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Industry NewsGear Review40 Years of BajaHamman Motorrad Training30 Years of BMW Gs

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ContentsIndustry NewsGear Review40 Years of BajaHamman Motorrad Training30 Years of BMW Gs

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Issue FiFt33nThe best thing about the internet is that you can read, read and read some more. There are so many nice forums out there, but you have to look carefully as a lot of them just turn into banter places for people who don’t have anything better to do.

Advrider.com, has to be the best adventure biker forum out there. Its where the world of adventure riders unite! This month we have a look at the incredible race history of the BAJA 1000 and how Honda has dominated

them over the last couple of decades.

The new limited edition GS30 has also recently been released. We don’t test it, but we also look at the history of the BMW GS and how the models changed over the years.

I would like you guys to support our advertisers because without them, we wont be here.Till next month! Please submit your stories to

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Forum thread of the month

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Forum thread of the month

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New Rides

40 years of BajaBy Ryan Dudek

In March, 1962, Dave Ekins and Bill Robertson Jr. made a daring run down the Baja peninsula to prove the durability of a pair of Honda 250cc CL72 Scramblers. Conventional wisdom afforded the better part of a week for the duo to cover the difficult 963 miles from Tijuana to La Paz. Ekins made it in 39 hours and 56 minutes; Robertson finished two hours later.

That seminal ride provoked others to attempt the same feat and ultimatelyinspired the 1967 NORRA-sanctioned Mexican 1000. Six years later, when SCORE took over the reins, the race was renamed the Baja 1000. In the years that followed, Honda has continued to use the Mexi-can peninsula as its proving grounds. The course for the most recent running was the second-longest in the event’s history—1296 miles—and only the second time the race ended in Cabo San Lucas at penin-sula’s end.

Two years ago, Honda switched from the legendary XR to the modern CRF450X. The early

air-cooled 600s and later liquid-cooled 650s had a nine-year Baja win streak. Yet Steve Hengeveld, Mike Childress and Quinn Cody scored the win on the 450; a like-mounted John-ny Campbell-led effort finished second.

When it came to choosing the CRF450X over the XR650R, there were no disadvantages, only benefits. The X is lighter, accelerates more quickly, handles better and stops faster. Even in top speed, the X is comparable to the 650, reach-ing 113 mph on the street and 108 mph on the dirt. More im-portantly, with the X, the riders are able to push harder with greater confidence.

“You can be more aggressive, go at things harder and come out at the same speed as on the 650,” notes Campbell, who spent most of his career on large displacement XRs. “The X has a really good balance of stability, tracking and weight.”

For the 40th-anniversary effort last November, Honda gave its 450X full factory treatment

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New Rides

using a blend of CRF450X and CRF450R components. The liquid-cooled single-cylinder engine was built in Japan and housed in a special chassis. Most of the modifications to the aluminum frame were done around the headlight mount in an effort to secure the two massive halogens in a way that didn’t alter overall balance and rigidity. The bike was then shipped to American Honda, where team manager Bruce Ogilvie took charge. For final prep, he worked closely with Precision Concepts, an impor-tant player in Honda’s SCORE success.

Arguably, the most top-secret component is the stator. Housed inside a fancy machined cover is something Honda would neither

show us nor shed light upon. This we know: The stator is able to pump out more than 200 watts, with each light requiring 100 watts and the ignition ab-sorbing the rest. Stock X output is about 70 watts. Because of the power needed by the dual headlights, the factory X does not have a battery or an electric starter. Lights are important in Baja because a significant por-tion of the race is run during the night, Honda would neither show us nor shed light upon. This we know: The stator is able to pump out more than 200 watts, with each light requiring 100 watts and the ignition ab-sorbing the rest. Stock X output is about 70 watts. Because of the power needed by the dual headlights, the factory X does not have a battery or an electric starter. Lights are important in Baja because a significant por-tion of the race is run during the night, and for high speeds the big halogens work better than HIDs.

I was able to ride the race-win-ning Honda immediately follow-ing last year’s event. The bike was still in the exact condition it was in when it finished the

race—dirty and with only one functioning headlight. Despite the engine’s ability to generate serious speed in short order, power delivery was smooth—it has to be or the riders will wear out quickly. Even in fifth gear, the engine pulled hard.

