BMW G 650 GS Sertao 2015 — Specifications

Somewhere between Bahia and Pernambuco, under a sun that bakes the ochre earth of the Brazilian plateau, a Munich engineer must have thought that an ordinary motorcycle was not enough. The Sertão is a million square kilometers of semi-arid land, rutted tracks, and raw freedom. Not the kind of place you tame with a small, restricted engine and boulevard tires. BMW therefore took its G 650 GS, gave it a twist, and made something more serious.

The transformation is surgical. The suspensions gain respectively 40 and 45 mm of additional travel to reach 210 mm, the spoked wheels give way to wire wheels, and the front wheel goes to 21 inches with 90/90 tires at the front and 130/80 at the rear, against wider sections on the GS classic. An engine guard completes the picture. Ground clearance increases, the BMW G 650 GS Sertão straightens up on its haunches and finally accepts the stony paths without grimacing. The wheelbase of 1483 mm, slightly extended, brings appreciable stability in a straight line on rough terrain. A taller screen and handguards sign off the rest of the metamorphosis.

Under this adventurer’s hood, a 652 cm3 single-cylinder engine that runs at 6500 rpm to deliver 48 horsepower and 44 Nm of torque at 5000 rpm. In a segment where modern trails are stuffed with compact twins and inflated displacements, this engine looks like an assumed anachronism. The Yamaha XT 660 is approximately the only one to share this single-cylinder philosophy, and yet, in a different register. This engine is not lightning fast, the top speed of 169 km/h is proof enough, but it has this reassuring linearity that makes the motorcycle accessible to inexperienced riders and restful for others. Fuel consumption of 3.18 liters per hundred kilometers is a real virtue for those who travel far from any gas station, and the 14-liter tank offers comfortable theoretical range.

The 192.8 kg fully fueled and the 861 mm seat height might deter modest builds, and that would be a shame. In practice, this weight remains manageable thanks to a well-studied center of gravity. The switchable ABS is a welcome attention as soon as you leave the asphalt. The bolted rear truss steel frame is not a high-tech solution, but it has proven its worth in terms of robustness, which is more important than the ego of engineers when you are 200 kilometers from the next town. Floating disc brakes with two-piston calipers at the front complete an honest package.

At 8174 euros, the entry ticket makes you think. That's where the shoe pinches sincerely. For this price, the competition offers more modern, more powerful, and sometimes better-equipped machines. The G 650 GS Sertão mainly sells a concept, a soul, and the blue propeller badge on the tank, which, for many buyers, justifies the premium. It is aimed at the urban nomad who dreams of trails without wanting to manage the complexity of a large trail, at the ambitious beginner who is looking for a forgiving but not humiliating machine. It is not a perfect motorcycle, but it is an honest motorcycle in its intentions, and that counts.