Have you noticed how the escapist appeal is getting increasingly romanticised off late? It&rsquo;s in times of sheer bewilderment and overburdening that we tend to gravitate towards things that bring us peace. We seek out what feels most natural to us. Because let&rsquo;s face it, humans weren&rsquo;t designed to live in heavily industrialised cities, work nine-to-five jobs and gaze dreamily at solid concrete walls. So we as motorcyclists aim to get as far away from these urban nightmares as we possibly can at the first chance we get. It&rsquo;s no wonder then, ADV motorcycles have become all the rage in recent years. What sets this cross-continental buffet of ADV bikes apart, though, is how differently they do the exact same thing. More importantly, it&rsquo;s how much more relaxed your brain is after a hard day&rsquo;s ride. And trust you me, that little &lsquo;Adventure&rsquo; tag to the F 850 GS&rsquo; nomenclature will probably make you eligible to be a successor to the Dalai Lama.Now I&rsquo;ve ridden the 850 GS before. It may not have the refinement of the Triumph Tiger or the urgency of Ducati&rsquo;s Multistrada 950. But what it does have is a very natural feel to it, which makes it a very unintimidating bike to ride despite its ADV proportions. As with all BMWs, it&rsquo;s the feature list that sets the models apart. So what exactly does the Adventure model entail? Well for starters, it&rsquo;s got the larger 23 litre tank, so longer range is a given. And despite it looking absolutely massive, once you&rsquo;re aboard, the bike fits like a glove. The girth of the tank actually gives you better protection against the elements. And boy do I know this. I chose to test this bike in Western Ghats in the peak of the wet season. So the adjustable windscreen did help a wee bit with wind blast. And it doesn&rsquo;t hamper road visibility much once it gets mucked up like the Tiger&rsquo;s does. The 850 GSA also comes factory fitted with crash guards that thankfully I didn&rsquo;t have to test the integrity of.<img src="https://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/1132/371748/5d811bafa878b/1568742260425.jpg"" owidth=830 oheight=1078" style="height:700px; width:539px" />The more I rode this bike, the more I started to appreciate the practicality of it. In fact I&rsquo;d ridden the 1250 GSA just a few months back. To me that was just a bit of overkill, especially for a country like India. Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, though. That ShiftCam tech on the boxer engine is just magical. But this 850 GSA has sufficient oomph to keep you well engaged no matter what situation presents itself. The engine has a very tractable feel to it and the traction control is adaptive to the road conditions. So despite the heavens pouring down like nobody&rsquo;s business, I could keep a rather impressive pace on the highway. And the ergonomics are just aces, too. Like I mentioned earlier, the bike fits like a glove. So fatigue builds a lot slower than it normally would on Indian roads.<img src="https://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/1132/371748/5d811bafa878b/1568742287180.jpg"" owidth=829 oheight=424" style="height:358px; width:700px" />But the aspect of this bike that really drew me in was how well the suspension works on our roads, especially at highway speeds. Now most ADV bikes do have excellent suspension setups that make them the two-wheeled equivalent of SUVs. But it&rsquo;s the way the suspension behaves at higher speeds that ensures there&rsquo;s very little you&rsquo;ll need to slow down for. Throw on a set of knobbies and wait until the slush mellows down and I could easily see this bike being quite a competitive rally machine. Of course I highly doubt that&rsquo;s what buyers in India will aim for but it is a possibility. It&rsquo;s got just an inch of more travel than the 850 GS but it makes a world of difference. In fact I even had a friend&rsquo;s Tiger to ride for reference. And while the Tiger will manage a similar pace on bad roads and on the highway, on the 850 GSA the experience is simply sublime. It&rsquo;s like all you need to do is point it in the direction you want to go and worry about nothing else.And that&rsquo;s exactly what you&rsquo;re looking for in an ADV bike. If you&rsquo;ve just had a long, hard day of riding and you still feel like spending some more time on the bike, then that&rsquo;s saying a lot. At least in my books. There&rsquo;s very few motorcycles that have that effect on me now. Not once did I crave for more power or lighter weight. Okay maybe less weight when I got bogged down in some slush. But in the bike&rsquo;s defence, any bike would get embedded in deep slush. Stick on a set of more off-road biased tyres like the Pirelli Scorpion Rally, and it will make a world of difference; if you&rsquo;ve got off-road trails on the agenda, that is. It&rsquo;s a tad more expensive than the Tiger 800 XCA or a fully kitted out Enduro version of the Multistrada 950. But if motorcycling nirvana is what you seek, trust me, the 850 GSA will make you forget about those few extra thousand rupees in the first 100 km of riding it.

Zen Hammer

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