km : Daily Driver

Motorcycles are a fixture of the kilometer offices and garage. A Ducati Sport 1000 and a Triumph 675 Daytona track bike usually take center stage in the reception area of the office, on display like trophies. Near the garage door usually sits our 2001 Triumph Bonneville project bike, always ready for a quick run. And scattered throughout are various vintage bikes and scooters in various states of disrepair (oddly, those are all Hondas). Ignoring concerns that a critical mass of motorcycles piling up might lead to absolutely no work getting done (it’s a miracle you’re able to read these words at all!) we invited a new bike into the garage, except it’s been spending the majority of its time outside, on the road, where a motorcycle truly belongs. BMW’s 2010 R1200GS has become an instant favorite among the staff.

BMW essentially created the dual-sport category thirty years ago with the first production R80G/S . The R1200GS, the latest evolution of the concept, is certainly not a new bike, but it has received a major engine update for 2010. Dual overhead cams inside radial-valve heads first debuted on the high-performance R 1200 S endurance racers, later seeing duty in the limited-production HP2 Sport. For 2010, all of BMW’s 1200-cc boxer bikes get this advanced valvetrain along with revised cam profiles and larger valves and throttle bodies; collectively these changes bump power to 110 peak horses (up 5 hp over the previous) and extend the rev range another 500 rpm to 8500.

Otherwise, the big GS (there’s also an inline-twin F800GS) is essentially unchanged over the 2009 model. Our black example showed up following the press launch near Yosemite National Park, and was still wearing its Metzler knobbies from the event, though the original Continental street tires were also on the truck. Ours was equipped with the no-cost low suspension option, along with the shorter seat. This combination yields a 31-inch seat height — a full three inches lower than the standard suspension and seat setup — which is just about perfect on the street for the couple of us with 32-inch inseams. Eventually we’ll retrofit the standard seat to add another 1.3 inches, gaining a little bit of peg spacing in the process. If we were planning to do some serious off-roading, we might be disappointed in the standard suspension, but since we’ll be primarily on unbroken paved roads, it seems to be just fine.

We spent the first month or so (roughly a thousand miles of riding) with the off-road tires. They perform far better on asphalt than one might imagine, the only real downside being noise and a slightly squirmy feeling at certain lean angles as the various tread blocks do their best to grab full contact with the road. The noise issue was by far the biggest annoyance, however. Between about 45 and 65 mph, riders dealt with resonant frequency inside the helmet that bordered on ear-bleeding. Push it past 65 mph, however, and it all went quiet.

The street tires were refitted just this week, and naturally the noise is no longer a problem. The GS also turns in much sharper and feels even more stable through corners and in braking on the sport rubber.


Riding has been trouble-free so far. With nearly 1500 miles on the odometer, we’ll need to top up the oil soon, as it’s near the bottom of its safe range. The trip computer seemed to be hung up at 43.6 mpg, literally not budging for the first couple weeks we had it. Resetting it resulted in a more active reading, and about a 38.5-mpg average so far. We’ve noticed the transmission is reluctant to take first gear from a stop if the clutch lever is fully pulled, so we’ve modified our strategy to bring it roughly two-thirds of the way in when stopped. Otherwise it shifts fine; we’d just love to spend a little more time in sixth gear.

Dressing up a GS is part of the whole experience, and we have some stuff on the way. A Garmin GPS unit arrived this week, and we’ll report back on the installation and use of that in the next installment. By then our hard cases should have also arrived and been installed. And it will no doubt have many more miles on its clock.

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