Why Is BMW's GS The Gold Standard Of Adventure Motorcycles?

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Transcript

00:00Hey, welcome back to the Motorcyclist Podcast, where we talk about motorcycles and what makes

00:04them great. Topics on the show always change, but the one thing that always remains is two-wheels

00:09fun. I'm Justin Dawes, Executive Editor. We've got Editor Adam Waheed, and we've got Photo

00:15Director Jeff Allen. Today, we are going to talk about BMW's Big Boxer GS. We're going to talk

00:22about the history of what can be argued as the OG adventure bike, the original adventure

00:29bike that kicked off a craze that's going on for 45 years strong at this point. We're

00:36going to talk about why it's always been kind of the gold standard of adventure bikes, what

00:40makes it so good, what we like about it, and yeah. So, let's get into it. Let's start with

00:47some history. I guess I'll be a historian on this episode, as we usually kind of share

00:53the duties, but I'll tackle this one since I'm very familiar with the GS, as we all are.

00:59We've all ridden lots of GSs and fallen off of GSs and jumped GSs and done all kinds of

01:06things. So, let's start off with, in 78, 79, BMW employees started taking the Boxer out

01:21of the R80 and turning it into a dirt bike. They were kind of trying to build their own dirt

01:28wagon for things like the six days. And once the bosses saw that thing, they decided to

01:36make it a production motorcycle. So, 1980 was the first year of the R80G slash S, GS, we

01:46call it now. And GS stands for Gallande Strasse. I'm probably butchering that. Germans, I'm very

01:54sorry. That's as close as I can get with my limited German.

01:58Did you come across that originally it was called the Gentleman Scrambler?

02:01Yes, yes. In the OG, it was Gentleman Scrambler, but now it stands for Gallande Strasse, which

02:07is woods and street. So, they both, in the beginning, Gentleman Scrambler absolutely made

02:16sense because the R80GS was not a gigantic motorcycle. But it did have some of the things

02:22taken over from the street bike, shaft drive, had a single-sided swing arm called the monolever,

02:27had the 787cc boxer, air-cooled pushrod motor, and it proved to be better than just a big

02:38dual sport. In fact, right off the get-go, they started entering it in Dakar, and it won in

02:4581, 83, 84, and 85. So, the 83, 84, 85 models actually ran a 1,000cc motor, but it was still

02:57an R80GS. So, that is the impetus for every adventure bike you see these days almost. Sure,

03:06there were scramblers and there was bikes that could do both before that, but BMW tapped into

03:11something with the GS that has stood the test of time. So, 87.

03:16When would you say it became less of a Scrambler and more of an adventure bike?

03:23I would say we will get there.

03:25Okay. All right. I'm anxious. I love this thing. So, spoiler alert.

03:30How about it became less of a Scrambler and more of an adventure bike in 1987? Second generation.

03:37It was now the R100GS. It lost the slash. So, just GS, not G slash-sh. And it went to a 90,

03:47sorry, 980cc engine. And then it got a pair lever rear swing arm, which is basically still a single

03:54side swing arm, but it got some bracing pair lever to a rod above the swing arm to keep things

04:04working better off-road. So, that's kind of when it started to move away from more of a Scrambler

04:09and more towards an adventure bike, street bike that worked well and all sorts of things.

04:15Then in 1994, it went to the R1100GS. So, a much larger engine, 1,085 cc. It's the first incidence of

04:25the towel lever fork. So, gone were normal telescopic forks that you would see on most motorcycles

04:31these days. And instead, you had an A-arm coming off the front of the frame that connected to the

04:37fork assembly with a shock attached to the frame above it. So, what that did was balance out the

04:46forces in braking and acceleration a little bit, kept the bike on a more stable plane with minimal

04:53dive when you were jamming on the brakes. So, big, big change for BMW there.

04:59Yeah. Also, the reason the bike got so wide.

05:02Mm-hmm.

05:02Yeah.

05:03Because you could have, you had to move that, they had to move the radiator. Well,

05:06I guess this was before a radiator.

