Three piece (front and rear sections with
load-bearing engine)
Front Suspension
BMW Telelever Single
gas-filled shock absorber with progressive coil spring, Preload
adjustment (five steps)
Front Wheel ravel
190 mm / 7.5 in
Rear Suspension
BMW Paralever (single-sided
swinging arm) Single gas-filled shock absorber with coil spring,
Preload adjustment (continuously adjustable by handwheel), Rebound damping
(continuously adjustable by screw)
Rear Wheel Travel
200 mm / 7.9 in
Front Brakes
2 x ∅297mm Discs, 3
piston calipers
Rear Brakes
Single ∅250mm disc, 3
piston caliper
Front Tyre
110/80 R19
Front Wheel
2.5 x 19 inch patented cross spoke
Rear Tyre
150/70 R17
Front Wheel
4 x 17 inch patented cross spoke
Dimensions
Length 2189 mm / 85.4 in
Width 920 mm / 35.9 in
Height 1366 mm / 53.7 in
Wheelbase
1509 mm / 59.4 in
Seat Height
840 mm / 33.0 in - 860 mm / 33.8 in
Dry Weight
225 kg / 496.0 lbs
Wet Weight
240 kg / 549 lbs
Ground Clearance
200 mm / 7.8 in
Fuel Capacity
24 Liters / US 6.3 gal
Consumption Average
6.1 L/100 km / 16.4 km/l / 35.6 US mpg
Braking 60 km/h - 0
14.0 m / 46 ft
Braking 100 km/h - 0
40.5 m / 133 ft
Standing
¼ Mile
12.5 sec / 168.2 km/h /104.5 mph
Top Speed
201.6 km/h / 125.3 mph
.
My predecessor here at Acton Towers always had a soft spot for BMW's
agricultural GS. Me, I never cared much for it, being at the time a callow youth
more interested in head down, no nonsense sports bikes than plodding trailies.
But then I rode one.
Not being brave enough to take the heavy and unwieldy GS off road, my
mudlarking abilities being just this side of useless, I used the lump as a
commuter and as an occasional long distance machine if I wasn't in a rush. And
yes, like many idiosyncratic pleasures in life, it did take time to understand
and appreciate just where BMW was coming from.
Progress on the old GS was nearly always slow and stately. Anyone who has
ever ridden a two-valve per-head Boxer will know that it's not much good revving
the twin to the red line. But for all day plodding potential it was hard to
beat.
A similar scenario applies to brakes and chassis. Although solid and
well-crafted, finesse could be said to be lacking. Especially in the braking
department.
In 1993 BMW launched what many thought was a bike long past its delivery date
- the R1100RS. Not only did it feature the new four-valve head Boxer twin, which
had been revealed in the press pack, but it also came complete with BM's own
funny front end - Tele-lever. Which wasn't revealed to the press prior to the
Lanzarote launch and came as something of a surprise to the hacks who had
craftily written their 'tests' before they'd so much as ridden the bike.
As those of you who have followed the funny front end story will know, the BM
Telelever set-up is not dissimilar to the Motodd suspension package, developed
over the last decade. Front forks as we know and love them don't actually exist
in the Telelever package. Instead what you are faced with are fork tubes 35mm in
diameter and a horizontal wishbone attached via the forks to the engine casing.
A central spring mounted vertically in front of the engine casing is
adjustable five ways for preload. The forks, rather than suspending the bike act
only as a guide for the front wheel and for steering the plot. They don't
feature any spring or damper components and consequently maintenance is minimal.
Ball joints within the slide tube and fork bridge transmit steering movement.
The other ball joint, bolted to the longitudinal control arm feeds braking force
into the engine housing.
For what outwardly looks something of an agricultural package, the R1100GS
is, in fact, one of the most modern motorcycles you can buy. And is yet another
example of how in the last 18 months BMW have gone to great lengths to update an
image that was beginning to fade in the eyes of techno-junkies from Munich to
Manchester.
If you think the front end is a trick set up, Boxer fans will be astonished
at how one of the longest lived engines has been given a new lease of life.
The only question mark that hangs over the new setup is its resilience to
crash damage. With such a small area in which to incorporate the new valve gear,
the thought of the bike being bounced down the road on its side had my wallet
quaking. Whereas on the old GS the two-valve heads were protected by crash bars
and lacked the complex internals of the R-Series, this time round enthusiastic
mud fetishists may have second thoughts about taking the GS anywhere off-road
apart from on the most gentle of trails.
Which brings me neatly to what most of you have already surmised. The R1100GS
is not a trail bike. It may look like one. Indeed you'll be hard pushed to find
a more aggressively styled motorcycle anywhere. But only the truly insane would
attempt to tackle anything other than metalled roads on the 4611b Hdry) GS.
Which is a shame, because where the old model scored was in its go anywhere, do
anything appetite for destruction.
Sitting atop the new GS the view is disturbingly similar to the old.
Handlebars are wide, seat is deep and comfortable and dials for speed and rpm
are minimalist in design. Although this year a fuel and oil temperature gauge to
the right of the instrument pod and a redesigned row of easily legible idiot
lights add to the feeling that this bike is destined to spend its time on rather
than off the road.
