BMW R 1100GS

My predecessor here at Acton Towers always had a soft spot for BMW's agricultural GS. Me, I never cared much for it, being at the time a callow youth more interested in head down, no nonsense sports bikes than plodding trailies. But then I rode one.

Not being brave enough to take the heavy and unwieldy GS off road, my mudlarking abilities being just this side of useless, I used the lump as a commuter and as an occasional long distance machine if I wasn't in a rush. And yes, like many idiosyncratic pleasures in life, it did take time to understand and appreciate just where BMW was coming from.

Progress on the old GS was nearly always slow and stately. Anyone who has ever ridden a two-valve per-head Boxer will know that it's not much good revving the twin to the red line. But for all day plodding potential it was hard to beat.

A similar scenario applies to brakes and chassis. Although solid and well-crafted, finesse could be said to be lacking. Especially in the braking department.

In 1993 BMW launched what many thought was a bike long past its delivery date - the R1100RS. Not only did it feature the new four-valve head Boxer twin, which had been revealed in the press pack, but it also came complete with BM's own funny front end - Tele-lever. Which wasn't revealed to the press prior to the Lanzarote launch and came as something of a surprise to the hacks who had craftily written their 'tests' before they'd so much as ridden the bike.

As those of you who have followed the funny front end story will know, the BM Telelever set-up is not dissimilar to the Motodd suspension package, developed over the last decade. Front forks as we know and love them don't actually exist in the Telelever package. Instead what you are faced with are fork tubes 35mm in diameter and a horizontal wishbone attached via the forks to the engine casing.

A central spring mounted vertically in front of the engine casing is adjustable five ways for preload. The forks, rather than suspending the bike act only as a guide for the front wheel and for steering the plot. They don't feature any spring or damper components and consequently maintenance is minimal. Ball joints within the slide tube and fork bridge transmit steering movement. The other ball joint, bolted to the longitudinal control arm feeds braking force into the engine housing.

For what outwardly looks something of an agricultural package, the R1100GS is, in fact, one of the most modern motorcycles you can buy. And is yet another example of how in the last 18 months BMW have gone to great lengths to update an image that was beginning to fade in the eyes of techno-junkies from Munich to Manchester.

If you think the front end is a trick set up, Boxer fans will be astonished at how one of the longest lived engines has been given a new lease of life.

The only question mark that hangs over the new setup is its resilience to crash damage. With such a small area in which to incorporate the new valve gear, the thought of the bike being bounced down the road on its side had my wallet quaking. Whereas on the old GS the two-valve heads were protected by crash bars and lacked the complex internals of the R-Series, this time round enthusiastic mud fetishists may have second thoughts about taking the GS anywhere off-road apart from on the most gentle of trails.

Which brings me neatly to what most of you have already surmised. The R1100GS is not a trail bike. It may look like one. Indeed you'll be hard pushed to find a more aggressively styled motorcycle anywhere. But only the truly insane would attempt to tackle anything other than metalled roads on the 4611b Hdry) GS. Which is a shame, because where the old model scored was in its go anywhere, do anything appetite for destruction.

Sitting atop the new GS the view is disturbingly similar to the old. Handlebars are wide, seat is deep and comfortable and dials for speed and rpm are minimalist in design. Although this year a fuel and oil temperature gauge to the right of the instrument pod and a redesigned row of easily legible idiot lights add to the feeling that this bike is destined to spend its time on rather than off the road.

Such impressions are reinforced when you thumb the starter. The GS is without doubt one of the quietest bikes I've ever ridden. The exhaust note is so strangled (perhaps thanks to the catalyst), that you can hear every movement of the valve gear, even when you load the revs and dump the clutch to effect a lightning getaway from the lights.

If it were not for the subdued punching of the Boxer's cylinders and the barely noticeable torque reaction from the Paralever shaft, you'd be hard pushed to discern just what sort of an engine was powering the BeeEmm.

Although the bike's character is hidden behind a mask of restrictive silencing, the new GS could prove to be as much of a classic as the machine it supersedes. Or rather it could be if mere mortals could consider riding it on the dirt. Perhaps BMW should consider tempting 'Tom Thumb' Rahier out of retirement to give nascent off-road heroes something to shoot at.

