Is this the GOAT of ADVs? | BMW R 1300 GS Review - video Dailymotion

Cycle World

BMW is often credited with the  invention of the adventure motorcycle, and the German company's big GS models have always been the gold standard of the ADV segment. Now, the all new R 1300 GS is slimmer and lighter, but does that take away from its ability to do all things better than most? Is it still the king adventure motorcycles? We put it to the test to find out.  Check out the story at https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/bmw-r-1300-gs-review/  Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6CLI74xvMBFLDOC1tQaCOQ Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/ Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld

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00:00This is the culmination of 44 years of BMW's GS, the Gallande Strasse, which means terrain

00:07and street. This is the R1300 GS, and it's the latest generation of BMW's big boxer-powered

00:14adventure touring motorcycle, a segment that BMW gets a lot of credit for creating. Today,

00:19I'm going to take this GS for a ride and find out if it's still the king of, well, the Gallande

00:24and the Strasse. Every motorcycle segment has its god-tier machine, and for adventure motorcycling,

00:32that's BMW's GS. And the original GS was the R80 GS, introduced as a production model in 1981

00:40after some BMW employees built their own race bikes with an R80 engine in it. It proved to be a great

00:46bike on and off-road, and thus, a legend was born. From the start, the GS defined the adventure bike,

00:52and it still continues to do so. In the last 45 years, the ADV segment has become one of the most

00:58popular due to the versatility of do-anything-go-anywhere nature of bikes with long-leg power

01:04and range, suspension that smooths out the roughest pastures of asphalt and dirt,

01:08all with comfort to stay on the bike for long travel days, weeks at a time. Is the GS still the

01:15king of all things? Well, let's start with touring. There is nothing like an ADV in the motorcycle world.

01:22It is a swiss army knife on two wheels. Every other segment of motorcycling is more specialized and

01:28more focused. Sport bikes, they're meant to go fast and handle well. Cruisers are big on comfort,

01:34and dirt bikes, well, they're made for the dirt. But an ADV has to do all of these things. And one

01:40thing a big bore ADV has to do well is tour. Historically, BMW's GSs have been mile crushers,

01:48but over the years they've grown bigger and bigger and bigger. Now with BMW slimming down the R1300GS,

01:55is it still a great tour? So like I mentioned before, BMW has slimmed up the GS quite a bit for

02:03this new generation. Bodywork, the tank area, everything is much slimmer and narrower, and you

02:10sit on it and you don't feel like you're behind this big gigantic bubble anymore. But wind protection

02:16is still really, really nice as you'd expect from a GS. They knew that they could not slim it up,

02:23but lose protection that they've always offered for adventure touring. Because that's one thing about

02:28that's great about GSs is that a lot of people use them for long, long distance rides. And if

02:34if you get fatigued from buffeting and wind on your body and cold and brain, it's not going to work

02:43for a GS. A GS has to protect you the whole time. And it does. It's got this really tiny beak on it now,

02:49and they've really worked it over with the windscreen. They got some like winglets on the

02:55windscreen down below. And then, of course, you have an adjustable windscreen up and down,

03:00which is really nice. Some of the models in the GS 1300 lineup have different size windscreens,

03:05like the Trophy. It's a little more off-road oriented, so it has a smaller screen. This

03:10triple black edition has a little bit larger screen, and you can get larger screens that are

03:16even bigger for touring. But overall, wind protection from the screen is really great. But

03:22even your knees and your legs are pretty well protected. Of course, your shins and everything

03:27are always well protected. You just got these two gigantic cylinders hanging down in front of them.

03:32So in terms of wind protection for touring, that's really great. Ergonomics, of course,

03:38it's a big roomy motorcycle. It always has been. For me, I'm 5'10". I have a 30-31 inch inseam.

03:46It's a little tight with my feet on the foot pegs with actual off-road boots. If you were wearing

03:52touring boots or street shoes, riding shoes, I think for my height, that'd be great. But with boots,

03:59I would prefer the seat in the higher position. With the optional $695 adaptive vehicle ride height

04:04control, the seat height can be as low as 31.5 inches at a standstill. Reach the bars, super

04:12comfortable, really great. Gets you in a nice attack position for the street. They do have some

04:17adjustment rolling forward and back. There's no forward and back adjustment on this bike because

04:22it has a new system to remove some of the input from the telelever system to the bars.

