KIWI RIDER SEPTEMBER 2020 VOL1 | Page 59

So we come to the bike you see here – the R100GS. In fact, this one is a GS-PD. Note the GS loses the slash of the G/S, perhaps in recognition of the softening of the gelande aspect. While, contrarily, PD stands for Paris- Dakar in reference to the firm’s rally successes. One of the bigger changes for the 1989 model was the Paralever rear suspension, there for a more comfortable ride. Designed to ‘decouple’ the rear wheel swingarm from the drive and accelerative forces, the trapezoidal geometry of shaft drive housing and torque arm were nothing new to BMW (having appeared on its road racers of 1955), but the result was a smoother drive train without the associated lift and squat associated with the direct shaft drive of before. The forks were also upgraded, from 36mm units of BMW’s own making to Marzocchi 40mm units with special conical bushings to take big hits (this despite the bike being more road oriented) and a 25mm hollow axle to add rigidity. The frame was braced and a stronger subframe added. More significantly, from a safety perspective, BMW developed a new design of spoked wheel where the spokes were laced to the outside of the rim, allowing for the fitment of tubeless tyres. The rear wheel was changed from the off-road norm of 18-inch to the emerging road bike standard of 17-inch (with four-stud coupling to the shaft drive – previously three-stud). The motor, now taken from the R100RS, had grown to 980cc to produce 60bhp. The extra oomph was needed as weight had increased by 15kg too. The PD version started life as an optional accessory kit (the standard GS being a naked bike with a smaller tank and small fly screen) but by 1989 there was a specific PD spec with the signature 32-litre tank and touring fairing. KIWI RIDER 59