Such impressions are reinforced when you thumb the starter. The GS is without
doubt one of the quietest bikes I've ever ridden. The exhaust note is so
strangled (perhaps thanks to the catalyst), that you can hear every movement of
the valve gear, even when you load the revs and dump the clutch to effect a
lightning getaway from the lights.
If it were not for the subdued punching of the Boxer's cylinders and the
barely noticeable torque reaction from the Paralever shaft, you'd be hard pushed
to discern just what sort of an engine was powering the BeeEmm.
Although the bike's character is hidden behind a mask of restrictive
silencing, the new GS could prove to be as much of a classic as the machine it
supersedes. Or rather it could be if mere mortals could consider riding it on
the dirt. Perhaps BMW should consider tempting 'Tom Thumb' Rahier out of
retirement to give nascent off-road heroes something to shoot at.
But perhaps I'm being a wee bit churlish here. For while there's little doubt
that the bike's green lane potential has been marginalised, on the road it is a
vast improvement.
The four-valve head twin takes most of the credit for this. Although it is
not as fast as the 100bhp R1100RS, which has a top-end good enough for speeds in
excess of 130mph, the GS has been retuned - or should that be detuned? - by way
of softer cams, valve-timing, lower compression pistons and remapped engine
management circuit to produce huge gobs of torque. In fact the Boxer's engine
now only pumps out 80 horses at 6700rpm. But by way of compensation is
comfortably in the tree stump pulling league, producing a rippling 72ftlbs of
torque at 5300rpm.
This translates to an engine that is so easy to keep on the boil that it is
only in stop-start rush hour traffic that you need to slip below third gear.
Which is, all things considered, not such a bad thing because if there is one
characteristic the R1100GS has inherited from the model it replaces it is its
gearbox, which needs to be approached with some caution. Not I should add
because gears don't drop in - eventually - but because the 'box seems to be too
slow for the free revving engine.
Having hauled in the beefy clutch and tapped down into first, you might be
forgiven for thinking the 'box something of a revelation. You would, however, be
mistaken. Although feel is light, matching the crisp throttle action, you'll
find that while up changes through the five ratios can be made without
necessitating the use of the clutch, down changes need to be planned well in
advance.
Even with a much lightened flywheel it takes some time for engine revs to
fall, ensuring that hasty down-changes will be met with some protestation from
the recalcitrant 'box. But with a reduced final drive ratio for everyday riding
there will be few complaints, despite fifth feeling a little short for high
speed cruising.
While such familial resemblance may be appreciated by Boxer die-hards, to
those brought up on Japanese gearboxes it will prove a nuisance. To me it
reinforced a link with the past that although present in the riding position is
absent elsewhere. Some will cherish every down-change as it will remind them of
their first R80. Others will feel shortchanged, bemoaning the fact that if BMW
could update the rest of the bike, what happened to the gearbox?
Such whingeing shouldn't, however, dissuade you from throwing a leg over the
GS. Those short of stature might not dare sit on this leviathan despite BM's
innovative seat which can be lowered from 33.8 - 33 inches. But once on the move
the all up weight of the machine seems less of a handful than at first might be
thought.
Tipping the GS into a series of third and fourth gear bends it
surprised with the precision it could be steered. Over smooth surfaces the bike
while not approaching the handling available from sports machinery was hardly an
embarrassment. Indeed to the uninitiated the rapidity with which the bike can be
dropped from a small angle of lean to full over courtesy of the low centre of
gravity provided by the Boxer layout could come as something of a surprise.
After a couple of hundred miles, however, you can throw it
around with some vigour. Something I never really felt comfortable doing on the
underbraked old-style GS which wore a single disc and twin pot caliper up front
and a 200mm drum at the rear.
Spoked wheels wearing Metzeler Enduro tyres that are
surprisingly suitable for the road and conversely unsuitable for all but the
smoothest and driest of off road routes combine with top notch calipers and
discs to make the GS best braked bike in class.
Equipped with four-piston calipers and twin 305mm discs up
front and a 275mm disc and single opposed piston caliper at the rear matched to
ABS, which can be switched off should you wish, means there is no shortfall in
stopping power. Indeed when combined with the rigid front end which only has a
limited amount of inbuilt dive, you can surprise even boy racers with the
ferocity with which the bike can be brought to a halt. The only component that
prevents almost suicidal late braking is the size of the contact patch on the
110/80 19 front Metzeler.
Despite misgivings toward the new chassis when I rode the
R1100RS in '93, there's no doubt that the design has given the Boxer a new lease
of life. The styling of the GS is a love it or loathe it affair, and I love it.
But whether it will fulfil the role of the bike it replaces
remains to be seen. It certainly doesn't seem to enjoy the rugged simplicity of
its parent. But for £8295 the new R1100GS provides a level of urban chic that
only Triumph's Tiger, some £800 pounds cheaper, can hope to match. All it needs
is a few Paris-Dakar victories to reaffirm its position as the biggest and best
of the monster trail bikes. Hope you are reading Gaston.