Spotlight: 30 years of the BMW R 80 G-S

Posted on 14.07.2015 by admin

Spotlight: BMW R 80 G / S

30 years of the BMW R 80 G / S

MOTORRAD had invited to the all-terrain boxer’s milestone birthday – and everyone came. Designers and inventors, a few companions from the competition, the big sister R 1200 GS and, for the serenade with a souvenir photo, the brass band – originally Bavarian.

Many anniversary motorcycles share the same fate: they no longer exist. Retired by the marketing department, victim of the ruthless market economy or overtaken by a new trend. The original R 80 G / S is also history. However, a story with an almost magical ending. To experience the legends and myths about the creation of the BMW R 80 G / S first hand, MOTORRAD invited those people who, with their enthusiasm and passion, had put a completely new type of motorcycle on wheels: the travel enduro.

S.or are scattered today, so racing legend Helmut Dahne reactivated the old contacts for MOTORRAD. The man from Munich, who was involved in the development of the Metzeler Enduro 1 profile specially designed for the GS, actually brought together all of the remaining specs from the BMW development department. Not even today, since everyone is of the sprightly retirement age, one should expect the gentlemen to travel to the Jagerwirt in the idyllic Aufhofen south of Munich in a stylish 5-series BMW. These men are carved from a very special, one might say hardwood. Hardened by the tough school of off-road sports and infested with the sheer passion for motorcycles, they casually balanced their private and carefully kept G / S on the main stand. "Samma olle do?"- Yes we are all there.

Spotlight: BMW R 80 G / S

30 years of the BMW R 80 G / S

Africa Twin 650 / RD03 and Yamaha’s Super Tenere 750 in a white / yellow / blue rally look. To round off 30 years of development history, the Ducati Multistrada 1200 marches alongside the current BMW R 1200 GS and demonstrates with over 150 hp, fat 17-inch wheels and a whole sack, pardon a whole black box full of electronic hocus-pocus, where the development has gone. A greater distance from the original idea of the R 80 G / S is currently hard to imagine. Switching to the "Enduro fashion" little.

In stark contrast to the modern Italian interpretation of the big enduro theme, the G / S models of the former development team stand in line. Equipped for travel and everyday use or as a radical 75 HP lightweight construction by Laszlo Peres, a dream for every boxer freak. She won’t let go of it, the G-dash-S. Does anyone else have a new GS 1200 in the garage? Entering silence. "The hom of oim z’vui. Z’vui Gwicht, z’vui technique – and z’hoch san’s a, the Neien." Did not understand? No. Then again in written German. "They have too much of everything. Too much weight, too much technology and they are too tall, the newcomers", That is the unanimous tenor of the veteran BMW squad. You still see a G / S as a motorcycle for off-road use. Handy, agile, with coarse studs, fine characteristics and ready acceleration from all speeds.

Jahn

If it can no longer be an original G / S, then a late basic is also permitted. The main thing is to be as light and simple as possible.

Weak market and risky management decisions – in 1979 BMW motorcycle production was on the verge of collapse. Fortunately, the development department managed to take advantage of an important trend of the time. The history of the BMW R 80 G / S is linked to that of an entire class of motorcycle. Animated by the desert rallies that have become fashionable, motorcycle adventurers packed huge tanks on spindly off-road machines, bunkered vital water supplies in fat canisters and thus circumnavigated the whole world. Other globetrotters rely on the quality and performance of tried and tested road machines and tried to compensate for short suspension travel and lack of ground clearance with massive engine protection. As a result, Japanese mass-produced motorcycles, completely unsuitable for off-road use, left wide and deep tracks in the desert sand.

Out of these twists and turns, a motorcycle was created in Munich that was supposed to combine full performance from 800 cubic centimeters of displacement and acceptable off-road capability. Developed by a handful of BMW men who converted their experiences with the factory off-road machines from the late 1970s into a series product. After all, the boxers got involved in the enduro class over 750 cubic centimeters created in 1978. BMW chassis developer Laszlo Peres already set an example in the first year with the runner-up title. His self-built motorcycle, unpainted and weighed dry, weighed just 124 kilograms. The Allgau enduro specialist Richard Schalber closed the sack in 1979 and brought the championship title to Munich. You’d think that BMW couldn’t have staged a better debut for the R 80 G / S. But the G / S project was actually on shaky ground. Strangely enough, that was due to the engine.

In the mid-1970s, the number of votes calling the bumper boxer increased "old fashioned" criticized and wanted to abolish. He almost took the G / S concept with him to the grave. And so a G / S forerunner, internal name, came to an end in the basement of the testing department "Red devils", his shadowy existence. Only when the shine of the headlights focused on the off-road, soberly made one-off and the design department added an appealingly painted prototype, the passionate practitioners were able to convince the BMW management team of the G / S concept."The G / S actually came into being in secret, because the management at the time did not know what to do with off-road sports and enduro bikes," Head of Development Richard Heydenreich remembers the difficult time in Munich. To get to the point: there were neither construction plans nor a marketing strategy for the R 80 G / S. All preliminary stages were the handcrafted tinkering of a handful of enthusiastic motorcycle freaks. Your hour came when the motorcycle division was in dire straits.

Jahn

Staggered from front to back: the G / S, the competitor models inspired by it and the descendants from 2010.

