OUR BIKES
IN THE BEGINNING
Von Trigger
In 1980 BMW gave the world its first taste of
factory-built adventure motorcycling with the
R80G/S, or Gelande Strasse(Off-road Street). It
was powered by the 800cc ‘Airhead’ boxer twin
from the R80/7, but slightly modified, with
Nikasil cylinders, lighter flywheel and electronic
ignition. This motor was mounted in a R65
frame and featured the new ‘Monolever’
combined single-sided swingarm and
driveshaft and a single shock. This layout
shaved a decent amount of weight off the bike,
setting the scene for subsequent models and
the G/S earned great credibility with success in
events such as the Paris-Dakar rally, taking the
win in 1981, ‘83, ‘84 and ‘85.
I acquired my ’83 Dunkel Blue example 14
years ago in reasonably stock trim with the
standard 19.5L tank and BMW touring panniers.
The bike was German-new and apparently
travelled down through Europe and Africa
before ending up in Australia, then finally to
NZ in the 90s. So, it has certainly been used as
its designers intended, and seen some of the
world in its 136,000km. Upon arrival here at
‘Trigger Ranch’ the bike was immediately
named ‘Von Trigger’(Von T), a Germanic twist
on ‘Trigger’, my previous thumper trailie, the
bike it was replacing.
COMPULSIVE FARKLER
I used Von T as it was for a while, but being
a compulsive Farkler, it was a certainty that
it was never going to stay a standard bike.
The stage one makeover included removal of
the old school Super Trapp muffler a previous
owner had fitted, replaced with a Leo Vince
slip-on I had in the shed, plus the fitting of a
28 KIWI RIDER