04:29Now it has adaptive cruise control, which is really nice because you can set it at a speed

04:33and it'll hold a distance from the vehicle in front of you. It also has some crash avoidance

04:38features that let you know if you're getting too close to the vehicle in front of you. It has got some

04:43rear-facing radar to let you know that people are in your blind spots. It's got all these other great

04:48updated features that are really nice to let you know what's going on all the time and keep you

04:53informed, which is an important part of touring. Another important part of touring is the engine

04:57obviously. It needs to be smooth. It needs to have plenty of power. It needs to move down the road

05:02effortlessly while you're going along long distances. BMW Boxer at highway speeds has always been

05:09fairly smooth and fairly nice to ride with. And this one is the same thing. You do get a little bit of

05:15vibrations in certain RPMs and it's a boxer twin. It's going to have some of that. But once you get

05:21it up in the highway speed and you knock it into about 3000 RPM in top gear and cruising along, it is

05:29buttery smooth and it's not going to be fatiguing. You're not going to feel any sort of vibrations. This is

05:34it's just really, really nice. And of course, it just moves down the road like it's nothing.

05:40And why does it move down the road so easily? Well, on the CycleWorld Dyno, the R1300GS put out

05:45128.4 horsepower at 7700 RPM and 96.8 pound-feet of torque at 6400 RPM. There's over 80 pound-feet of

05:57torque available at 2000 RPM and it stays above that level until 8000 RPM. That flat torque curve

06:06pushes the 566 pounds of the fully loaded GS like it's nothing. Now we know the R1300GS is still a

06:14great tour. So what do you tour to do? You tour to get to the twisty roads up in the mountains and

06:20that's what we're going to do next. It's clear that the R1300GS hasn't lost any of its touring

06:28chops, but that's just one of the many pieces that have made the GS a legend in ADV. What about when

06:33the road starts to twist and turn? Does that boxer twins low center of gravity and the updated towel

06:39lever Evo front suspension still deliver when the ride gets sporty? Just like the 1250 and even the 1200

06:46before it, the R1300GS is a great handler. But it's not just that it's a great handler, but it's an

06:54easy handling bike. It just does it. You don't have to really think about how to take a corner on this

07:01motorcycle. You can lean to the inside, you can counter steer, you can lean to the outside. As long

07:06as you're aiming it where you want it to go, it'll go around the corner. It's really a such a composed

07:13balanced chassis because of the tail lever and the pair level suspension. It has no chassis upset no

07:20matter what you do with a throttle or what you do with your body position. It just goes around the

07:24corner. So whether you grab a handful of throttle coming out of the corner or you're grabbing a

07:28fistful of brakes going into the corner, the bike never dives or lifts. You know, I mean it'll

07:35wheelie out of a corner if you really jam on the on the gas and pop the clutch or something like that.

07:41But in terms of chassis balance, the R1300GS, there's no adventure bike that can even touch it.

07:49So our bike is fitted with Karoo 4 adventure bike tires from Metzler. And these are more aggressive

07:55off-road tires than the stock option. These are factory options that you can put on the bike,

08:00but the stock tires are definitely more street biased. And on the street, you do lose some

08:08handling prowess with these tires. They're chunkier, they're blockier. They have kind of a stepped

08:13feel as you're turning in. It's a little vague until you're used to it. But like I said, this bike

08:19is such a good handling bike. If you trust that they'll hold, which they will, and you get over

08:24that weirdness and feeling in the very beginning, and you just lay it over on that side, all is good.

08:29So our triple black model is also equipped with the dynamic package, which gives it electronic

08:37suspension adjustment, BMW ESA. And when you put it in dynamic mode, not only does it add more oomph

08:44to the throttle response, and it makes everything kind of sharpened up, it stiffens up the suspension

08:49a little bit, gives it a really sporty feel. Switch over to road, and it adds a little bit of plushness,

08:55a little bit more comfort when you're doing long distance touring and stuff like that.

