2015 BMW R1200GS Adventure Review

2015 BMW R1200GS Adventure Review Backcountry exploration takes on a whole new meaning when 125 horsepower and 400 miles of range are available to facilitate one’s journey. It becomes a two-wheeled equalizer, where high desert two-track roads and mountainous jeep trails are both viable options for the rider whose goal is to string together tracks that will undoubtedly become an unforgettable motorcycle adventure. Enter the latest BMW R 1200 GS Adventure. The benefactor of over 30 years of continual refinement, the latest incarnation of the BMW R 1200 GS Adventure endows the mastodon of off-road motorcycles with a plethora of technical innovations of near bionic proportions, allowing it to travel farther, faster, and to more corners of the world than ever before. Aesthetically the big GS Adventure stays true to its iconic and rugged pedigree, with exposed cylinders, minimalistic bodywork, and aggressive, angular styling. The futuristic LED headlight design is its luminary calling card, announcing its presence to the world in a massive way. California’s Eastern Sierra is the ideal venue for this type of riding, from the snow-flecked peaks scraping 14,000 feet skyward, to the heat-curling horizons of Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park; this is big country, and the perfect proving ground for big adventure bikes. One thousand miles of challenging off-road terrain, twisty mountain roads, and wind-swept dry lake beds lay ahead of me, and would come together to form the yard stick to compare the 2015 GS Adventure against previous models, as well as some of the new arrivals from Japan and Austria, which have fortified the list of alternatives in the growing segment of “large travel enduro” motorcycles. Preparing for an epic big-bike off-road adventure typically entails a full day of work, from selecting and stowing the kit, to balancing it front to aft and side to side, to painstakingly adjusting spring preload and sag to optimize the bike for off-road performance. The entire process has become part and parcel to the overall experience. However, many of the choices in bike setup consequently compromise the on-road handling for the tarmac necessary to connect me to off-road nirvana. With Dynamic ESA (Electronic Suspension Adjustment), those days are in the past. This sophisticated electronics package won’t pack your panniers for you, but it does take care of nearly everything else. I can load up the bike and, before I’ve navigated beyond the limits of my suburban neighborhood, I’ve got the preload set for street conditions, my preferred power delivery mapping firing nicely, and my thumb is poised over the cruise control switch in anticipation of sneaking past Friday rush hour traffic. Atop the GS Adventure, the mastodon actually appears bigger than it feels. Vertical aspiration is incredibly efficient, and the physical manifestation are throttle bodies that are now located above the opposing twin cylinders, rather than behind them. This p