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10 Years BMW Motorrad Days celebrates 30 Years of GS

14/05/2010

In just seven weeks time, BMW Motorrad Days will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in the picturesque Alpine resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. However, it’s not the only celebration that will be taking place, as this year the most iconic model in the history of BMW Motorrad has its 30th birthday – the legendary GS.

Wherever you go in the world, you’ll be sure to find riders on BMW GS machines, exploring new horizons and discovering places faraway from the comfort of their own homes. It’s hard to believe that when the original R 80 G/S was presented to the press at Avignon in France in September 1980, there wasn’t anything like it in existence. Off-road motorcycles were rarely bigger than middleweight capacity and clearly defined in their role. Here was an all-new 800cc flat-twin machine that could tackle anything from urban and long-distance riding to off-road enduros.

Needless to say, the GS was an instant hit and soon became BMW Motorrad’s best selling model. Fast forward 30 years later and this is still very much the case, and although the latest incarnations have more than twice the power and are a lot faster than the original, it was never about speed or horsepower with the GS – the journey was always more important than the destination. Getting somewhere quickly was never the objective; what you saw and who you met along the way was much more important.

At Garmisch-Partenkirchen on the first weekend of July, expect to see GS owners arriving at BMW Motorrad Days on all sorts of models spanning the past three decades, which will be a sight in itself. But that’s not all, because there will be a special 30 Years of GS exhibition where all the important models in the history of the BMW GS range from 1980 to 2010 will be on display.

Just imagine: three decades of BMW GS history all under one roof. It’s a rare opportunity to see some of the machines that really created and defined the Adventure Travel genre and have taken motorcyclists all over the world, to places where other motorcycles just cannot go.

For BMW Motorrad’s Franz Geisenhofer, who is responsible for the organization of BMW Motorrad Days, the opportunity to showcase many of these iconic machines will be a special treat for visitors – and one they shouldn’t miss.

“We’re extremely proud of the GS heritage so it will be great to celebrate 30 years of success here at Garmisch-Partenkirchen from 2 – 4 July. In addition to some very special GS customer machines, we’re also planning on showing the successful Paris Dakar factory race bikes from the late 1990s, which are truly amazing. The exhibition tent will also include a BMW Classic section, where GS fans can speak to BMW heritage expert Fred Jakobs. There will also be a souvenir 30 Years GS magazine on sale, and famous GS globetrotter Michael Martin will be there with his books and DVDs.”