Everyone knows the story of the BMW R80 G/S. It’s the bike that ignited the dual sport market, and created ripples that are still felt in showrooms today.
Conventional wisdom says that the launch of the G/S in 1980 saved BMW Motorrad from extinction. But the story goes further back than that, because the idea for the G/S came from BMW’s successes in European off-road events.
BMW fielded a full works team for the 1979 season, and the team dominated the unlimited classes of the International Six Days Trial and Enduro Championship. These exploits tend to be overshadowed by BMW’s Paris Dakar history, but they are not forgotten by all Enthusiasten.
This history is well known to a group of five friends from the Cataluña region in northeastern Spain.…