05:08Before a radiator.

05:09But the frame itself had to get wider.

05:10Everything got wider.

05:12You have this A-arm assembly instead of just a normal head tube going up at the bottom and down

05:17on part of the frame, you have the A-arm shock going up. So, a lot more complicated. It started

05:23gaining weight. It started getting wider. It got bigger fairings. The 1100 got a four-valve head

05:29rather than a two-valve head of the R100 and the R80. Talking more power. In 99, it went to

05:36the 1150 GS. So, 1140 cc's. And then, in 2002, was the first GS Adventure model, which bigger tank,

05:48more capacity, more off-road ability. That was the first incidence of that bike. So, it's crazy to

05:54think that it's been 23 years since the first GS Adventure.

05:59Yeah. Did the first one get longer travel suspension?

06:03I am not for sure about that one.

06:07But, anyway, bigger tank, all the world traveler capabilities to basically go after whatever you

06:15wanted to at the time. 2004, we went to the R1200 GS, 1170 cc's. It got 60 pounds lighter than the

06:23previous model. And then, 2005 was the GSA. And then, in 2008, they added the ESA, electric

06:33suspension adjustment. So, that was able to basically change up the rear shock and make it

06:41electronically adjustable. You could basically pick some modes that you were going to ride in,

06:46press the shock button on the handlebar, and it would, you know, it would change the modes of the

06:52shock. In 2013, the R1200 GS went to water cool.

07:00That was a big improvement. That motor hit a lot. But, yeah, it was a really, I mean,

07:04that was a noticeable, very noticeable improvement. Yeah.

07:08Huge change, more power, all that goodness of being able to more effectively manage the cooling,

07:17which allowed you to make more power. But, some of the faithful didn't like it.

07:23No, they did not.

07:24It was short-lived, though, that the hate was short-lived.

07:29It was one of those things that if you didn't like it, it's because you hadn't ridden it.

07:32Exactly. Yeah.

07:33Well, I mean, their arguments are, oh, like, it's going to take away the reliability and the

07:38fix anywhere ability of the GS. If it's a world traveler, if I've got radiators, what am I going to

07:43do if I pop a radiator? Well, there's a bajillion cars out there with radiators. I think almost any

07:49place in any country can figure out how to repair a radiator. Yeah.

07:53As long as you don't completely rip the thing off the bike, you're going to be okay.

07:57I really love the characteristic of that motor down low. It had, like, a snappy,

08:01torquey, air-cooled one.

08:03No, the water-cooled.

08:04Water-cooled. The first water-cooled, yeah. Very torquey out the bottom.

08:07Yeah.

08:07Yeah. Yeah. So, that ran until 2019.

08:14And then we got the R1250GS. That got very real-alifying shift cam. So, what is that allowed

08:21to do? Make even more power, have better emissions, and we've got increased capacity to 1,254 cc's.

08:31And that engine is amazing. Has been amazing since it showed up. We're talking even more grunt,

08:40even more power. Just... It just made the previous engine that much better.

08:48And now, in 2024, we got the R1300GS. Talking even more power, slimmer. It has variable valve timing.

08:59It's got the transmission mounted underneath the crankshaft, so it's shortened up the engine,

09:04as well as lowered the center of gravity. You've got all that rotating mass sitting lower in the bike

09:08for better handling. And it's just a... It's kind of a redo of the GS philosophy, in a way,

09:17because the GS kept getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and wider, and taller, to make it more

09:23of a travel bike. But the trend for adventure bikes in the last, you know, 10 years has been to

09:32also be very dirt capable. And they were starting to lose some of that ability, in a way, compared to

09:40the competition. So they upped the game. So now it's even better off-road. It's, you know, all over.

09:46They did a huge redesign, and it's really, really cool to see. And now, in 2026, they have a throwback

09:53model. The R12G slash S. So it's a retro-styled model, based on the R12, which is, they have an

10:04R12 Cruiser and a Roadster. It's using the R1200 GS engine. And it's just a kind of a cool throwback

10:16style adventure bike. It doesn't have a big fairing. It doesn't have... It's much more simple. It still

10:22has, you know, rider modes, and all the great electronics. But it just looks like you're

10:27back in the early 80s, which is super cool. So...

