“That’s the best motorcycle in the world.” – Everyone, ever.
Sometimes when we test something on The Smoking Tire, we have zero pre-concieved notions of what to expect. For example, when I recently reviewed the BMW F800R Motorcycle, I hadn’t heard anything about it from anyone besides the fleet manager, who said it was “Fun.” I just thought it looked cool and wanted to try it. The BMW R1200GS is exactly the opposite. I knew lots about it from lots of people. My friend Dave Maher spent 3 months wandering the United States on the back of one. Actor Ewan MacGregor famously circumnavigated the globe on one. Countless others have ridden unbelievable distances over incredible terrain on GS motorcycles for nearly 30 years. And when I was looking to buy a motorcycle in 2009, the GS was high on my shopping list. It ultimately didn’t fit my needs at the time, but I found it very interesting that used examples had approximately 1000% more miles than almost all other bikes on the market. I had a really hard time finding a used GS with less than 40,000 miles on the clock. So I knew that anyone who bought one of these bikes, bought it to ride, a lot. And although I didn’t end up buying one back in 2009, if you asked me what bike I’d like to own today, my story would be drastically different, and include just one option: The R1200 GS. And that’s because after just 15 minutes of riding, I learned that everyone who’s ever told me that the GS is the best motorcycle in the world is exactly right. Hit the jump to find out why.
