Controversial BMW R1300 GSA Design Not A “Provocation,” Product Boss Says
In defence of the new bike's looks, GSA product manager Reiner Fings says GS models have never looked "nice," and denied the new bike was deliberatively provocative
Read the comments section of any post about the new BMW R1300 GS Adventure, and you’ll likely find a rather strong reaction. “A fridge with a beak,” is one less-than impressed comment we had on our own channels, and we’ve heard similar comparisons to large domestic appliances elsewhere. So, we wondered - what does BMW itself think of the online reaction to the bike?
We broached the subject with Reiner Fings, product manager of both the R1300 GS Adventure and the regular GS. “The reaction is always important but when you want to do something big you have to be brave,” he said. Fings also noted that the bike wasn’t intended to be a “provocation”.
Instead, there was more of a focus on function. “When you look at the fuel tank for example, and wonder ‘why is it vertical, the cut in the position where it comes to the seat bench?’ [It’s] because you can adjust the seat bench, and there’s no open and closing gap when you adjust the seating,” Fings said.
The tank’s large outward dimensions are intended to help wind protection, while the flat surfaces aid practicality. It’s supposed to be easier to add extra luggage to the sides, while the flat, rubberised top can be used to put things on when stopped without worrying about them rolling off.
Fings also alluded to the fact that, really, GSs haven’t ever really been pretty. “GSs are not usually made to be nice. When you see the first years [generations of the model] all in a row, they are all in some kind of [way] strange,” he said. The bikes’ aesthetics are Fings reckons, a way of talking about the GS’s capabilities. “‘I'm proud of how I am, I don’t have to be nice, but you can do everything with me. Come with me and I’ll show it to you’”.
Will any of these comments stop people furiously smashing away at their keyboards in disgust at the GSA’s looks? Probably not, but we don’t expect the new model’s boxy looks to harm sales, which have always been extremely strong for the bike.
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Matt has a background in motoring journalism of the four-wheeled variety but has long had a passion for motorbikes, taking his first steps into riding in 2010.
