The R 1300 GS is a HUGE surprise | BMW R 1300 GS Review 

This is one of the best reviews of the 1300GS that I have seen. And I've watched several! I've got a couple of years left on my 1250 GS, so I'm not looking to change right now, but I'm definitely interested in the new one. Thanks for the open and honest review.

Fantastic review from a fantastic rider. Spent 3 days riding with you in about 2009. Brilliant experience that helped me get ready for my round the world adventures, first stop China. You picked me out in the first hour as an ex off roader and nicknamed me The Old Trials Dog. Still riding around the world and leading groups. Personally I really like the new GS and applaud BMW for not chasing HP just for bragging rights like Ducati and KTM. Smart improvements to an already amazing bike is the way to go. Currently riding 23 reg GS Trophy but sure in 2 years I'll be on a 1300 GS.👍😎

I have absolutely no interest in the new gs 1300, but the way you put this review together is something not many others does or are able to. You videography, subtle voice and insane amount of relevant clips. Hurra! This is how it’s done, and something i wish i one day will manage to do my self. Thank you for being such a huge inspiration mate. Cheers

Brilliant, thoughtful and in-depth review of the new 1300GS. I’ve had a 1200GS and am currently riding the 1250GS. I’m one of the crazy few who take them off road. So, the Trophy version could very well find itself sat in my garage or splashing through muddy Devon green lanes soon. A test ride is booked for Sunday.

The absolute best review yet! You have a real talent in story telling.

Nailed it! Brilliantly put together review. Presented and produced to such a high standard. This and the Leatt Adventure promos in 24 hours. Killing it!

There are so many R1300GS reviews on YT right now and I totally get why. A brand new ground up GS is exciting. Your review, for me, is by far the best and stands alone when compared against all the others so far. Great perspective and take on the new bike compared to the previous model. Thanks for sharing Mr Pavey!

A magnificent, well-balanced review and a breath of fresh air in this world where there never seems to be much talk of the bad and the ugly. It's really good to know the detail beyond the marketing blurb without sitting through a 35 minute review. Well done! Cheers, too, for your honesty. I think BMW have done well with this new generation and you have articulated this fantastically! Thank you.

Awesome job. Love your perspective. I can't wait to get my 1300.

Well done Llel you are always so clear and succinct in your presentation. From what I have seen so far, I won’t be upgrading from my 2021 GS Rallye I look forward to your complete review.

Excellent ! Not boring or dull at all and pleasant to watch ! Very instructive !

Best review so far of the new bike, from somebody who truly understands what a GS is, was and where its going 👌🏽

Best review of the 1300 GS I have seen so far. Great job! Subscribed.

Brilliant and really well thought out review. So much better than some of the traditional motorcycle press reviews. Ohh P.S I rode that road at 8:09 about a month back it's epic.

Having had a 2010 & 2023..I'll wait a year till the hardcore kit and mods are out...great review and it's all about the rider being able to bring out all the new goodness.

Wow!! Brake Mag makes it all sensible, thoughtful and have the thought rather on the bike!! Always loved your videos!! Although in the wildest of my dreams I could afford these bikes , I'd love to listen to what you talk about them!! Beauty in talk is so thought provoking! Sweet work again, Brake Mag! 💥🤘✨🫶

Hello Llewellyn, Excellent work. Super appreciate your technical breakdown and explanations. And you do a magical job of integrating entertainment with a technical review. Great work.

Great review ! BMW makes a totally new bike that feels like the old one, but at the same time is so much better. That's brilliant.

Awesome review Llel, thanks for sharing! 👍👍

Another great vid Steve and Tom, Keep up the great work.

Excellent review and analysis of the work done by BMW. Yes, all those options got me scratching my head quite a few times and some of the packages still set limitations that are quite difficult to adapt to, So I ended up tweaking my order quite a bit. Your video made me even more excited to get my delivery. Thanks!

An excellent review. Simplifying the complicated.

This was a very welcome, fresh look at the new bike (or bikes, really), from someone uniquely qualified through experience to suss out the details. I’ve had several GS and GSA models as well as several Multistradas, and it is always fascinating to see what the designers and engineers have come up with. I think the leaner, more compact design is a plus, although I loved the Erector Set vibe of the outgoing models, and the Trophy edition with sport suspension is incredibly interesting. It will also be fun to see how the Adventure version compares in looks and functionality to the Multistrada V4 Rally. Clearly, Ducati and others have developed competitive technologies and designs which have spurred on some of the BMW developments. Competition is a good thing. Finally, yours is the first video I’ve seen with a look at the headlight in darkness. I like it! The split in opinion is reminiscent of the reception of the S1000RR asymmetrical headlights, which came to be an identifying feature.

