40+1 YEaRS oF ThE GS

FEBRUARY 2021

By Duncan Bennett, Member #4171

Yes, I ride a 2019 Triumph Tiger 800XCa. Known as Aquaman to his friends due to his colour - Marine. But where did Aquaman come from? The Triumph Tiger is an ancient model, starting with the T100 in 1939 and made famous by Ted Simon during his first circumnavigation on his 500cc Tiger 100 in 1973. To the modern observer, it looks just like a Triumph Bonneville, no 200mm of fork travel there.

Ted did a second circumnavigation in 2001, but this time he was on a modified R80GS. The R80GS was already 21 years old by then after its European release in 1980.

It is no coincidence that most adventure motorcycles still look like the R80GS and its multitude of descendants, BMW set the standard and everyone else has just had to follow along. Looking at this photo of a Bumblebee 2008 F800GS, and looking back up at Aquaman, yes the colour is different and the chain is on the other side, but the Triumph design intention was certainly unmistakable - make it look like a GS. And it still looks good 41 years later. So what does the R80GS look like? Well, you see it pretty much every day out on the road whenever an adventure motorcycle swings past. Every major brand besides BMW makes GS look-alikes these days - Triumph, KTM, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Ducati - just for starters.

After the Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman Long Way Round in 2004 on R1150GS’s, if you weren’t getting a piece of that touring and adventure motorcycling action then you were going nowhere. Spare a thought for poor old KTM who were selected to provide the bikes, but pulled out due to fear of what happens if they don’t make it. 17 years later I’d suggest raising that topic at a KTM product meeting would still meet stony silence. Too soon?

The GS created a market that has become a big one to satisfy the demands of “farm roads and beyond”.