If you haven’t noticed, adventure riding is quite the thing to do these days. BMW has always been the big mover and shaker on the adventure scene, but 2013 was quite a year for the Bavarian manufacturer. In fact, it was their biggest year ever. With global sales up 8.3%, BMW sold more than 115,000 total units worldwide. As the year came to a close, the sales numbers were even gaining speed with December sales soaring over the previous year. While a number of different models came together to make the year a smashing success, the GS series of bikes were clearly the big hitters.
The most popular model of the year was their flagship adventure bike, the newly redesigned R1200GS. Of the 30,000 R1200GS motorcycles sold, more than 25,000 of those were the new water-cooled variant. That makes the new water-pumper the most successful first-year model in BMW’s long history. Slotting into second place, as if on cue, was the F800GS with over 10,000 units sold. Not far behind was the F700GS with 7,000 bikes sold bringing total GS sales to more than 47,000 units. That’s a lot of adventure for one year.
The year ahead promises to be another banner year for BMW and for the adventure bike market as a whole. With the newly released R1200GS-Adventure, sales of the bigger bikes should continue to produce solid numbers. There won’t be as much innovation on the adventure side in the coming year as BMW directs much of their attention to their more road biased offerings, but the current line of GS bikes is as comprehensive as it has ever been. There’s a GS for everyone.
