01 Mar On Yer Bike: BMW R 1250 GS Adventure
This month, FMM Curator Wayne Harley and partner Jade brave the elements on weekend trip through the Karoo and back…
With 2023 being the centenary celebration year of BMW Motorrad, I will be focusing a lot on the BMWs in our collection. In addition, Wendy Monk is busy putting together an in-depth article on the history of Motorrad for future publication. This month I was hoping to test a BMW F 850 GS Rallye on a trip up to the Karoo town of Loxton in the Northern Cape, which my better half Jade had arranged, so the timing was perfect.
As always, BMW kindly and very professionally organised a brand new GS 850 from its Stellenbosch dealership, but sadly the distance we were going to travel was going to be an issue. The motorcycle’s first running-in service needed to be done at a 1 000 km, and I couldn’t wrap my head around taking that beautiful brand new machine on 350 km of dirt roads before it had even been run in. So instead I opted for an ultra-dependable R 1250 GS Adventure.
This was the third time I’ve ridden a 1250 GS, but it would be the first time for over a thousand kilometres, of which around 450 km would be on dirt. I was curious to see if the new 1250 GS Adventure had been improved since the first one I rode back in July 2019. I went to collect the bike on the Thursday before the trip, and since FMM is promoting 100 years of BMW Motorrad, I travelled on a BMW R50/5 that was recently donated to the museum by Daniel Prins and placed it on display at the Stellenbosch Motorrad’s heritage section. Once I collected the 2023 GS Adventure, it was off home to pack for the long weekend trip.
The next morning, we were greeted by some rather unseasonable cool and cloudy weather with a strong expectation of rain. It was too late to back out, so off we went into a grey and gloomy day. And it was not too long before I needed to switch to one of the riding modes – rain – a mode we would stay in for most of the morning. The GS Adventure is a sure-footed and very predictable motorcycle that lets you ride in confidence. Even in the heaviest downpours, never once did the motorcycle loose traction or feel unstable including when the road was visibly greasy. By the time we reached Matjiesfontein, the rain had made us feel cold and damp, so we stopped for hot coffee, to warm up and to stretch our legs. During this time, the clouds started lifting and the road was drying out.
After coffee it was on to Sutherland and our first fuel stop. The big 1250 GS, even with two up and all our kit, was averaging 5,5 litres/100 km, which I found very reasonable. From Sutherland we turned towards Fraserburg, which was our first dirt road section and the GS ate up the 109 kilometres with ease. Alan Alyers from BMW Motorrad had pre-set the Enduro Pro riding mode for me in the dealership and, again, the 1250 GS never felt unstable, even at speed over 100 km on the dirt. By Fraserburg, the cold and rain had caught up to us again, and we just made it to our guest house, the quaint off-grid Marigold House, before the Karoo was blessed with some welcome rain.
The next day, it was on to a private farm just outside Loxton and another dirt road section. However, the overnight rain had made the surface a little slimy and the GS, on its set of Bridgestone Battlax A41 tyres, did become a little unpredictable at times. The tyres are great for tar road touring in any weather, or even a good gravel road, but on mud or even loose gravel there is a noticeable loss of grip. Our only really big moment came on day two of our trip. After having to cross a flooded river, the big GS did dance around in the mud on the opposite side, resulting in an unplanned wheelie giving cause for some rather unexpected excitement!
Sunday was a rest day and we enjoyed taking in some astonishing Karoo landscapes. I was also shown a rather neat Adventure Riders destination on the farm Rooipoort, which I must revisit with a few other adventure bikers in the near future.
Monday morning we began heading for home by way of Beaufort West. But to get there you must traverse the stunningly beautiful Molteno Pass, which gets its name from John Molteno and is thought to be the first mountain pass in South Africa. It is still a gravel surface and has been rather run down, with sections being somewhat rocky, and the fear of a flat tyre is never far from one’s mind. But about 120 km later we were back on the N1 and the long, boring trek home lay ahead. It was just my luck my first real bike road trip this year and the weather in the Western Cape was off the charts…
Between Beaufort West and Laingsburg the wind was gusting and pounding the big GS around with ease. At this stage I was actually pleased I had ended up with the 1250 rather than the 850 GS as the bigger engine’s 100 kW and 143 N.m of torque was so welcome against the extremely strong headwind. Even at a cruising speed of 120 km/h, the fuel consumption rocketed up to 6,9 litres/100 after being around 5 litres/100 the entire weekend. At Touwsrivier, the heavens opened up once again and for the first time ever I used the heated grips as the wind and rain were cutting through me, and my fingertips were feeling the cold.
But in these awful conditions, the big GS 1250 GS Adventure remained an excellent motorcycle. The full swivelling headlights not only give good visibility but also made the bike more visible for oncoming drivers in the transversing surroundings and horrendous weather conditions. Lastly, after doing over 500 km in these conditions and with only one stop, as a rider I was cold and wet yet not at all fatigued. Even Jade commented on the fact that this was the most comfortable she has ever been on the back of a motorcycle. Considering what we had gone through during the weekend, that’s saying a lot.
While the weather conditions were not the best for carrying out a motorcycle review, that it happened to us on a BMW helped a lot. The refinement in today’s Motorrad product line-up bears testimony to the company’s 100 years of existence.
