Now most motorcycle manufacturers are looking at the Adventure market with interest and most will have These two programmes projected the BMW bikes to world stardom and sales increased beyond BMW's dreams. It was followed with another tour going south, the 'Long Way Down' where they travelled from Scotland to Australia on two BMW R1200GS bikes. There is one piece of inadvertent marketing that occurred in the early part of the new century and that was a TV programme called 'The Long Way Across' in which Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman rode two BMW R1150GS bikes across Europe for a TV travel documentary.
Their later Tiger 1055 has caught the imagination and bank account of many born again bikers. KTM came on board with the 990 version and the Triumph Tiger 955 was released to directly compete with the established off road Adventure bikes. Honda then produced the Varadero and Suzuki launched the Vstrom, two very credible machines with mass appeal. Up until that point 'trail' bikes were the only real option to road 'naked' bikes and 'cruisers' which commanded worldwide bike markets.
However the Adventure bike never really took off until the late 90's when other motorcycle manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon and produced their own hybrid Adventure models to compete with an increasing foothold that BMW were gaining in the hybrid market with their GS1150 AND R1200GS and Adventure model bikes. 30 years ago BMW launched the GS Adventure motorcycle which was a new area for the German company and a new breed of motorbike for the world.
Their later Tiger 1055 has caught the imagination and bank account of many born again bikers. KTM came on board with the 990 version and the Triumph Tiger 955 was released to directly compete with the established off road Adventure bikes. Honda then produced the Varadero and Suzuki launched the Vstrom, two very credible machines with mass appeal. Up until that point 'trail' bikes were the only real option to road 'naked' bikes and 'cruisers' which commanded worldwide bike markets.
However the Adventure bike never really took off until the late 90's when other motorcycle manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon and produced their own hybrid Adventure models to compete with an increasing foothold that BMW were gaining in the hybrid market with their GS1150 AND R1200GS and Adventure model bikes. 30 years ago BMW launched the GS Adventure motorcycle which was a new area for the German company and a new breed of motorbike for the world.