What an intelligent review. Thank you so much for making it. Class.

What a great, well thought out review. I have a 1250GS now and (probably like many of us) am always wondering about the next iteration. I so appreciated the honesty and the brilliant explanation about the off-road vs on road version. Thanks!

Thanks for a review from a different perspective. A standout video from all the others that bore you with bland facts and figures. Well written and presented as usual 👍

An excellent review which, in many ways, told me what’s important. Evolution not revolution. I had a 2003 R1150RT which ok but not a bike I loved. The 2005 R1200RT was a revelation to me and I swapped. Then I rode a 2008 R1200GSA. It was everything that the RT wasn’t for me but mostly stance and riding position. I loved it and traded by RT. In 2013 the 1200 LC arrived. That was, for me, was revolution, and made my GSA seem like a tractor. I bought a GS LC then traded for a GSA 2 years later which I kept for 5 years. The 1250 didn’t offer enough upgrade but the GSA was sold for an ATAS DCT ES. I regretted that change but not enough to go back to BMW. I’ll never ride a GS/GSA off-road but the 1250 actually feels a worthy potential again. The 1300 is just too much for too little more. My thanks for your review!

As always excellent commentary and video combo - I look forward to trying out the new GS off road

for a rider like me who's 165cm tall the lowering spec is the most relevant upgrade for me...i don't have a big problem when riding enduro trails on the ktms and husqis but this really makes a difference on the road with traffic all around...other distinctive feature about all bmw platforms is the tft display UI design it's simple ,visibly bright yet sophistacated enough to accomodate all the neccesary features.

Banging review mate!! Production on point, supper impressive 👌👌

Best and most thoughtful, informative review.

Excellent Review. Thank You!

Quality review. I think that evolution is always he way forward if you already have a winning formula. That seems to be what we're getting with this bike, with some focused options.

brilliant review L!

Superb video! Thank you! 😊

Great review mate, cheers for the brilliant content

Love my base model XR650L - trying to get my head around adjusting rider modes. Stuck in the '90's till today all I can say is Ride Your Bike and make it count today

Been said by many below, by far the best review out there. Nailed it Lel.

Best review ive seen for the GS1300. Im a regretfully Ex, - 1200 owner, and wish i had kept my old 09 model year.

Class review as always!

Great initial impressions review 👌

Damn, that was a beautiful review and a pure pleasure to watch. Fantastic.

Best review hands down!

Llel cracking review well done. May have to try it at the Skool after my Morocco trip😊

Intelligent honest review - thanks

You sir, are very good at this. Really great vid. ❤

Boy this is top level journalism and video creation!

Best video yet. Love the bike too!

Thanks for this video. Wonderful Bike.

This is the one I have been waiting for…excellent review.

I was waiting for this review great job 👏🏼 I will be holding on to my 1250 mush more longer

Yop Yop. As the others, I think that’s a pretty darn good review. A real work of journalism, not another sale speech in disguise. Well done, mate !

This is the best review to date. It confirms my hunch of which option I would choose: Trophy with the sports suspension, enduro package, and no other luxuries-but I want to see what they planned for the GSA now. Thanks for sharing!

Stellar review!

Can I just say, I massively enjoyed the line "fly by wire throttle" with the shot of a flying bike in the background 😁

I test ridden this bike, it feels like a very advanced enduro bike !

Excellent film! I want a 1300 GS now. Well done, I think!

I'm honestly impressed with what BMW have put out. But just the fact that you need to explain so much about this bike, it's modes, it's available options.. it just gives me massive FOMO and almost an anxious feeling. I'll get back on my 690, twist the throttle and go and accept all it's shortcomings and all it's character traits and niggles and worry less!

great review. the only thing about the new bike that would interest me would be adjustable seat height. i’m not an off road biker but it was so interesting to hear your take

Truly an amazing new generation for sure. Nice Leatt gear too.

It all looks so fabulous. And a well running new GS is fabulous. But as always, with so much more tech and complexity, one has to ask how many weeks of summer is my GS going to waiting for its endless recalls, engine management lights and updates to be sorted by a dealer with a three month waiting list. And as always, cripplingly expensive to fix when out of warranty.

Hey, you are the first reviewer to actually mention AND review the sport suspension! I have ordered my Trophy with the sport suspension and changed the seat to the standard seat. How tall are you and did you find the sport suspension plus high seat too high? Could you at least touch the ground? I’m about 178 cm, 31-32” inseam.