10:31Yeah, I haven't ridden that bike.

10:33No one has. Hoyer is actually in Germany right now. Probably riding it today. So...

10:41Yeah. But, you know, remember the R19 GS? I love that thing for, like, the nostalgia of

10:48it. And they went back to that, the white and the blue and that sort of orangish-red.

10:54And I always thought that they could have gone a little further with that, added some luggage and

11:01stuff like that, because that was really a pretty fun motorcycle.

11:05I think that's what the R12 GS is doing. Like, they've upped the suspension travel. You can get

11:10an enduro package. It has an 18-inch rear wheel. You know, it's really upping the ante, I think,

11:17in a way that maybe those R9T GS fans wanted to see. So...

11:23Yeah. I'm one of them.

11:25It's very cool. Yeah. I think it's really cool, too. And I want to do some cool projects with it,

11:30which hopefully we can figure something out in the future. Just to touch on it, I mean,

11:35that R80 GS, the R100, like, it's from that popularity, it spawned a whole segment of GS models

11:44for BMW. We're only going to talk about the big boxers here, but you had a 650, you had

11:50a 750, an 800, 850, 900, a 310, you know. And now you have, you have, you know, a selection

12:00available, 310, 900 GS models that, you know, so they kind of, they were on the gamut and

12:09there's going to be a 450 GS coming up. So they're going to have, you know, a tiered ecosystem

12:15for GSs, you know, all based on the popularity of this big boxer. So that's the history.

12:22Very truncated, very short. Our BMW GS friends are probably like, oh, they forgot about the

12:29nuance of this change here and that change here. And man, we're keeping it simple for the

12:34one, so we don't screw up, but two, to keep it light and keep it rolling. Otherwise we could

12:39be here for a week just talking about GS changes, which I think is, it's valid because it's done

12:47so much and there's been so many changes and BMW is constantly kind of refined and pushed

12:52that motorcycle. It's, it's worth maybe a week long conversation, but we're going to keep

12:57it to what we just did. So let's talk about why, why it's the king of ADVs. Adam, why do

13:06you like, let's, let's touch on the, the, why is it the, the measuring stick, the gold standard

13:13that all their adventure bikes are measured by?

13:17Probably just because it's so capable and basically all conditions, you know, on the

13:22street, off road, you know, two track fire road, even a little bit of, you know, single,

13:28single and a half, single track. Like it, it, it's literally like the one bike that does

13:33everything. It just does everything. You can go anywhere on it. If, if you, every time I was

13:40talking to one of my friends the other day and they're like, what bike would you buy right

13:44now? I'm like our 1300 GS trophy edition. I'd put street tires on it. It does everything.

13:50Like it just, yeah, it's $30,000, but it, it, it, it fits so many, so many roles. Yeah.

13:56You could buy, you know, two, three motorcycles, but why, when you can just buy one that just

14:00does everything and it does everything just with great pedigree.

14:04Yeah. The GS, you're kind of buying two or three motorcycles, you know? Yeah. Like it really,

14:08it is a, it really is a true all rounder, like more than any motorcycle has ever been. I mean,

14:16they did, they've done the, you can do everything. It's a great touring bike,

14:20whether you're touring single or two up. Um, I've ridden it off road two up. That thing is,

14:27that thing is fantastic. It, it is the, it's the original, of course they, you know, they essentially

14:34created that segment and you know, they, and they just continue to own it. Essentially they've sold

14:40like, I think the number, they've sold over a million GSs. Wow. Yeah. What are your thoughts,

14:47Justin? Well, I think that you both have nailed it, that it does everything really well on road.

14:53It's got great handling. Like it's so sure-footed in the corners much more than it should be. Even

15:00on when it's got knobby tires on it, it just works. It doesn't care how you go, how you position your

15:07body in a corner. If you point it around a corner, it goes around the corner without a fuss.

