As has been the case since the original R 1150 GS Adventure back in 2001, this beefed-up variation of the model has always been the bike for those seeking extra long-distance travel capability. The goal remains the same for this fourth-generation R 1300 GS Adventure, which is based on the R 1300 GS that preceded it a year ago. With so many new features, different options, and configurations we’d get to spend two full days in southern Spain riding the bikes on a variety of terrain from beat-up dirt roads to pristine asphalt in the mountains north of Gibraltar. Our goal? To determine why you’d opt for the “Adventure” version of the bike over the standard model.
Check out the story at https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/bmw-r-1300-gs-adventure-first-ride/
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6CLI74xvMBFLDOC1tQaCOQ
Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/
Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld
Check out the story at https://www.cycleworld.com/motorcycle-reviews/bmw-r-1300-gs-adventure-first-ride/
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6CLI74xvMBFLDOC1tQaCOQ
Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/
Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld
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SportsTranscript
00:00We're here in southern Spain to ride BMW's brand new 2025 R1300 GS Adventure, and what
00:06we came to discover is why would you buy the Adventure model over the standard base models
00:11that came out last year.
00:13So there's quite a few things that are different about this bike, and over the course of the
00:16next couple days we're going to ride this bike on road and off, and we're going to really
00:20get to the bottom of what this bike is all about, who the buyer is, and why they would
00:24buy this motorcycle over the standard base models.
00:27Alright, it's our first morning here in southern Spain, and we're getting ready to head out
00:31on our first day of two riding the new BMW GS1300 Adventure.
00:37And we're going to head south to a town called Tarifa, which is right on the Strait of Gibraltar.
00:42You can see Africa across there.
00:44So we're lined up on a dark morning, we're about to take off and get our first experience
00:48riding this bike, and we'll check in later in the day and just give you an idea of what
00:51we think.
00:57So one of the things that we need to talk about is BMW's brand new automated shift assistant.
01:07And so one of the bikes that we were riding over the course of the two days was equipped
01:11with this new automated shift assistant, or ASA system.
01:14First thing you need to know is it's a semi-automatic transmission, like some of the other systems
01:18out there.
01:19It doesn't have a clutch lever, but it has a foot shift lever.
01:22So basically, what you need to do before you go for a ride, or when you're about to
01:26take off, is decide are you going to ride in manual mode or are you going to ride in
01:30automatic mode.
01:32And so there's a button on the dash, and you can choose between those two.
01:36And then in order to get going in both modes, you basically shift down into first gear while
01:42holding the brake, and then you take off and it manages all the clutch action for you.
01:47The difference is, between the automated and the manual, obviously, is that in the
01:51manual mode, you're doing the shifting with the shift lever.
01:54You shift it in a conventional way, but if you do come to a stop and you have forgotten
01:59to downshift and it's about to stall, it will downshift for you.
02:04And then on the opposite side, if you're just banging the thing off the rev limiter and
02:09it thinks that you're going to damage the engine, it's going to upshift for you.
02:12Whereas the automated is fully what you would expect.
02:15You basically put it into gear, and then it becomes a fully automatic transmission
02:19making all the shift decisions for you.
02:21So when we started out the day, the very first thing that we did is to try out the manual
02:25mode.
02:26We headed up into the mountains above Malaga, Spain, and we're doing some pretty sporting
02:30riding.
02:31Honestly, the system in manual mode just works absolutely excellent.
02:35It shifts really crisp, much crisper than a normal quick shifter that we've experienced.
02:39And then you're basically making all the decisions.
02:41So once you take off from a stop, it really feels like a conventional motorcycle.
02:46Obviously, pulling away from a stop takes a little bit of trust.
02:49You know, the bike is basically doing all the clutch work for you, so you kind of have
02:53to build the trust with that.
02:56But after doing a whole bunch of U-turns for photos and things like that, we really got
03:01a good idea of how the bike picks up when it's taking off.
03:05And there's no herky-jerky motion or anything like that.
03:08I thought the system worked really, really well.
03:10And then the other thing is that off-road, when we were riding in the dirt, we really
03:15preferred the manual mode because it really allows you to kind of choose the gear that
03:20you want to be on.
03:21Let's say you're descending some steep dirt sections, and you want to have the engine
03:26braking available, and you don't want it upshifting when you're not expecting it, it really gives
03:31you the control that you want off-road.
