Reviews for Riders: BMW R 1200 GS

Not the liquid-cooled one you see in the Starbucks parking lot with the LED headlight.

The one before it. The air/oil-cooled 1,170cc boxer that BMW built from 2005 through 2012, and through 2013 in Adventure trim.

Cycle World once called the GS the most successful motorcycle of the last two and a half decades and credited it with creating the adventure category outright. And right now it is the cheapest big BMW worth owning.

The Numbers...

• 1,170cc air/oil-cooled flat twin.

• 100hp at 7,000rpm in 2005–06, bumped to 105hp for 2007, then 110hp at 7,750rpm for the DOHC “Camhead” in 2010–12

• Around 85–89 lb-ft depending on year.

• Somewhere in the neighborhood of 500–520lb wet, which is 20-odd pounds lighter than the liquid-cooled bike that replaced it.

• Six speeds

• Shaft drive

• Two flavors: the standard GS and the long-range Adventure, with the bigger tank and the taller everything.

What it is... The GS with the fewest points of failure. The cylinders hang out in the airstream on either side of your shins, so the weight sits down at your ankles and the bike lies to you about how big it is. It should handle like a filing cabinet. It handles like something two hundred pounds lighter. The torque shows up early and just stays, so you can crawl a fire road in second and then hold highway speed across a state with the motor barely awake. Telelever kills front-end dive under braking, which is deeply weird for about ten minutes and then becomes the thing you miss on every other bike you own. Shaft drive means no chain, no lube, no slack, forever. And there is no radiator, no coolant, no water pump. On a machine you intend to take somewhere with no cell service, that absence is a feature.

What it isn’t... New, light, or cheap to keep. This is still a 500-plus pound motorcycle. Parts are BMW parts and they are priced accordingly. The dealer network is thin, and if you live somewhere without one, congratulations, you are the dealer network. It is also not the off-road weapon the brochure photos promised. It is an adventure tourer.

Who it’s for... The rider who wants a bike that will still be running at 150,000 miles and does not mind that it took some work to get there. The one-bike household: commuter Monday, two-up tourer Saturday, gravel road Sunday. And specifically, the rider who wants to actually own the machine, not just insure it. This is the last GS you can genuinely wrench on without a laptop and a subscription.

Who it’s not for... The new rider. Not because it is unridable, but because 500 pounds is an expensive way to learn to pick a bike up. It is also not for the person who wants the ride modes, the TFT screen, and the electronic suspension.

A note from the shop... Know which engine you are buying, because it changes what you can do in your own garage. The Hexhead (2005–09) uses screw-and-locknut valve adjusters, which means a valve check is an evening with a feeler gauge and a beer. The Camhead (2010–12) went to shim-and-bucket, which means pulling camshafts. Same bike on the outside. Very different Saturday. Either way the interval comes up around every 6,000 miles, which sounds brutal until you realize it is bundled with the oil change.

Then check three things before you hand over a dollar.

• The final drive, for weeping oil.

• The driveshaft splines, which want lubing and which nobody ever lubes.

• And the ABS: the 2005–06 bikes used a servo-assisted Integral ABS system that is expensive when it fails, and BMW dropped the servo for 2007.

If a seller shrugs at any of those three, walk. A GS with a fat folder of receipts and 90,000 miles is a better buy than a mystery bike with 30,000. Mileage is not the risk on this motor. The last owner is.

Takeaways

• The air/oil-cooled boxer is the cheapest honest way into a GS, and the simplest one BMW ever built at this size

• Hexhead (2005–09) is the DIY-friendly one: screw-and-locknut valves. Camhead (2010–12) makes more power but the valve job is a real job

• 2007 and later dropped the servo ABS. That is worth money

• No radiator, no coolant, no water pump. Fewer things to fail a long way from home

• Buy the service history, not the odometer. These motors do not care about miles. They care about neglect

• It is not a dirt bike. It is an adventure tourer that will survive dirt, which is what most of us actually need

Looking for the R 1200 GS community? Find every active forum HERE