Greatest bike ever since the last greatest bike ever ;-) First GS I might actually buy.

superior video quality！！

Great review! Can you elaborate on "lifting the front wheel to save you" in a Mini-Tip Monday video? Keep up the great work.

Man, you are the best reviewer of motorcycles in the world. Huge fan

I trust very few bike and gear reviews that are put out on youtube .... yours are firmly on my "trust-list", nice straight talking review again fella 👌

Excellent video and info on this bike. Spent years on a 1200 and 1250 and then moved to the KTM 890R and Husq 701 for adventure type riding. Will always love the GS platform and looks like another excellent evolution in the line. I can see myself back on a GS in the future. The new F900 GS with the Enduro Pro upgraded suspension option looks very interesting.

R1300GS now has linked brakes from rear foot lever, right? What settings allow the front wheel to spin when you control a wheelie with the rear brake lever? Or does the front wheel lock up while in the air?

Great honest report. Thanks. I was quite hyped after seeing the first photos of the GS 1300. After watching your review less so. Unfortunately, there will never be a back-to-basics version which cuts the GS back to its essentials - at the price point of Tenere 700.

Brilliant review. Im not a huge GS fan but I can see BMW have done well to 'try' and solve the unicorn adventure bike dilemma... Ultimately what is THE unicorn comes down to individual riders and their use... so give them plenty of useful chassis options and they can more or less create it (except for weight of course).

Yo, brother. Great take on this incredible bike. I'm definitely not a fan of the looks, but the technical capabilities are undeniable. And people will warm up to it. It's a GS, after all. I have a quick question: What is that off-road tire BMW put on your review machine? Thanks. Cheers!

Great review as always. How much better is the high-performance suspension off-road? Is it worth it over the adjustable height suspension? Thanks in advance

what a review only issue now is i cant afford one but you made me want one for sure,

Awesome review 🥰🙏

Absolutely superb review and balanced which is rare now adays. I'm currently on an 1150GSA an have had a 1200GSA TE 2014, an a 1200GS TE Rallye 2018, it's strange I thought it would be a massive difference back to the 1150GSA an it feels very very GS an there's an element of the bike which feels less refined an more alive I'm all for tech the problem comes in when it goes wrong out of warranty I was lucky with my 1200GSA that when it lunched a gearbox 2 engines in total ended up with 3 different engines, the display failed first day, the fly by wire was a constant point of issues (they sorted that out on the 2018) that it was under warranty this is the stuff that never gets mentioned in reviews the customer service etc 6 months of no bike esa failures and fd failures, it would have wrote it off out of warranty. I know we will never see it as its a way off them upselling the bikes, I specced a 1300 up an it was £28,000 ouch! Latley it's feeling like motorcycles and some brands are moving futher an further away from the average person an someone who likes to spanner on them, my 1150 needed a ton of work doing when I got it which was unexpected an I was able to sort an do everything myself. It's a shame as well as the GS had such a unique look They wont sell you service tools now even back on the 1150. I guess the big problem with so many options now on the specs will be how it affects the used prices on them that will be interesting. It's a shame even the T7 has gone that route. I hope we see more simple bikes in the future one can dream :) Keep the bril vid's coming.

The “old” 1250 was very hard to get airborne. The front just collapsed and the rear jumped in the neck. I got a set of aftermarket shocks. When the compression damping is turned up, the big thing is easy to fly. I was hoping the sport suspension with the variable spring rate would do just that. But I see many instances in your clips where the motorcycle lands front wheel first while the rear is still pushing upwards. I have loads more questions unanswered now… Where can I find that podcast? First proper review, and I have seen many, if not all!

Good video L. Question is..worth the extra coin? Did they mention anything about making an adventure model?

Thx for your honest review. I'm a newbie and kept hearing friends who rode serious adventures telling me to simply go with anything lighter than the GS. To qualify this post they all ride 90% off road. I just picked up a friend's KTM Adventure 790 R. I believe BMW is capable of coming up with a luxury model to compete against its neighbor, Austria, but they need to think more like Austrian's. Not sure haw that's going to happen. If they can it might be called a GSB? B for Bavaria... Both of these cultures are extremely mechanical and proud so I wish Bavarian motor works luck in attaining this. KTM already does it but not with BMWs finish. This is marketing 101 for BMW and they should capitalize on it...

Is the Leatt adv gear on sale already? I can't find it anywhere!

Very well made vid

Brilliant!👏👏👏

Great video and review… and interesting. Your last words about “if you liked the old GS you’ll be a very happy customer.” Have to say I really like the old GS but didn’t enjoy my test run in the 1300. A completely different feel to the old GS and not for the better in my opinion. It’s not a bad bike at all but having owned several GS’s it feels too different to the old. Appreciate the evolution and admire the bold step by BMW but for me, for now, I’ll be sticking with my 1250.