08:59But when you get in the mountains like these, switch it over dynamic, and it firms it up,

09:03and it feels so much more sportier. Then when you go to the other modes, which we really haven't

09:08tested too much yet, which is Enduro and Enduro Pro, things change up for off-road use. But dynamic

09:14setting, definitely worth the added cost just to increase the handling that much more on an already

09:20great handling motorcycle. Another option worth looking into is BMW's ASA, or Automatic Shift

09:27Assistant. Our test unit wasn't fitted with this $970 option, but two other CW editors have used the

09:34system and were very impressed with the clutchless system that also allows for fully automatic shifting.

09:42Making the R1300GS lighter and slimmer has absolutely improved it. It's truly one of the easiest to ride

09:48motorcycles on the road thanks to that great boxer engine and a supremely stable and balanced chassis.

09:54But what about the other half of the ADV equation? How is the R1300GS in the dirt? Yes, it may have

10:00gotten smaller in physical size, but can it really perform as well as the competition in the dirt?

10:06The competition has risen the bar when the going gets tough. On the dirt roads, the GS is a joy. It's

10:12now slimmer and the ergos are more suited to standing. Opt for the trophy edition and you'll get taller bars,

10:17bigger foot pegs, and adjustable foot controls for an even better off-road cockpit. A change to

10:22Enduro Pro mode sets the suspension up for bumps, removes rear ABS, and lets the rear tires spin as

10:28much as you want. Just opt for the Karoo 4 tires and spoked wheels and you will have the ability to

10:33shred any fire road you come across. And the R1300GS won't stop there. You can go just about anywhere you

10:41want to take it, even if you don't have the trophy edition. Our triple black model has 8 tenths of an inch

10:47less suspension travel than the trophy, but we only missed it while jumping or bouncing through

10:51whipped out sections of trail. It's really impressive where the GS can take you if you

10:55have the bravery and skill. This is the best off-road GS so far.

11:03BMW has absolutely improved the off-road capability of the GS 1300 over the previous 1250. While the 1250 was

11:12no slouch when it came to being a big bore ADV off-roader, this got better, mainly because of

11:19the slimness of the bike. You can move around on the bike much easier. Your legs aren't splayed out

11:24as much. That slimness really works out, but also the engine. Mounting the transmission underneath the

11:29engine lowers the center of gravity and that just gives the bike even a more planted and stable feel

11:36off-road than it had before. You can definitely feel the weight. There's no doubt any of these big

11:40big bore ADVs, you feel their weight. Even so, it'll do almost everything you ask to do that short of

11:48hard enduro or something like that. You can ride a power line road with them, you can ride two track,

11:53you can ride single track, as long as there's enough room for the cylinders. Found a couple places today

11:58where we couldn't fit through because of the boxer configuration. That's okay. This thing was never

12:05intended to be a hardcore off-roader. It was intended to be something they could do it all

12:11and do it all well, and that's what BMW has done with this bike. With the triple black that we have

12:16here, it's got the standard suspension and it has the street-oriented foot pegs and foot controls.

12:21I would definitely spring for the GS Trophy, get the bigger foot pegs, get the adjustable brake lever,

12:28adjustable shift lever, you get a little bit taller rise of the bars with a riser, and you get eight-tenths of an

12:34inch more suspension travel. All that's a good thing. It's not going to hurt it for touring or sport

12:41riding or anything like that. It's just going to improve the ability off-road that much more.

12:47Off-road, the R1300GS has definitely improved from the 1250. It's slimmer, the new engine configuration

12:54makes it an even more stable handler, and overall, it just works great.

13:01BMW's R1300GS is still the king of big bore ADVs. Sure, you can find units that are better off-road,

13:09and possibly one that is better on-road, but it still slays touring miles while handling better

13:14on and off-road than ever before. It does it all, and it does it all well. It's now lighter and slimmer,

13:20with more power to boot. There's nothing like a big BMW GS, and it still remains the gold standard of adventure touring.

13:37the H2.

13:45India CSP.

13:50India CSP.

13:51India CSP.

13:59India CSP.

14:00India CSP.

Is this the GOAT of ADVs? | BMW R 1300 GS Review

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