03:33And so that's one of the benefits of having the manual mode and not always being in the
03:37automatic.
03:38Alright, now let's talk about what it's like to ride in the fully automated mode.
03:42And there's obviously some times where this is super nice, like riding around in urban
03:47traffic or if you're just on the highway, the fully automated mode really makes a lot
03:52of sense.
03:53And what's cool about the automated mode is it's tied to the bike's engine selections,
03:58or basically your mode selections.
03:59So if you're in a rain mode, for instance, it's going to be shifting pretty early and
04:05being really mellow.
04:06It's just a super smooth transition.
04:08Whereas if you switch the bike over to Dynamic Pro and you're riding in a really sporty way,
04:14it actually really worked well.
04:16We were trying it out for basically a big chunk of our day in fully automatic mode to
04:21just see how it worked.
04:22I came away really impressed.
04:24I think the way the system works is it knows basically what you're doing with your throttle
04:29input.
04:30It knows how aggressively you're braking and riding.
04:32For the most part, in fully automated mode, even when you're riding at a really aggressive
04:36pace, the system worked really, really well.
04:39It would hang on to the shifts for quite a while.
04:42For upshifting, you were getting the most performance out of the engine.
04:45But then when you would come into a corner and it could feel you braking aggressively,
04:50it would make a couple quick downshifts so that you would be in the right gear for exit
04:54of the corner.
04:55So overall, we were really impressed in most of those situations when we were riding.
04:59There was a couple instances where the bike upshifted mid-corner kind of on a big sweeping
05:04corner where we were on a neutral throttle and it just didn't know what to do.
05:09And then also trying to pass a line of cars one time didn't open the throttle aggressively
05:14enough and it didn't know to downshift, but we later figured out that you could be much
05:18more aggressive and it would make that shift for you.
05:20Then in the other situations when you're just riding around town, I thought the system worked
05:24really, really well.
05:25It tied to those modes that you were in really nicely.
05:29If you're riding off-road and you want to go into that manual mode, you have the option
05:33to do that and have that control.
05:35So this system, ASA, really kind of gives you the best of both worlds.
05:39And you know, if that's something that you're interested in, then overall our judgment was
05:45that the system works great and it kind of makes this bike more versatile than the standard
05:49model.
05:50If it's something that you're looking for, we would highly recommend it.
05:54So we just finished our first day on BMW's 2025 R1300 GS Adventure.
06:01It was a great day.
06:02We did a whole bunch of stuff.
06:03We rode a lot of really cool roads here in southern Spain on our way to Tarifa.
06:07And then we did a whole bunch of dirt today.
06:08We did a bunch of fire roads.
06:10We did some other stuff.
06:11And I'm really impressed with this bike.
06:14We've kind of already talked about the ASA, so we're going to talk about the engine.
06:18And the thing that I take away after spending a day on this bike riding on-road and off
06:23is this engine is so incredibly flexible.
06:27The nature of this engine, it's got 145 horsepower and 110 foot-pound of peak torque.
06:33And so that just gives you so much latitude to ride any way you want.
06:37So when we were in the dirt today, you put it in Enduro Pro, you've got ample torque,
06:42you can shift up to third gear and just crawl along.
06:45You can really work the gearbox and kind of find your happy spot.
06:50But then when you go out on the road and you're really ripping on a twisty, twisty road, the
06:55thing just absolutely moves.
06:57It's a real testament to the performance of the Boxer Twin.
07:01And now with the shift cam technology and everything, it's just got such a broad spread
07:05of power.
07:06It just opens up so many doors.
07:08And I think for the type of buyer who's buying this type of motorcycle, they want that flexibility.
07:14Sometimes they're going to ride off-road.
07:16Sometimes they're going to be on the street.
07:18Sometimes they're going to have their luggage loaded up with another passenger on the back.
07:22And so the flexibility that this engine generates is absolutely amazing.
07:27And BMW, you know, moving up to 1,300 CCs has just taken that ceiling and just made
07:33it a little bit better.
07:34And so I was really impressed.
07:35And this was my first time riding the 1,300.
07:39I didn't ride the bike last year on the base model.
07:41It's a big leap compared to the 1,250.
07:44And just the flexibility is what it's all about.
07:47The GSA has more suspension travel than on the standard model.
07:50So it's 8.3 in the front and 8.7 in the rear.
