Two days later, standing comfortably, knees locked on the side of the 20 litre fuel tank, I was flying across the top of a dry salt lake at 90mph.

Ahead of me, Cycle World’s off-road editor Jimmy Lewis was leading an adventure that saw us doing things on the new GS that I wouldn’t have thought possible. It was like being in the middle of a Mad Max movie, and directly ahead of me Tim Hirst was kicking up some serious dust.

I pulled right, watching Free2Wheel’s Tom Van Beveran come blasting past on my left: He had to be topping 100mph. Twisting the throttle to give chase, the rear end lost traction, as I reminded myself for the umpteenth time there is close to a hundred horsepower trying to escape through the rear tyre. The big GS just drifted left and I stayed on the throttle to bring it back in line.

An hour later, I was lying on my back panting like a dog amongst the cactus, gulping down water and wondering what I had gotten myself into. Jimmy had detoured off on a trail that would honestly be challenging on a mountain bike, let a lone a motorcycle. Amazingly, employing some of the lessons learned from attending his off road school that morning, I made it through without dropping the bike. Letting the clutch all the way out in first gear, and riding the bike just off idle with the throttle cracked a little kept the rear tire from spinning too hard. This allowed me keep moving forward in the deep gravel. The bikes were fitted with road-biased tyres, and I think a more dirt suited tire would have made life easier. But, the good thing was, it allowed us to simulate the scenario of the GS rider who spends most of his time on the road, and wants to take the occasional dirt detour. It is totally possible and actually encouraged.

The previous day, breaking away from the sensible BMW lead riders with a couple of other journalists, we had gotten a little wild through one dirt section. Following this was an awesome twisty back road that featured broken tarmac and enough bumps to get the GS airborne a few times. The pace was hot, and in the dirt I found keeping the bike a gear high worked best for me. Allowing more drive out of the corners, I could take the big twin down almost to idle, then still pull away without any hiccup or cough from the fuel injection. I have had a few problems with the injection system of previous GS models, but that thankfully seems to be a thing of the past.

Out on the black top, road-racing the GS, the taught suspension and incredible power brakes allowed some silly speeds and lean angles to be attained. The bike took it all in its stride saying, “bring it on,” as I repeatedly twisted the throttle to redline.

For 2005, the BMW R1200GS is 98% new and born from a philosophy at BMW that said, “let’s see how far we can go.” Starting with the bodywork, this year’s look is more angular and lithe, with the gas tank slightly smaller.

The GS’s silhouette remains though, with the sharp beak style front fender and asymmetrical headlights. These are now more oblong in shape compared to the old bikes round jobs. We didn’t get to ride at night, but I am sure they are every bit as penetrating as their predecessors.

The fairing is easily adjustable by two thumbscrews and can be set to your desired height. I had mine all the way up and it gave no buffeting out on the highway. Moving it down induced some turbulence, so I put it back and left it alone.

Rider’s eye view of the cockpit is BMW classy and clean. A large round speedometer sits next to a smaller, round tachometer and a square digital display panel. The whole panel is protected by a tubular roll bar and is very easy to read on the move. I didn’t get chance to mess with the digital display panel, but I did figure out it was telling me how much fuel I had left, what time it was and more importantly on the dirt what gear I was in. A neat feature, that I managed to confuse, is the fuel warning system.

When you get down to four litres of petrol, a fuel-pump symbol flashes and your expected mileage is displayed. The system calculates this figure based on how fast you are traveling and how hard your riding. What it can’t figure out is what to do when you pull long wheelies. I was showing 26 miles to getting off and push time, when the front wheel accidentally went skyward. Facilitated by a light tug on the bars, and a quick twist of the throttle in first gear, the big GS needs no clutch slipping to assist this sort of behavior. On returning the front wheel to terra firma the digital readout suddenly showed 48 miles to empty.

Continued...