The chassis felt to me like an off-roader that had been turned into a motocrosser. The suspen-sion is tuned specifically for Baja and its rough desert terrain. No surprise, then, that the bike glided flawlessly over whoops.Okay, some control was re-

quired, but keeping the throttle pinned was not aproblem, even when the sizes of the bumps changed. The suspension bottomed on g-outs harder than I expected, but taking into consideration that the oil in the fork and shock had already been subjected to 24 hours of abuse, performance was far beyond the norm.

Ergonomics are similar to those of the CRF450R; the oversized fuel tank didn’t feel much larger than a stock X tank. Those big headlights are odd in that they

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New Rides

don’t move with the handle-bars. And, yes, they do add some weight, but the increased pounds are well worth it for the brightest lights at night. If you can’t see, you can’t go fast.

In terms of cost and parts avail-ability, a factory off-road racer is not the equivalent of a factory motocrosser; it’s simply not pos-sible for a consumer to recreate a works MXer. That being said, a successful Baja program doesn’t come cheaply. “Our costs in Mexico are pretty high,” admits 10-time race-winner Campbell. “A set of tires will last a long time on a motocross track. We’ll go through three or four sets, and the wheels are going to be trashed, too. Also, the entry fee for the Baja 1000 is $1200. Then you have a transponder, gas—each team will go through 50 to 60 gallons of fuel—food, hotels, transportation, pit crews, Mexi-can insurance…”

According to Malcolm Smith–

credited with “First Motorcycle” in 1967 on a Husqvarna 360 and a veteran of 35 1000s in multiple classes, including trucks—the major difference between Baja then and now is speed. “I just rode my old Husky around, and it hardly has any brakes, the clutch doesn’t work very well, shifting is ter-rible, suspension is bad. Riders are going so much faster now because the bikes are so much better. I’d hate to ride an Open-class bike at the speeds Camp-bell or Robby Bell rides it. Now, it’s like an off-road motocross race.”

That’s a far cry from what Ekins and Robertson Jr. envisioned when they set out to conquer Baja in 1962. Then again, their CL72 250cc Twins were a far cry from the CRF450X that Honda now campaigns in what has become over the past four decades one of the best-known off-road races in the world.

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New Rides

Hamman Motorrad Rider Training

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Hamman Motorrad Rider Training

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30 Years of GS

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New Rides

When BMW produced the first GS in 1980, I’m sure they didn’t know how popular this range of motorcycles would have been 30 years down the line.The GS range has been ex-tremely popular with all travel-lers and dual sport riders, and as many of you know, there is very little out there that can give you the same kind of comfort in the saddle as a well equipped BMW.The 1st shaft driven GS was the R80GS, featuring a 797.5cc air-cooled, flat twin boxer engine. This was known as an airhead. This model was also released as a R80GS/PD to celebrate BMW’s success in the Paris-Dakar rally. This bike featured a long range tank and has been

extremely sought after by GS enthusiasts around the world.The R80GS was eventually replaced by the R100GS, but there were also different edi-tions made available in different parts of the world, including the Kalahari and basic models. Production was ended in 1995 with the unofficial R100GSPD.The oil head production line started with the R850GS. This was BMW’s key engine to the modern adventure bike. The current 1200GS has been re-ported to be 30kg’s lighter than that of the 1st R850GS. The

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850GS was succeeded by the R1100Gs that made 80hp and weighed 243kg dry. This bike has been thought of as one of the most bullet proof motors to be found in BMW’s stable. I’ve personally seen engines with mileage close to the 1million km mark.BMW released the Adventure model with the R1150GS fea-turing a 30l fuel tank as op-posed to the 22l from the base model R1150GS. It also had a 6th gear instead of the nor-mal “overdrive” gear. Common options were available, such as heated grips and ABS. This was the model that initially took Ewan McGregor and Charley

Boorman around the world. I’m sure that they weren’t the first.The latest R1200GS produces in excess of 110hp and replaced the R1150GS in 2004. They also feature a unique front suspen-sion called a Telever system that uses a control arm setup that’s

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main purpose is to eliminate nose dive under hard braking. The R1200GS Adventure was produced in 2006 featured a 33l fuel tank 110hp and weighing in at 253kg dry.

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