07:54That sounds really tall, and it seems like it could be a problem.
07:57But with BMW's new adjustable ride height that automatically lowers the bike 1.2 inches
08:03when you come to a stop, it really takes away that intimidation factor.
08:08So when you roll up to a stop, you don't have to worry about it.
08:11You can get your feet down pretty well.
08:13And it takes that stress out.
08:14And then when you're accelerating, when it gets up above 50 kilometers per hour, it raises
08:20up to its full height.
08:23And furthermore, we'll get into some of those other things when we talk about the ergonomics.
08:28But I think one thing that I noticed today, because I hadn't been on a GSA in a couple
08:33years, and the thing that clicked in my head today was that the telelever front end, the
08:40updated Evo telelever, just allows trail braking like no other motorcycle.
08:46Like the roads we were on today, we were on some wet roads, we were on some perfect roads.
08:51But you could really just get into the corner and just trail brake into the apex.
08:56And the bike just goes where you want.
08:57And it doesn't have that dive in front movement that some other bikes have.
09:01So it gives you a lot of confidence.
09:03And after you get used to that, after about an hour or so, it really makes this bike,
09:08which weighs 593 pounds with eight gallons of gas in it, it's a heavy motorcycle, but
09:14it hides its weight really well.
09:16And when you get out on those twisty roads, the dynamics of it are completely counterintuitive
09:23to what you would expect.
09:24On the tight, twisty roads, the bike just settles into the corner.
09:27It feels planted.
09:29It's completely trustworthy.
09:31Having not ridden a GSA in a couple years, it really took me a little bit to adapt.
09:34But once I did, I was just like, oh yeah, I remember how awesome this bike is to ride on the road.
09:40And then you've got, you know, a great braking system.
09:42So much of this bike is built around the electronics package, which we'll talk about later.
09:47But I think from a chassis standpoint, the GSA has a little bit longer wheelbase than
09:52the base model.
09:54The geometry is a little bit slacker, but it's still a very nimble motorcycle for its size.
10:01You look at the bike and you just think there's no way that this bike can handle as well as
10:05it does, but it kind of does it everywhere.
10:07And then out on the dirt today, same thing.
10:10We hit a lot of dirt hairpins.
10:12You could go into hairpins and really get the front end to bite in a manner that I thought
10:16was far better than you would ever expect from a motorcycle this size.
10:21And part of that is that the bike carries its weight really low with the Boxer engine.
10:27The confidence that this bike instills in you when you're riding, it really handles
10:31in a manner that you would just never expect for such a big bike.
10:35But overall, I think the chassis package is exactly what the rider's looking for.
10:41With the extra travel, it's absolutely plush when you want it to be.
10:45You switch into Enduro Pro, you're going over some rocks, and it handles the rocks so much
10:50better than a bike this size should.
10:52But then on the road, when you switch over to Dynamic Pro and you get into a road mode,
10:56everything stiffens up a little bit.
10:58But I think overall, the thing about the GS is it's such a balanced overall package.
11:03That's one thing that I think the buyer of this bike is looking for.
11:07And the one thing that we came here to really try to answer, which we'll try to get to,
11:12is that why would you buy a GSA over a standard BMW?
11:16And this bike has always been the globetrotter bike.
11:19This is the bike that if you're going to ride from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas, or you're
11:24going to ride from Alaska down the Pacific Coast Highway, and have one bike that can
11:29kind of do it all, you can load up the GSA with the panniers, you have all your gear,
11:34you put on the knobby tires, and this bike can kind of do it all, which is really impressive.
11:39So I think that that's the one thing that really separates it.
11:42You've got more fuel, you've got longer travel suspension, you've got some other details
11:48that make the GSA unique.
11:51It's also got a lot more of the bells and whistles stock on it that comes standard,
11:55so you add all those things up and it starts to make sense.
12:00And after we talk about the electronics package later, I think we'll have a really clear understanding
12:05of why you buy a GSA over a standard model.
12:08I'm really impressed.
12:09We're going to spend another day on it tomorrow, get to ride a whole other day, and so at the
12:13end of the day tomorrow, we'll kind of wrap everything up.
12:22Okay, so the next thing that we're going to talk about are the BMW R1300GS Adventures
12:32Electronics Package.
12:33Both of the versions that we rode over the past couple days have some different features.