But perhaps I'm being a wee bit churlish here. For while there's little doubt that the bike's green lane potential has been marginalised, on the road it is a vast improvement.

The four-valve head twin takes most of the credit for this. Although it is not as fast as the 100bhp R1100RS, which has a top-end good enough for speeds in excess of 130mph, the GS has been retuned - or should that be detuned? - by way of softer cams, valve-timing, lower compression pistons and remapped engine management circuit to produce huge gobs of torque. In fact the Boxer's engine now only pumps out 80 horses at 6700rpm. But by way of compensation is comfortably in the tree stump pulling league, producing a rippling 72ftlbs of torque at 5300rpm.

This translates to an engine that is so easy to keep on the boil that it is only in stop-start rush hour traffic that you need to slip below third gear. Which is, all things considered, not such a bad thing because if there is one characteristic the R1100GS has inherited from the model it replaces it is its gearbox, which needs to be approached with some caution. Not I should add because gears don't drop in - eventually - but because the 'box seems to be too slow for the free revving engine.

Having hauled in the beefy clutch and tapped down into first, you might be forgiven for thinking the 'box something of a revelation. You would, however, be mistaken. Although feel is light, matching the crisp throttle action, you'll find that while up changes through the five ratios can be made without necessitating the use of the clutch, down changes need to be planned well in advance.

Even with a much lightened flywheel it takes some time for engine revs to fall, ensuring that hasty down-changes will be met with some protestation from the recalcitrant 'box. But with a reduced final drive ratio for everyday riding there will be few complaints, despite fifth feeling a little short for high speed cruising.

While such familial resemblance may be appreciated by Boxer die-hards, to those brought up on Japanese gearboxes it will prove a nuisance. To me it reinforced a link with the past that although present in the riding position is absent elsewhere. Some will cherish every down-change as it will remind them of their first R80. Others will feel shortchanged, bemoaning the fact that if BMW could update the rest of the bike, what happened to the gearbox?

Such whingeing shouldn't, however, dissuade you from throwing a leg over the GS. Those short of stature might not dare sit on this leviathan despite BM's innovative seat which can be lowered from 33.8 - 33 inches. But once on the move the all up weight of the machine seems less of a handful than at first might be thought.

Tipping the GS into a series of third and fourth gear bends it surprised with the precision it could be steered. Over smooth surfaces the bike while not approaching the handling available from sports machinery was hardly an embarrassment. Indeed to the uninitiated the rapidity with which the bike can be dropped from a small angle of lean to full over courtesy of the low centre of gravity provided by the Boxer layout could come as something of a surprise.

After a couple of hundred miles, however, you can throw it around with some vigour. Something I never really felt comfortable doing on the underbraked old-style GS which wore a single disc and twin pot caliper up front and a 200mm drum at the rear.

Spoked wheels wearing Metzeler Enduro tyres that are surprisingly suitable for the road and conversely unsuitable for all but the smoothest and driest of off road routes combine with top notch calipers and discs to make the GS best braked bike in class.

Equipped with four-piston calipers and twin 305mm discs up front and a 275mm disc and single opposed piston caliper at the rear matched to ABS, which can be switched off should you wish, means there is no shortfall in stopping power. Indeed when combined with the rigid front end which only has a limited amount of inbuilt dive, you can surprise even boy racers with the ferocity with which the bike can be brought to a halt. The only component that prevents almost suicidal late braking is the size of the contact patch on the 110/80 19 front Metzeler.

Despite misgivings toward the new chassis when I rode the R1100RS in '93, there's no doubt that the design has given the Boxer a new lease of life. The styling of the GS is a love it or loathe it affair, and I love it.

But whether it will fulfil the role of the bike it replaces remains to be seen. It certainly doesn't seem to enjoy the rugged simplicity of its parent. But for £8295 the new R1100GS provides a level of urban chic that only Triumph's Tiger, some £800 pounds cheaper, can hope to match. All it needs is a few Paris-Dakar victories to reaffirm its position as the biggest and best of the monster trail bikes. Hope you are reading Gaston.