BMW R1250 GS Adventure Motorcycle

From Six Wheel Drive to One Wheel Drive

When we started our road journeys with the motorhome, we towed a car behind it in order to have something to get around in once we set up in an RV park or campground. The problem with it was that we were flat towing. That meant any attempt at backing up the motorhome with the car attached was quite impossible, and that made being spontaneous while traveling nearly impossible. Usually, by the time we saw something that interested us, we were well beyond the point of making a turnoff to investigate it. Since we couldn’t stop and back up, we had to just carry on driving unless we found a circular route to use to get back to the point of interest. Unfortunately, that seldom happened. What made things worse was that even if we could access the route to our point of interest, we had no idea if we could turn around once we got in there, when the time came to leave.

When we decided to downsize to the expedition truck, we knew we also had to address the secondary transport issue. Despite the truck being almost ten feet shorter than the Class A motorhome, it was still pretty big. Towing a car would present the exact same problem as before, but we still needed a secondary vehicle to get around, especially in congested areas. The only alternative was to have something we could carry, instead of tow. Since our truck weighs 20,000 kilos, but has a GVWR of 30,000 kilos, it’s skookum enough to carry a small car on the back. Perhaps a Smart Car turned sideways like the big rig RV haulers do. But with the spare tires on the back, that would push even a small car over five feet off the back wall of the truck. That was too great a distance for our liking. Besides, it would look ridiculous. So realistically, that left only one thing that would be the right size and could get both of us around anywhere we wanted to go, a motorcycle.

We tried the scooter thing, but it just wasn’t compatible with us. You see, I grew up riding motorcycles, and it was a motorcycle that Wendy and I rode around on when we first started dating five decades ago. The problem with a scooter is that the way you ride it is completely different than a motorcycle. The sitting position is different, the controls are different, and the ride feel is different. Consequently, we just didn’t feel safe on one. Besides, most scooters are just not made to run off pavement, and we expected to have to do that. Especially in a bug out situation.

Rather than trying to “get used to” this different form of conveyance, we elected to go back to something we were very familiar with. But we wanted a comfortable motorcycle for riding two up, and one capable enough to act as an emergency escape vehicle in case our truck broke down in some remote location and we couldn’t contact anyone for assistance. To that end, we decided on perhaps the most renown utilitarian long distance motorcycle on the planet, the BMW R1250 GS Adventure.

This is actually our second BMW motorcycle, as we originally started with one back when we first got the truck. But it seemed overkill for what we needed, and that’s when we made the attempt to try a scooter. But now, back with the motorcycle, it’s even better than the original one we had as it’s the newer version with the larger engine and added features that make it even more comfortable to ride. Besides, when we got the first GS Adventure, I spent the money to get offroad training from a BMW-Motorad certified training facility, the owner of which was a Dakar Rally competitor. Now, I can once again make use of that much sought after knowledge.