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BMW R 1150GS Adventure

Our long-term Adventure has been very popular indeed. In fact SPANNERMAN has almost claimed ownership. Here's his opinion on the classy duallie... Long-term test bikes usually only come my way when there's something to be fixed. I don't mind in the least. If I take more than a few days to effect repairs, the rest of the AMT staff forget I've got it and I can quietly run up some big distances at someone else's expense. In the case of the BMW Adventure, one of the fog lights had come adrift. Dags of glue on the mounting bracket suggest the original damage may have been done some time before the bike arrived at the AMT office. It's now 5000 kilometres later and I still haven't gotten around to a fix - don't blame me, blame how nice the Adventure is to ride.

It's essentially a BMW R1150GS with longer travel suspension, a 30-litre tank and dedicated dirt-road tyres. Other modifications which sharpen its outback focus include lower first and sixth gear ratios and luggage options which allow for trips avec le kitchen sink.

From a service point of view, the Adventure is very owner-friendly. With Bosch Motronic injection and ignition, the engine basically looks after itself. When necessary, because the two cylinders poke out sideways from the crankshaft housing, plugs and valve gear are easy to get at. Service intervals are set at 10,000kms and BMW specifies a full synthetic oil (after a run-in period on mineral oil to develop an optimum relationship between moving parts). Our bike needed a top-up of approximately half a litre at 6000km which is consistent with the service history of other R1150 engines. The engine oil sight glass is relatively large and although you have to get down on your hands and knees to read it, it's something you'll only have to do once between oil change periods. The sump guard needs to be removed to drain the engine oil but all other fluid entry and exit points are easy to reach and feature the mechanic's best friend, Allen-head bolts.

The spring pre-load adjustment for the front suspension is easy to reach but requires a c-spanner. There's an external adjuster for loading the rear spring which can be operated by hand. A long-handled screwdriver is required to adjust rear suspension damping but the adjuster is easy to reach. The conclusion is inescapable that R-series BMWs were designed by people who have a history of riding and servicing their own bikes - excellent metal and straightforward procedures.

The Adventure's wheels and tyres are interesting. Spokes radiate from the hubs to the outside of the rims. Over time, it may reintroduce owners to the charming craft of wheel tuning but the set-up is perfect for the bike's primary purpose. The tyres are big-block tread Continentals and early reports on the Adventure speculated that tyre life would be short. The AMT Adventure has had a relatively hard life but the rear tyre will probably make 7000km. Pleasingly, the profile of the tyre isn't changing much as it wears meaning handling hasn't deteriorated. It has vice-free grip on dry roads but doesn't like to be pushed too hard on wet tar. As you'd expect, dirt road performance is excellent.

Our Adventure has had a mix of commuting and longer rides to touring destinations. It's size, particularly with the aluminium panniers fitted, discourages lane-splitting although a plus side in traffic with the 900mm seat height is that you get an uninterrupted view of the cage-dwellers around you. It's the four-wheel-drive of the bike world. The seat is excellent but needs to be as the riding position places most of the riders weight on his or her backside. There's plenty of room to move about, though, and the bike is very comfortable for even the tallest riders. If you have to do sustained highway work before you get to your dirt-road destination, an option would be to use the adjustability of the bars to take some of your weight on your wrists - more a sports/touring position. When you start your crossing of the Simpson Desert, all you have to do is fill the 30 litre tank (the range is around 600km), move the bars back to a more upright position and hit the track. Although it exceeds the recommended 10kg limit, you may also be interested to know you can fit an entire slab into just one of the two aluminium panniers.

Niggles with the Adventure over the past 4000km have been few. It has a manual choke which is easy to accidentally leave on because it's hard to see from the seat. As it's a fast idle adjuster rather than a real choke, leaving it on doesn't do any mechanical damage. You also need the strength of The Rock to get the Adventure onto its centrestand which is a bit surprising given how easy the older R-series bikes are in this area. The bloke who knew how to get centrestands to work must have retired. Otherwise, the Adventure gets better with each ride and will, doubtless, become a cult classic.

Source Bikepoint