15:13It's comfortable. It's got tons of protection. It's got all these, all the tech and all the touring

15:17features. Like when you're on the road, you're not left wanting much out of this motorcycle. Right.

15:24And then you go to the dirt and it's more capable than any 550 pound, 550 pound motorcycle should be

15:33like it is. You look at it and you're like, yeah, that thing that's going to be a handful

15:41once it turns to dirt, you know, like gravel roads, it's unbelievable. It's super easy to ride.

15:46Yeah. And you just keep upping the ante and it just gets better and better and better. And you

15:51could even ride single track. If, if it's, if the track is wide enough for the cylinders to fit

15:55through, it'll go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No deep ruts. No, no deep ruts. Yeah. You don't want

16:02to be splitting trees. Yeah. Well, I mean, at least you won't smash your toes. You'll, you'll take the

16:07cylinder head out first, but yeah. So it's a bit of a protection, right? Um, so, I mean, there's,

16:13there's so many things that it does great. And I think that is, um, the reason why it is, is such

16:20a champion. Um, yeah. Yeah. You have to, you have to respect the weight off road, but that's why I

16:28was such a fan of when the, with the, uh, the, uh, 1250, the water cooled motor is that I almost feel

16:36like it's like, it might be a slight exaggeration, but only slight is like riding a 450. The way the

16:42motor is so grunty down below, like you were talking about, like on Jeep two track, you know,

16:48like on a big adventure bike crossing from one side, you know, in the track over to the other

16:53side and that where the weeds grow and there's gravel in the middle, you can just like blip that

16:58thing. And it just kind of hops over to the other side. Yeah. I agree. It's got that 450, uh, CC

17:04single cylinder kind of character down low. Yeah. And the ergonomics, the ergonomics are,

17:09are mighty dirt bike now in a positive way. You stand up, it feels like a dirt bike and it,

17:15it's just heavy. It's like riding two 450s at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good one.

17:22Yeah. Two and a half 450s. Yeah. And, and I mean, your point is very valid about it. You have to

17:27respect the weight, but that's the same with every adventure bike. Like that's the thing about

17:30adventure bikes is, um, they have a lot of weight behind them, which means they have a lot of

17:35momentum and they make speed very quickly because it's such powerful engines. And so, um, it's easy

17:42to get yourself in trouble if you don't have a respect for the motorcycle, but if you're comfortable

17:47with it and you have respect for it, man, you can, you can do things on that, on the, the GS that

17:53they're just, yeah. Every time I get on it, it just blows me. I'm just like, there's no way

17:58that I'm going to go through that with this. And it just doesn't, you know,

18:02especially if it gets a little technical, if you kind of picture yourself on a, on a trials bike,

18:08where you're not allowed to put your foot down, then you're, you're like, that's how you have to,

18:12that's how you have to think of it. It's just, well, you can't put your foot down.

18:16Like you guys said that that bike is capable of joint, uh, generating so much inertia and momentum,

18:21which is good. You, you want to use that momentum and inertia to your friend,

18:25but also when you have that inertia momentum, you have to be aware that it's going to take

18:30you a little bit more time to slow that thing back down. So it's, it makes like dirt bike riding

18:37almost more of a game. It's like a different type of game, you know, it's just, it's, it's really

18:42rewarding too. When you tackle obstacles, you're like, how am I going to do that? Then you do it on

18:47that bike. You're like, wow. And I think that's the point with it being, it being, you know,

18:53and the technical stuff, especially with the new bike, the center of gravity with the boxer

18:57engine, you know, the two cylinders sticking out the side, and then now the transmission below the

19:02engine or below the crankshaft, it, it's so easy to keep your feet on the foot pegs and balance the

19:09motorcycle. And the ergos are very dirt biking. Now they're very comfortable for standing up.