Under pressure from Japanese competition and the growing influence of car manufacturers at BMW, prototypes of a new boxer model, known as the K1, and two horizontal in-line engines with three and four cylinders were created by 1979. Richard Heydenreich had to decide about these developments when he started his job as head of development. He stopped all three. "At 255 kilograms, the K1 was much too heavy without noticeably more power than a / 7.

The in-line engines had little in common with the later ones, they were short-stroke engines with a very large bore. That would have been possible with the three-cylinder, but it made the four-cylinder much too long. We had to start all over and urgently needed an attractive model to bridge the gap, otherwise the motorcycle division would not have survived. So we took what we had and got the G / S ready for series production in just one and three quarters of a year."

The G / S was allowed to weigh a maximum of 200 kilograms, the high art of omission was in demand. In the hunt for every superfluous gram, the development team was given a treasure that had been hidden in the drawer until then: the revolutionary single-sided swing arm. BMW designer Hans Albrecht had come up with it and presented his boss with a finished construction drawing. It was so convincing that samples were made immediately. Test director Ekkehard Rapelius still remembers the coincidence with a smile. "The two-sided swing arm left no space for the intended, raised two-in-one silencer, while the asymmetrical single-sided swing arm freed up the left rear area, was two kilograms lighter and moreover 30 percent stiffer."By the way, the single-sided swing arm made changing wheels child’s play. Of course, the transition to the new technology did not go off without any problems. The three wheel bolts loosened on the first prototypes. Richard Heydenreich’s troops only got this phenomenon under control when they switched from the conical wheel bolts common in cars to threaded bolts with nuts and separate, inlaid conical rings. In all of the following Boxer series, four nuts clamped the wheel onto the hub. Better safe than sorry.

30 years of BMW G / S part 2

Jahn

The G / S always tempts you to ride on small roads through the countryside.

There were already indications that a single brake disc in the 21-inch front wheel could be too radical a lightweight construction. So it said in MOTORRAD 17/1980: "A lot of hand strength, little braking effect." Which by and large exhausted the criticism of the brand new G / S. There was no lack of superlatives when the BMW R 80 G / S was presented in MOTORRAD. The talk was of the largest, fastest and most expensive enduro. No wonder, since back then only the spearhead of Japanese cult enduros was digging through the deserts of this earth, the 33 hp single-cylinder Yamaha XT 500. Introduced in 1976 and immediately loved as an adventure motorcycle, the XT 500 was for 5098 Mark plus additional costs compared to the 8920 mark expensive BMW R 80 G / S the purest bargain and with 155 kilograms also a real flyweight. Aside from half-hearted scrambler models with raised exhaust systems and antler-hard handlebars, neither the European competitors nor the Japanese had a two-cylinder off-road machine on their plan at the time.

G / S set this stone rolling. Impressed by the engine, chassis and handling, the MOTORRAD test drivers in 1980 came to a clear and unambiguous conclusion: "The R 80 G / S is the best street BMW that MOTORRAD has ever driven." A message that got everywhere. The Munich-based company had proven that the balancing act between off-road suitability and road quality can actually be achieved.

Honda hit the first counterattack in 1983. The XLV 750 R was brightly colored in the spectacular factory colors and modeled after the Crossers with a fire-red V2 engine. Cardan drive, single disc brake, 19.5-liter tank, 61 hp, 220 kilograms – it goes without saying that the stylish Honda aimed exactly at the concept of the Munich inventor. Nevertheless, she achieved only moderate sales success. Which is a shame despite all the sympathy for the G / S, because as we know today, the XLV 750 R had a lot more potential than Honda wanted to develop.

Jahn

The lamp mask is one of the few details that the designers contributed to the G / S. The technicians designed most of the work themselves.

Not only the big Japanese motorcycle manufacturers were inspired by the Munich idea, the small European manufacturers also tried their hand at the ingeniously simple concept. The resounding success was also denied them.

After the XLV, Honda needed another four years before the robust, staid Transalp XLV 600 could compete with the G / S for the first time. However, this only really succeeded in the Africa Twin XRV 650 from 1988. Classy styled, with a perfect synthesis of off-road capabilities and road qualities, the XRV 650 opened the battle for the favor of wind and sun-tanned adventurers.

Yamaha entered the competition in 1989, packed a 69 hp twin in the tubular steel chassis and raised the bar a little higher in terms of performance. The growing popularity of the BMW GS, from 1987 without a line, could not be affected by any. Incidentally, the R 100 GS, which is equipped with a drive-neutral Paralever swing arm, was created in complete secrecy.

Ignored by the enduro purists among BMW drivers because of an overdose of technology and weight, the R 1100 GS from 1994, the first with a four-valve boxer, found its way to global success. Subscribed to the title of the best-selling motorcycle in Germany for years, the constantly evolving GS boxers gradually cast a spell over the sporty Italians, the patriotic French and Spaniards, and even the English. On its thirtieth birthday, the R 1200 GS became the world’s best-selling motorcycle. The developers at G / S would not have dared to dream that. But they probably already had an inkling of the special quality of their creation. Richard Heydenreich: "The R 80 G / S was the only future-oriented new design from BMW that everyone, but really every employee in the motorcycle department was completely enthusiastic about. There has never been such unanimous approval for any project before or after."

The competition of the BMW R 80 G / S

8th Pictures

Images: Spotlight: BMW R 80 G / S

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Spotlight: 30 years of the BMW R 80 G-S

30 years of the BMW R 80 G / S

30 years of BMW G / S part 2

The competition of the BMW R 80 G / S

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