BMW R1200GS Adventure Rallye: the panzer at ease even on the most extreme mule tracks (2024)

BMW – Having one available BMW R1200 GS Adventure Rallye rubberized Continental TKC80 knobby, it seemed only right to include off-road sections in our planned itinerary, to be able to test first-hand the off-road behavior of a motorbike that we already know well. (here is our road test of the “standard” Rallye).

The most serious problem to face in winter, if you want to go off-road and off-road, for those starting from Milan, is that most of the routes are in the high mountains, and are closed in winter due to snow and their impracticability. Let's add that it has been raining for almost a month straight, and on the plains, in the Pavia area and on the Po, the tracks we know are an expanse of mud and swamps, not exactly the ideal terrain for testing a twin-cylinder weighing more than 250 kilos. So we decide to head towards Lecco and create a ring, which from the lake coast takes us to Piani dei Resinelli and from there to Morterone, to then descend towards the lake and return to Milan. But we don't like taking the traditional roads to get to a destination, so the goal is to get to Abbadia Lariana, go up to Linzanico and from there look for a route that takes us to Piani Resinelli by off-road vehicle. The day is splendid, the temperature mild, the bikes ready, we set off, the stretch that divides us between Milan and Lecco, serves just to fiddle with the various controls of the ESA electronic suspensions, and understand the various responses of the engine in the different configurations of the control unit, which on Road has a full and immediate response, while on Enduro, limits the power, and makes the unraveling of the horses to the rear wheel smoother.

Modern dual-sport twin-cylinder bikes, despite their dimensions, which can be intimidating, have incredible off-road capabilities, today, thanks to theelectronics, which allows the rider to manage the power of the engines (260 kilos of motorbike and 125 horsepower with a truck-like torque almost all at low revs, are no joke), and the electronic suspensions they allow you to set the calibration perfectly with a simple click handlebar controls, adapting the preload as desired or automatically. Once in Linzanico, we enter a maze of paved streets, narrower than a car, which climb between the farmhouses of the village up to a passage made of earth and stones that opens up at the foot of the mountain and rises swallowed up in the woods . We decide to stop and take a look at the map, nothing, the various paths that open up in front of us are not shown, we just have to decide which of the two to take, or the one that goes up the mountain and disappears among the trees, or the one just below, which follows the slope and seems to go around it. We have no idea what kind of bottom we will find, or if there is an exit, the situation we love most, that of getting lost, not knowing what the road (or the path) will give us, what it will make us discover. Things that happen less and less today when traveling between our borders, and which reiterates to us for the umpteenth time, that travel is a state of mind, an approach, it depends on us how open we are, or how to plan in detail, latitude matters little and longitude, to live an experience.

In the end, getting lost becomes a reality, so a motorcyclist comes to our aid, who first warns us about the difficulty of the route he is suggesting to us and who advises us against using motorbikes like the one we are riding, but then, when we boldly tell him we say we want to try anyway, he appears among the trees with a trial and decides to open the way up the side of the mountain, always skeptical about the ability of this bike to overcome the route. Abs e traction control deactivated, ECU mapping set to Enduro, suspension set to Dynamic, rear preload set to minimum and off we go. The upright position on the GS Adventure Rallye is almost perfect, the widened enduro footrests and the extension on the brake pedal facilitate positioning and balancing, the very low center of gravitytypical of the boxer, combined with the wide handlebars they make the weight of the bike almost disappear, even when maneuvering standing at very low speed, the engine response is very sweet, and this helps a lot in using the torque to disengage in difficult passages.

Our improvised guide takes us on a route that in a few kilometers becomes a mule track that crosses the woods on the side of the mountain, the surface made of beaten earth and pebbles, going up and down between the roots of the trees and the stone steps, it always more bumpy, with large stones and gravel, until you reach a stretch that descends into the woods with very sharp slopes and narrow hairpin bends, dotted with stones and canals furrowed by the rains of the previous days. Let's say not exactly the ideal terrain for an R1200GS Adventure, a more enjoyable bike on fast dirt roads and beaten mountain roads, where you can give vent to the engine and play at closing the throttle curves, like this, while our trialist stops after every difficult passage as he looks at us more and more sceptically, we disappoint him and continue to go down and up the slopes of the route, discarding the largest rocks and speeding over the steps and roots. Great work by the suspensions, which smooth out the ground without problems, and help us a lot in maintaining direction, as long as we don't ask too much of the 19 inch front wheel, which, unlike a 21, tends to channel more if the surface becomes particularly bumpy. With these bikes, it is essential to find an adequate "forward speed", if you slow down too much, and face bumps too slowly, the weight and bulk take over, forcing the rider to have to support the vehicle in case of imbalances, the trick lies in finding the right compromise between the surface and the characteristics of the motorbike, in order to overcome the imbalances with speed, gas and the body standing on the footrests. From the top of the trees the sun begins to open up, while the road finally reaches the carriage road, which leads to the summit, where the surface becomes compact and at times cemented, allowing us to enjoy the torque of the boxer between the very tight curves uphill, up to the snow of the Piani dei Resinelli, which appear before us as soon as we emerge from the last forest crossed in the middle of the snow. From here we head towards Morterone, with its hairpin bends drawn on the side of the mountain that seems to come out of a western film, while on the opposite side the lake greets us with its calm. Tired and happy we head home, now it's sunset, but there are no girls to greet us as we walk away.