ Having experienced the way the new bike hauls, I believe that. The other engine improvements over the 1200GS are more subtle, and there’s an element of doubt whether I felt them because they existed, or because BMW engineers kept telling me I should be feeling them. So perhaps the engine is marginally smoother at the bottom end than the old bike because of the phased cam timing (see p50), and perhaps it is quieter because of the change in camchain but if it is, it’s not by much. Chief powertrain engineer Norbert Klauer said there had been a, ‘complete acoustic rework of the base engine,’ but it sounded exactly like a GS to me, albeit with a fruitier top-end. What’s in no doubt is that the new engine feels immaculately refined. At the end of the day we had to traipse through a rush hour town, filtering in first gear for ages then blatting round the odd clear roundabout in second. In that situation the GS is transparent – as a rider you don’t notice it, you just aim between the battered Clios marvelling at how Portuguese seaside towns
manage to go from Irish Pub tourism to Saint-tropez opulence and back again every 100 metres. It’s only afterwards you realise every throttle roll-on and off is syrupy, every time you hold an even throttle there’s never a hint of hunting and whenever you want power, it’s there, gently for the first fraction of a second in case you’re cranked over at an apex, then whoosh. This degree of flawless control makes for wonderfully confident low speed handling, as we’ll find out later on the off-road ride.
Can you feel the variable valve timing gadget clicking on?
No. Never. The Shiftcam changes the inlet camshafts from low-lift to high-lift in milliseconds (see page 50 for a more detailed explanation) so you might imagine there would be a step change. But there isn’t. Accelerate gently from 4000 to 6000rpm and you know, because BMW’S graphs tell you, that at 5000rpm the cams change over. But the change is imperceptible. It’s the same when you wind the throttle open at 2000rpm – the graph says the cams will change as you demand a certain amount more torque, but there’s no step, just a seamless crescendo of acceleration. After a morning’s ride through the hills around Faro, experimenting with different throttle openings, revs and engine load, I couldn’t find one situation where you notice Shiftcam working. It makes Honda’s VTEC in the VFR feel crude (that system keeps one inlet valve shut below 7000rpm, then opens it above). Ducati’s VVT is just as smooth as the BMW’S, but does a slightly different job – it adjusts the valve timing only, not the valve lift.
What else has changed?
BMW left huge swathes of the GS completely alone – the chassis, suspension, geometry, styling, gearbox and most of the electronics are identical to the 1200. Consequently, the 1250GS handles sweetly in Road mode, can be ridden like a maniac in Dynamic Pro mode, and tootled about on in Rain mode. All the controls (including that annoying wheel on the left bar that you hit when going for the indicators) will be familiar to GS owners, as will the riding position, seat adjustments and windscreen. From the saddle, it looks and feels just like the old bike apart from the new TFT screen (we’ll come to that) and some new paint jobs. Within the engine there are changes besides the Shiftcams and bigger capacity. The extra power output means the pistons now need oil squirted on their undersides to keep them cool so there are new oilways, and the ECU is upgraded so it can cope with the extra calculations needed to operate the Shiftcam actuators. Other changes get progressively less significant. On the electronics side, you get a big TFT screen which is sensibly laid out, clear in bright Portuguese sunlight and offers a few layout options you’ll try once then forget about. You can also connect it to your phone should you wish to ruin a lovely ride by having someone yabbering in your ear. Then there’s Hill Start Assist, which is improved and now standard on the base model. If you overpress either brake at a standstill the rear brake is automatically engaged so the bike is held while you fiddle for toll money or whatever. Or you can set it to auto, so if you stop on an incline the bike will be held automatically. It’s better than the old system – as you let the clutch out to pull away, there’s negligible drag as the system lets off the rear brake. There’s also something called Dynamic Brake Control which if you attempt anything like an emergency stop. Besides applying some back brake to help keep the bike stable (like Honda’s Combined Brake System) it also cuts the throttle because some
riders accidently hold it open when slamming on the anchors. I assumed this was designed for numpties, but several racers told me their datalogging shows them doing it without realising, so maybe we’re all numpties. As an option the new GS gets the next generation Dynamic ESA – BMW’S semi-active suspension. An auto function for the rear preload is now available, so rather than adding another crash helmet icon to the suspension screen to add more preload, the auto setting will adjust the ride height for you. As before, you get Road and Rain presets, with options to add Dynamic Pro (firmer suspension) and Enduro Pro (for off-road with knobblies).
What’s it like off-road?
Of course, the vast majority of GS owners won’t take their sparkly £13,500 motorcycle off-road because most of them are not insane. No matter how slowly you’re going, dropping a 250kg motorcycle is usually sub-optimal, even when it doesn’t land on a limb. However, it’s a measure of how important BMW rate the GS’S dirt capabilities (and image) that half the test ride at the launch is spent off-road. For this we’re on the HP variant, complete with ace motorsport colour scheme, longer travel suspension, Metzeler Karoo 3 off-road tyres and the Enduro Pro electronic option. And engine bars. We set off down tracks which at first spew clouds of dust, then turn into what look like dry river beds – all rocks and loose stones that would turn a rambler’s ankle in a blink. Once the initial road-rider-goes-off-road panic dissipates, the GS gradually becomes a comfortable place to be. The riding position for standing is near perfect (BMW adjusted all the levers beforehand) and the low centre of gravity gives the bike an unstoppable confidence-inspiring feel, hammering through the hills like an off-road battering ram. It doesn’t skip and dance over rocks like an enduro bike, instead the huge weight keeps it stable while the suspension works wonders soaking up hits as rocks as big as toasters spring from the dust. The bike jolts, but tracks true. It’s deeply impressive. But is it better than the 1200GS off-road? That would be hard to argue, as all the extra torque and power is rarely required and the throttle feel of the 1200 is so good that any improvements in the new bike aren’t obvious. My only gripe is that because of Enduro Pro, I’m never quite sure what the bike is doing – is that sudden lapse in acceleration because the rear is spinning, or because the traction control has pulled the plug? I feel slightly remote from the throttle, though I’m never brave enough to turn it off just in case the electronics are spending the whole afternoon saving my increasingly overconfident ass. Ultimately, it’s a measure of how proficient the GS is that a bunch of off-road dunces spend four hours blatting round the hills and come back in one piece with not a single bike dropped. So, bearing this in mind, would I take my new GS off-road? Certainly not. I’d take yours though.
Wherefore art thou RT?
BMW’S brilliant tourer gets exactly the same treatment as the GS – ie, new 1250 engine and a few other bits – and though there was one on display at the GS launch, we didn’t get to ride it. That’s a shame because the broad splurge of torque and power delivered by the new engine will lift the RT even further ahead of the sporty touring crowd. It gets all the new GS electronics as standard too, apart from the big TFT screen (the RT keeps its twin analogue dials).
Verdict
The new BMW R1250GS is a significant step up from what was already a bloody brilliant bike, and sales chart topper. There is noticeably more power in the midrange and top-end, which makes it a properly fast motorcycle – it now feels just as quick as Ducati’s lairy Multistrada, and considerably more frisky than Triumph’s Tiger 1200. And because almost everything else remains the same, you get guaranteed class-defining comfort, handling and kit. Other changes are minor, but do no harm in keeping the GS in front of its competition. BMW have sold 700,000 GSS since the first R80 version in 1980. On this evidence, they will sell a good few more.