game changer BMW’s 1981 R80G/S, which turned 40 this year, was more than the world’s first adventure bike and the mother of the movement…it rescued BMW’s motorcycle division. BY MITCH BOEHM PHOTOS: BMW ARCHIVES
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n my week-long Alps tour in late August with the Edelweiss Bike Travel folks (see page 18), I must have waved to several thousand motorcycles going the opposite direction — and I’m guessing way more than half were BMW GS models. Of course, with BMW having sold nearly a million of the things since the very first G/S appeared at the Cologne show in late 1980, I guess that makes some sense.
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AMERICAN MOTORCYCLIST •
NOVEMBER 2021