12:38Some of them had the adaptive ride height control, some of them didn't, but there's
12:44a whole bunch of options that you can get, and we just wanted to kind of go over some
12:48of the basics.
12:49So like any of these bikes, you've got your basic rider aid packages with the TC and the
12:53wheelie control and all the stuff that you expect on a modern electronics package.
12:58But then on the BMW, you've got the adaptive ride height, which lowers the seat height
13:01about 1.2 inches when you come to a stop, and then as you accelerate over 50 kilometers
13:07per hour, it rises back up that same amount so that you can get good footing on the ground
13:12when you're stopped, and that's a big, big option that I would go for for most people
13:16because when this bike is loaded down and you're moving super slow, it does feel a little
13:20bit heavy.
13:21Some of the other options that the bike is available with is the radar-enabled cruise
13:25control, super nice, it's got the blind spot protection as well so you can see when somebody's
13:31in your blind spot.
13:33We tried out the cruise control on the Autostrada today, and it works very well.
13:38Picks up motorcycles, picks up cars, and just sets your speed and controls it just like
13:42you would expect.
13:43Couple of the other things, it's got the Shift Assist Pro, which is very interesting because
13:48after riding the ASA bike the other day, I really thought that the ASA with that type
13:54of transmission actually shifted a little bit better than the standard quickshifter,
14:01but the quickshifter works really well.
14:03I rode the clutch bike a lot today.
14:05I personally like the clutch bike, but I totally get the ASA bike, and one of those big advantages
14:11with that ASA bike is it just makes the shifting in manual mode super, super slick.
14:16So overall, you've got a lot of bells and whistles with the GSA, and I think going through
14:22the options packages and seeing what you want and what you're going to use, I think a lot
14:28of people are going to try out a bunch of these new features, but a couple things that
14:32I'd want to have for sure are the dynamic modes, I'd definitely want to make sure I
14:36had the quickshifter, the ASA, like I said, some people are going to really love it, some
14:41people may not want that and want to have the normal clutch, but there's a lot of options,
14:45so you can go through your options list and see what you want, but overall, everything
14:50that we experience works great.
14:52The navigation of the menus, everything is super intuitive.
14:55I hadn't been on a BMW in a little while, and you get into the menus and everything's
15:00easy to find and customize, so great job on the electronics.
15:05Over the course of the past couple days, we've ridden probably about 300 plus miles, and
15:10I guess the question that we came here to really answer was, why would you buy a GSA
15:15over the standard BMW GS model, and I think it just really depends on what you're going
15:20to do with the bike, but I think the person that is going to buy a GSA is somebody who
15:25really wants to travel in full comfort, you've got the larger windscreen, you've got longer
15:30travel suspension, you've got a lot more fuel range, definitely past 300 miles on a tank
15:35of gas with almost 8 gallons of fuel in the bike, and then you've got some of these new
15:39features that we talked about with the electronics and the ASA, and this is a really premium
15:44bike, but the thing about a GSA is this bike can really do it all.
15:48It really can, and we did a bunch of gravel roads, we did a bunch of dirt roads, we tried
15:53a whole bunch of different stuff like that, and this bike is amazing.
15:56You go out on the dirt roads and you can't believe that a bike this big handles this
16:01well and has such good front end stability and bite, and it just works excellent.
16:07And then you get out onto the twisty roads and it's such a great touring machine.
16:12It's got a great engine, the power, the delivery, everything about it just makes this bike really
16:17flexible, and so the GSA is really for that person who wants one bike that can kind of
16:23do everything.
16:24Maybe people aren't going to go and ride off-road as much as we did, but that doesn't matter
16:28because then the bike's great touring, but if you were riding from Tijuana to Cabo San
16:33Lucas and you wanted to have the perfect bike, well the GSA would be hard to argue
16:37against and you can do anything you want on this bike and travel anywhere you want to
16:41go and put the bags on, put a passenger on, and really go and do what this bike was meant
16:46for, and that's kind of globetrotting.
16:49So I think that's who this bike is for, and I think after two days we have a really clear
16:53understanding of what the GSA is all about.
16:56Anybody that's kind of looking for that do-it-all adventure bike that can tour and do dirt,
17:01this is the bike for sure.
17:03So I'm sure you're going to have comments and questions, so please, if you like what
17:06you see, like, leave comments in the comments, we'll try to answer them, and please subscribe,
17:12and thanks for watching.
17:13We'll see you next time.