Gelande/strasse

GELANDE/STRASSE

BMW’s GS has launched a million adventure dreams. This man’s became a 32-year reality.

HELGE PEDERSEN

It was a rainy day in my hometown of Kristiansand, Norway, when I picked up my first BMW G/S. The year was 1981, and I had decided to leave my photography career for a two-wheel journey to Africa.

At the time, the BMW R80G/S was the perfect template for a world traveler taking to the road. This was during the early years of adventure-touring on two wheels, and there were no aftermarket parts to speak of. I did, however, manage to get a Heinrich 10.6-gallon fuel tank for the G/S through a friend studying medicine in Achen, Germany. He hand-carried it home for his Christmas vacation; for me, Santa came from Germany that year!

During that winter, “Olga,” as I came to call my trusty R80G/S, was born. She had wide hips in the form of homemade aluminum panniers and was equally endowed in front, thanks to that big fuel tank.

That adventure grew and ultimately took me around the world over a 10-year period. My life changed on so many levels. I met the love of my life in Seattle in 1988 and later moved

to the Northwest to live with Karen, now my wife. In 1993, Olga, my first love, retired at the BMW museum in Germany as I was given a brand-new BMW R HOOGS in exchange.

It was hard to part with the old air-head Boxer, a bike I had grown to know intimately. But I must say that it didn’t take long before I felt very comfortable with the new oil-head. Over the hundreds of thousands of miles traveling the world on various models of the GS (see “The GS Spotter’s Guide,” p. 46), I have been in almost every situation imaginable with the bikes and my riding partners, from the most wonderful to some of the most difficult.

To celebrate the introduction of the liquid-cooled 2013 R1200GS (p.34), I dug into my photo archives to find pictures of each generation of GS captured in the wild around the world. Each photo is numbered to help you find its location on the world map (p. 48).

Even if your best pictures are those lingering in your memory, these are exciting times to be a motorcycle world traveler.

Helge Pedersen’s book, Ten Years on Two Wheels, chronicling his 250,000-mile journey through 77 countries, was published in 1994. Four years later, Pedersen founded GlobeRiders, which, in his words, specializes in long-duration, adventure motorcycle travel throughout parts of the world neither easily accessible nor commonly visited. ” He is currently riding from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego on an R1200GS, the last oil/air-cooled version of the GS.

The GS Spotter’s Guide

R80G/S 1980 to 1983

BMW’s first Gelande/ Strasse machine opened a new market for world travelers.

Small fuel tank; underspec’d fork and shock begged for modifications to make it a capable adventure bike.

R1000GS 1987 to 1996

Fork upgraded to take the load; more horsepower and tubeless rims. Aftermarket parts readily available, and the segment is growing fast.

Weak subframe needs reinforcement to carry a world traveler’s loaded saddlebags.

R1100GS 1993 to 1998

Sexy, ass-kicking adventure bike takes world touring to a new level. First “oil-head.”

First-generation oil-head intimidates with increased complexity and angers purists.