BOXER TRICKS

Some things are better off left in the past, like fluorescent sweat bands, mullets and Wham! But the same can't be said for BMW's nostalgia-fuelled R12 G/S.

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You've got to hand it to BMW. It's the master of big adventure bikes and, arguably, the originator of the sector, having brought this world to life back in 1980 when an 'out of the box' engineer decided to go rogue and give an R 80 the daddy-long-legs treatment. The result? Well, a gangly R 80, dubbed the R 80 G/S. It was a bike that would go on to spawn imagination, adventure, and several Dakar wins. Perhaps even more importantly, it would form the foundation of the German brand's bestselling family of two-wheelers, the GSs, which has topped most large-capacity sales charts for the last 20 years. In a nod to that intrepid forefather, BMW has released this air-cooled, 1170cc, modern-day interpretation that I was lucky enough to hit the dirt on in Germany.

Named the R 12 G/S, it offers a contemporary and much more potent twist to the original tale, but from a distance you could be forgiven for thinking the two models are much more closely related. In reality, this modern-day marvel is twice as powerful, inexplicably smarter and probably several times more costly than the R 80 G/S ever was. In fact, it's more closely aligned to the brand's coveted R nineT than anything else, as the two bikes share the same engine, frame, tech and much more. Okay, the headstock angle's different, the suspension's much longer in travel, and the wheel sizes are totally different, but those factors aside, the R 12 G/S is another cracking example of BMW upcycling something they already had in its arsenal, delivering a product to the market that's assured to pull on the heartstrings of those getting nostalgic - every bit as much as it will to the continually blossoming world of hipsters and wannabe adventurers craving a comfy and attention-grabbing ride on their next blast to pick up a soy latte.