Front X light is amazing❤❤

Great video. I was looking back through your vids to compare what you said about the Ktm 1290 and can’t find one. Have you not reviewed the 1290 on it’s own like this?

For sure an interesting evolution…but you need deep pockets. Nobody mention the mandatory service planned by BMW for cost around 3.000 euro to replace the cardan! I’ll keep my 18y.o. GS1200 for the moment ;-)

I have no intrest in buying one of these Far to big for me and far to expensive for me to keep dropping But you really present the best reviews on youtube Thank you Sir

You couldn't float it because Karoo 4's tyres (IMO). Front tyre is awesome, rear tyre not so much. I've had it on my GS1200 LC and it did the same, as soon as I put on my knobbies I could float away. Very cool review!

Thank you for this competent assessment - interesting and entertaining! And sorry, why not a word about the mechanically much louder engine and drive train? That was a killer criterion for me for a while. After 4 test drives with different 1300 GS and very different mechanical engine noises, I have now ordered them: Everything else is just a bit better everywhere than on my 1250 GS - except for the unsightly mechanical rattling under load...

Nice job on this, very well thought out and presented video. My only comment is the headlight ... really??

I have watched a lot of reviews of the 1300. I currently have the r1250gs Rallye. I use it for touring, and grocery getting. The 1300 is marvelous, for sure. But it lacks that clunky intimidating look. The riding triangle of the 1300; seat, pegs ,handle bars makes it workable for smaller riders. But, I am 6'5" and have added bar risers, seat risers, lowered pegs. And now it's....smaller?!

That’s a lot of torque out of the box on a bike like that. I am a fan of BMW, owned them, but I find it odd that all the reviews seem to bring in the Pan America. BMW would not have a ARH if it wasn’t for HD bringing it to market. HD did a fine job for a first attempt at ADV. I own a HD cruiser but am wanting this BMW model as well for different kinds of riding.

I will wait a couple years and probably buy one. I have a sixteen g s and a twenty one g s a. Sounds like it's gonna be a lot of fun to ri'd. I'd like Is the lighter off-road feel

funny, when you go over the crest and lift the front wheel ,the ends of the forks look like 2 scared faces :)13:08, I wonder if that's intentional...good video.

Saw the title and thought this was about the KLR. Those BMWs sure are nice moto-cars, though

I watched a few of these 1300 gs reviews now, from people who know what they are talking about and then there are the "influencers" who know very little. Nobody has said the magical word. Fun. Everyone explains how wonderful the technology is blah blah blah but no one says it's "fun". This is one thing BMW are very good at, sanitizing the fun and rider involvement from motorcycling.

Good review Llewellyn, you said you think BMW might have an ace up their sleeve to sit along side the GS, are you taking about an adventure model? There is no info about this bike online, it would be great if they made it even more hardcore offroad like the KTM or Ducati rally adventure models.

Great review. The problem with reviews in general is that you guys are all professional riders and you mentioned Chris in your Triumph review. 95% of us will never pay 20K plus for a bike and then abuse it off road. The majority will ride ADV bikes on road around Scotland or the Alps so it would be good to see Joe Average rider like me in some of your reviews……… and pillions. I have a GSA with 26000 miles in two years and a lot with a pillion. The rear seat is a concern for me at the moment and I’m thinking it will be the same on the new GSA. Look at the width of the current GSA and GS seats. I rode the 1300, lighter, sharp handling and loads of torque but small, the torque comes in so quickly the bike can feel twitchy. I have and XR as well so know what a great quickshifter is like. I couldn’t see much of a difference better my GSA and the the 1300. You still need to get to at least second gear before the clunkiness disappears. We need real world reviews and with pillions. The comments in BIKE magazine this month by the pillion on the 1300 are interesting.

Delightful to watch review and motorcycle! If I had the chance I would buy one today even though that I am not a fan of the big heavy bikes at all. At the same time I think that this GS is the perfect tool for some long distance trips to Middle Asia, crossing in comfort huge distance both on and off the pavement. Sadly it comes almost three times more expensive (with the proper extras) than a reasonably priced Mid-weight adventure bike like the Suzuki V-Strom 800DE and even with all this tech in it I am not sure that the weight of the BMW will handle better in the tough off-road sections.

Brilliant engineering, packed with tech and comfort. Looks like a Honda 650 Hornet though. I'll Stick with the road Prescence of the 1250 GSA.