Happy Birthday GS!

Adventure is defined as ‘an unusual, exciting and possibly dangerous activity such as a trip or an experience or the experience produced by such an activity’. Charles Boorman precisely understood the phenomenon when he decided to travel from London to New York via Western Europe, passing through Russia and Canada. Back in 2004, the iconic ‘Long way round’ 30,000 plus kilometre adventure was pulled off on a couple of motorcycles. The motorcycles in question were none other than BMW R 1150 GS’. In fact, for last 40 years, the definition of adventure on two-wheels has been two words long - Gelande Strasse. GS in short and off-road/on-road in simple English. And the legend still continues to grow strong by each passing iteration. In fact, in 2018, BMW sold over 30000 R 1200 GS in Europe alone! And the total head count for the GS globally is 1.2 million which is a big feat considering the sticker. The success has seen the GS badge evolve. You not only get the big-bored, boxer powered R variants today but even middleweight parallel-twin powered F’s, and of course the tiny G 310 GS as well. Not just that; BMS also introduced the R nineT Urban G/S – a neo retro scrambler-ish variant of the R nineT, featuring an Uber smooth boxer engines combined with classic looks.

What’s next for the GS you ask? Well, we are expecting BMW to launch the F 900 GS which will share its platform with the recently launched F 900 R and F 900 XR. Other than that, of course, we’ll also see the launch of the BS6-compliant G 310 GS. The flagship R 1250 GS is expected to follow up with some tiny updates as well sometime later this year. But until then, here’s to many more pathbreaking innovations including the revolutionary Telelever and Paralever suspensions. Happy 40th BMW GS!