19:13Before you might, you know, might be hunched over a little bit and that, uh, you know,

19:19made it a little difficult, but now it just feels right. And you can basically, you know,

19:24especially with its tight turning race radius, like that bike at like, um, ADV rallies on the

19:31little challenge gym con courses they put up, dude, that bike is the king because you can go really

19:36slow and turn really tight and it's really stable, uh, while you're going slow, much more so than any

19:42other adventure motorcycle. So if you want to like be the king at the rally, that is absolutely the bike.

19:48In the skills contest. Yeah. In the skills contest. The slow race, the GS is definitely

19:53the choice. Yeah. There's nothing that can hang with the GS in a slow race. And that's be once

19:58again, because of that low center gravity and the stability of the motorcycles. Yeah. And that's

20:04the thing. It's like, when I said it's like two or three motorcycles in one, it really is like you,

20:09you think of that motorcycle. And then I've ridden off-road in Baja, like hundreds of miles.

20:14And then at the same time, you're like, how is this the same bike you could do like two up weekend

20:20to like on the free, you take like fast roads or even the freeway to San Francisco from Southern

20:26California. And that's all the same motorcycle. Yeah. And that, there you go. That's the, that's

20:32the reason why it's, it is the champ. And you know, people will be like, oh man, like Jeff's talking

20:37about riding anything in Baja. Sure. But a KTM would be better. Cause it's got more suspension

20:41travel and blah, blah, blah. Sure. In that one instance, there may be a bike that does

20:46one thing better than the BMW. But if you put them all, you, if you take them all as a whole

20:53and you measure all things, there's nothing that compares to a GS.

20:57And I'm not going to totally agree with you. Like it does things like, like the big KTM. It does

21:03things as well.

21:06Josh makes a good point. He, he does make a good point. Like you could pick

21:11one bike that, okay, that bike is going to be better for that certain little category,

21:16you know, singular style. But it's, it's, you know, you factor in just the versatility

21:21and, you know, just the, the touch points of the, of the R 1300 GS, like the character

21:28of the engine, the sound, the feel, the way it shifts gears, the suspension action, it, it,

21:35everything it does is just so precise and it makes riding very enjoyable. So maybe if it's not the

21:41very, very, very best, it, it certainly feels the very best because it has so much, uh, nice

21:47character and it just makes riding very fun. Yeah. I'm riding the GS. I'm having fun. Even at the

21:52freeway at 75 miles per hour, the sound of that boxer twin visceral power pulses. It's just like,

21:58it just feels right. And those, those miles disappear very quickly. Even the, even the

22:03getting their miles on the freeway or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And now they're loaded with all the

22:08creature comforts in the world. Not that they weren't before. You're just, it's almost like

22:12you're riding a gold wing. You got your Bluetooth stereos and you're heated everything and you're

22:17adjustable windshield. If you get the right option, it's, it's a really luxurious ride.

22:21Yeah, it can be. Absolutely. And I think, you know, when I was making the point of like,

22:25there's bikes that can do one thing better. Like let's, let's talk about like on the road,

22:30like a multi-strata V4S is the king of the corners in the adventure bike segment. A KTM 890 is probably

22:40the whoop wagon, right? Like you look at all these, but the, the GS is going to be in the top two or

22:46three in every segment that you talk about. Like it's going to be second or third every, in every

22:54place. It's not going to, it's never going to be out of the contention. So that's, that's what it's

23:00consistency in, in ability to do all the things to 95% of the top in any category. And it wins,

23:10you know, it just wins because of that. So yeah, it's really all the things.

23:14I had a, a, a note on here to say like, do you like it? But I think it's pretty clear.

23:21We all like it, but I want to, I want to, so instead of saying, do we like it? Cause we all

23:25like it. I want to hear about like, Jeff's got some crazy GS stories. Adam's got some good GS

23:32stories. I probably have some good GS stories. So let's, let's talk about that. Let's, let's start

23:37with Jeff. Cause Jeff's a storyteller and we may only have time for Jeff's story.

