It's the Leatherman of bikes.
There's not much that my R1200GS Adventure can't do, considering it's size and weight. It can't for example, compete in a motocross event with any hope of success. It can, however, get round the course.
Neither can it run that competetively round a race track, but you can still have fun trying, and even surprise a few riders on sportsbikes.
It'll tour, carry loads of gear, go huge distances between fill ups, overtake cars with ease, carry a pillion in comfort, cross a wet, grassy campsite without falling over, go at some speed up a dirt track, and even have a little bit of fun on B roads.
The Ewan and Charley thing is getting a little tired now. There are owners of Adventure bikes who have never even seen the Long Way Round/Down. Anyone would think that BMW had never sold a single GS until Ewan and Charley did their thing.
I was touring on an Africa Twin in the early nineties, and the amount of XT500's and the like that I saw in Europe at that time, usually ridden by German tourists, was amazing. It's certainly not a new phenomenon.
