The Ducati Multistrada V4 family got a little bigger today, with the Italian brand offering the Ducati Multistrada V4 Rally for the 2023 model year.
The bike is aimed at the niche carved out by bikes like the BMW R1250GS Adventure, where long-distance travel (over questionable terrain) is the name of the game.
To aid in that goal, Ducati has added several key features that set the Multistrada V4 Rally apart from the rest of the Bologna brand’s lineup.
The European brands continue to share their good news from 2021, with BMW Motorrad boasting of its record sales performance last year.
To that end, BMW says that it sold 194,261 units in 2021, up +14.8% from the previous year. This total means a sales volume that is the best ever for BMW Motorrad.
BMW Motorrad USA has two recalls this week, and the first one concerns the braking components on 9,392 motorcycles, across five models.
Specifically, the recall affects certain BMW R1250GS (2019-2020), BMW R1250GS Adventure (2019-2020, BMW R1250RT (2019-2020, BMW S1000RR (2020), BMW S1000XR (2020) motorcycles.
It would perhaps be easier to list which models BMW Motorrad USA is not recalling today with NHTSA, as many of the brands newer motorcycles fall afoul of the vehicle code pertaining to rear brake light operation.
Nevertheless we will give it a go, as the following bikes (4,026 units in total) are being recalled for failing to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 108, “Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment”:
BMW F900R, BMW F900XR, BMW S1000RR, BMW F750GS, BMW F850GS, BMW F850GS Adventure, BMW R1250GS, BMW R1250GS Adventure, BMW R1250RS, BMW R1250R, BMW RnineT, BMW RnineT Pure, and BMW RnineT Scrambler from the 2020 model year. The 2019-2020 BMW S1000R motorcycles are also affected by this recall.
It is not like the BMW R1250GS Adventure was a big surprise for the 2018 EICMA show. It’s debut was telegraphed in emission documents filed with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), and photos of the machine recently leaked onto the internet.
But, the GSA has always been an important motorcycle to the German brand, and as such, the debut of the 2019 BMW R1250GS Adventure is a bit of a thing.
As expected for the 2019 model year, the big feature on the R1250GS Adventure is the addition of BMW Motorrad’s “ShiftCam” boxer-twin engine. Getting a bump to 1,254cc, this increase in displacement means that there is a modest performance increase of 134hp and 92 lbs•ft of torque.
EICMA might be next week, but the 2019 BMW R1250GS Adventure is hitting the internet right meow. Leaking ahead of the trade show in Milan, an Italian YouTube channel has the scoop on the venerable ADV bike, giving us our first look at the new ShiftCam powered BMW R1250GS Adventure.
As you would expect, the new BMW R1250GS Adventure shares a motor with the rest of the water-cooled boxer lineup, which means a 1,254cc displacement for the boxer-twin engine, which makes 134hp (100 kW) and 92 lbs•ft of torque, with help from its variable valve timing setup.
We knew for the 2019 model year that the R1200GS would become the R1250GS – the venerable adventure-touring machine getting an engine upgrade for the next model cycle. With 1254cc of displacement, and rumors of variable valve timing, it was of course inevitable that BMW Motorrad would bring its new boxer engine to the rest of its “R” line. We just didn’t think it would be all at once
Tipped by filings with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), we see though that the entire lineup of R1200 motorcycles will be getting a new engine for 2019. This means that the BMW R1250GS, BMW R1250GS Adventure, BMW R1250R, BMW R1250RS, and BMW R1250RT are on the way.