23:41I'm not sure if that's a dig or not. Well, okay. So there was a time that me and a few

23:50guys from the industry, we were going, we were right. We decided to ride off-road from

23:55here in Southern California to Cabo San Lucas for new years. We left right after Christmas

24:02and we were doing a bunch of miles of almost exclusively off-road. And I mean, it was pretty,

24:09we, we, we, it was, the days were short. I mean, the, the riding days were long, but the sunlight

24:14was short. So we ended up riding in the dark and doing all this crazy stuff. But, um, at one point

24:20we were riding pretty quickly on this seldomly used dirt road. And I, uh, was, I had one guy in front

24:29of me and I came across and there was this giant washout and, uh, I tried to get across it by just

24:38like, just wheeling in the front and I got the front over it, but the rear, when the rear hit,

24:44it's bucked up so hard. Like I, it felt like the rear wheel was above my head. Like it was like,

24:51I was just looking straight down over the handlebars and somehow, I don't know that I even did

24:57anything. I didn't crash it, but it did. It completely blew out the shock. It just blew.

25:05I was, I was like, Oh man, it's scared. The rear shock. The rear shock. Yeah. The rear shock. And

25:09it's just scared me. And, you know, you kind of like, you have a moment like that. You just sort

25:14of like check yourself. You're like, I can't believe I'm still up. I'm still riding up,

25:19upright. And then my foot started slipping on the foot peg and like, what's going on? And I could see

25:26there's this oil everywhere. And I thought something happened to the motor, but it just

25:30blew all of the fluid out of the shock onto my side of my pant and the, uh, and my boot.

25:37And so, uh, we managed to get that. The road improved quite a bit after that was like the

25:44one big moment right there. And we were well down, well down halfway. We're below, we were

25:50below San Ignacio even. And, uh, the, uh, the thing pumped all of the fluid out of that

26:01thing. And I wrote it the rest of the week and all the way home on just a spring. There

26:06was no tamponade. It's just springing like this. Like even like you're going through the

26:10turn and there's like, there's semis coming the other way. And you're like, like this.

26:15And it was, it was terrifying, but that thing still made it home. And it turned out when

26:21I got back, it turned out I had blown up the, uh, the front shock as well. Got both of

26:26them, but I didn't notice, I didn't notice anything riding. Well, the, the rear was so

26:31bad. I don't know that I could have noticed what was going on in the front. Yeah. But

26:35that was a, that was a big, scary moment.

26:37Yeah. Yeah. And there goes to your, your, your point about, you know, all the weight

26:42behind you, but at the same time, the thing's pretty well engineered that if you can keep

26:47it going straight, when you make a mistake, you're going to probably still end up on two

26:51wheels. Right. Yeah. So, um, forgiving bikes. Very forgiving bikes. I don't know that I did

26:57anything more than just close my eyes and hold on, but, uh, we were still going forward

27:03when that, when all the drama was over. That's awesome. Uh, my story, GS story, I don't

27:08know. I'll have a bunch of them, but, um, I got to experience the GS trophy and I think

27:13that's a, that's an important part to BMWs. The event, the trophy event, the trophy

27:18event. But I think it's an important part of GS-ness is that like BMW has this event

27:25for GS owners that they can go and qualify. The top three in every country gets to go to

27:29a place and they all get to compete against each other. You know, we're talking like, like

27:3315 or 20 countries. So, you know, 40 to 50, uh, riders all duking it out in, in a country

27:40and it happens every two years. And I got to go as the, the press guy for the 2022 edition

27:47in Albania. And it was really fun. Like one seeing all the people that were just there

27:53into being GS owners and trying to ride the GSs as best they could. And it, the, the competitions

28:00weren't just if you could ride well, but there was teamwork stuff and there was puzzles and

28:05there was, you know, trivia. There was all these things that, uh, you know, you did at

28:10the event, but it was really cool to see all the people. It was fun to like, hang out with

28:14three American guys that all rode really well. The group that I, that I had in 2022 was one,

28:21a guy named Corey call, which Adam probably knows. Um, he's, you know, a maniac on, on two

28:27wheels and he owned a GS. So he got to go, uh, qualify and he did. And then a guy named Ben,

28:33uh, who I think if his GS broke, he could have just carried it on his back.

