SIMPLIFY then add LIGHTNESS

The new R 1300 GS is Colin Chapman's philosophy in action, which makes the GS _. holistically more accessible and friendlier

- Dipayan Dutta

BMW’s new flagship GS is here, the R 1300 GS. And straight up, don’t be fooled by the new 1300 badge, it may displace more but to say that it has grown is folly. The 1200 and the derivative 1250 have been around for two decades, and with incremental upgrades over the years have kept its place at the apex of the adventure motorcycle space, even though the central architecture and the motor hadn’t changed significantly. It was enough to retain the GS as the undisputed king of the big adventure bikes. But now with this new GS, BMW has retained the core competency requirements but redefined the GS under three base principles, making it compact, lighter and simplified.

The first taste of this philosophy manifest is the design. And yes, we know it’s polarised the interwebs. But let us leave the angry mob and accept that form, on this brand-new GS, follows function. The function is simple, making it lighter, more compact and less intimidating. The headlight is the most polarising, ditching the iconic asymmetrical design and setting the tone for what is an otherwise diminutive relative to the previous generation of the bike. It looks smaller more compact and in that right friendlier. The beaky front has been retained but like the rest of the bodywork, it’s less bulky and svelt. The most defining feature is still the big displacement boxer, but now, if you look at it head-on the left and right cylinders are symmetric.

A detail that took a ground-up redesign of the cylinder, the crank and the firing order. If that’s not a testament to BMW’s dedication to the cause, I don’t know what is. The windscreen is now electrically adjustable and it does a more than commendable job of blocking windblasts even if you’re above 6 feet tall. Drop it lower, and it’s much easier to see where you’re going in the corners. And the best bit of it happens on the go, and at whatever speed.