28:40And, and then a guy named Jim, who was like the never say quick guy, he was smaller than the other

28:47two, but he rode the GS awesome. And he, you know, if anything challenged his ability with his,

28:53you know, his inseam or his ability and able to muscle the bike around, he still went for it and

28:59he still fought it out. But, you know, going, talk, talking about Ben, the craziest thing I've

29:05ever seen on a GS was a guy that actually wasn't on a GS, but next to it, we were on this big,

29:10huge hill climb. It was all rocky and nasty. And there was a ton of people stuck on it. And we get

29:14up to catching up to the groups in front of us and everyone's just laid out on this road. And so

29:21everyone's taking their turns, like helping pushing bikes, helping pushing bikes. And there

29:25was a, there was a couple of female teams as well. And this lady, um, she gets this one section and

29:30she falls over. And so everyone picks her up and they start to push her and she catches another

29:34rock and it folds her front. She falls over again. And this guy from South Africa, he was a big,

29:39strong, like guy. No one else helped him. I saw this dude grab the bike by like the subframe

29:47and the forks and he lifted the bike up and set it on its tires by himself. Air, air underneath

29:54both tires by himself. Just went, man. And I was like, that's the most insane thing I've

30:00ever seen. And I think, I think a competitor or yeah, he was a competitor. And I think,

30:05I think South Africa won that year. And I put it down to that. The, the, those three South

30:11African guys were massive humans that were able to do things that no one else could do just because

30:17of their strength. But it was the craziest thing I've ever seen is someone picking up a 550 pound

30:22motorcycle by themselves, Scott Summers style. Wow. Setting it back on its tires and then going

30:27here, hop on, go ahead. Maybe even Scott Summers would have been impressed. Yeah. Scott Summers would

30:31have freaked out. So I think I blew a disc out in my back just watching him do it.

30:35So, uh, we're getting long here. So Adam, uh, do you have a short story?

30:43Uh, yeah, just real quick, uh, many years ago during a product evaluation function, we rode the

30:49R1250 GS in, in, uh, Carissa Plains where it was all where the, the, the West coast, uh,

30:57earthquake divide is in the ground and it had been raining for 24 hours. So we arrived and it's

31:03basically just, it's just soup. And then I was riding the R1250 GS. And of course I, I knew we

31:10were going there. So I asked for anarchy wild, you know, uh, 37, 73, 30, 70, uh, you know, TKC 80 type

31:18tires, but they didn't do that. So there was on street tires and, and it was terrifying because I can't

31:25tell you how many times I'd be riding at 30 miles per hour. And I literally fishtail, I would do

31:31180s and 360s and half the time I wouldn't crash and half the time I would, but, uh, eventually, uh,

31:40the moral of the story was that even in these sketchy conditions on street tires, for sure.

31:46I fell down a lot, obviously, cause it's slicker than snot, but I still couldn't believe how well

31:50balanced that bike was. And some of the obstacles that we went up and over on street tires, caked in

31:56mud, it just, it literally blew me away how capable that bike is in the most treacherous of terrain

32:01with ill, with ill fit tires. Just an amazing bike. Amazing bike. So, uh, handicap a bike more than

32:09tires. Yeah. Yeah. It was still like not as, I mean, it was bad, but it wasn't like, it was still

32:16doable. Like your story about, you know, going to Mexico and halfway through the, the, the fork and

32:22the shock, you know, have an issue. That's the, that's the mantra of the GS, the GS keeps on going,

32:28keeps on trucking, you know, something doesn't work right. That bike will get you home. That's

32:32like a really just well-engineered quality bike. If the world ends, you'd want to be on a GS.

32:38Yeah, I think so. I really do think so. Um, so let's go, uh, real quick GS or GSA. We're talking about

32:45the, the 2025 model, uh, our 1300 GS or GSA. Uh, let's start with Adam, which one would you

32:55rather have GS or GSA? I, I always liked the GS more. It's just a little bit skinnier. You know,

33:02we were talking about the styling that the new Lego like styling of the GS.

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