Had your ear to the ground lately waiting to hear news of BMW’s pending 2024 1300cc GS model? You’re not alone. Munich has done a very good job of keeping the project under wraps, literally. During the last two years we’ve only seen rough spy photos and one video of the machine, first expected as a 2023 model, and in each, the new bike was shrouded in panels and covers, even sporting a mock frame cobbled together using white plastic piping. 

But now we have a clearer view, thanks to brand new spy shots published by Germany’s Motorrad. The photos show a pair of test mules and reveal much more detail than we’ve seen previously. During the same time period, Dennis Chung’s otherworldly data mining efforts at motorcycle.com unearthed some concrete specs listed on new vehicle admission documents from Sweden. 

What does the combined information dump reveal? For one thing, the new spy shots confirm the bike will indeed feature radar front and rear. Up front an emitter will enable adaptive cruise control, so when you’re droning from one adventure to another, the cruise setting will automatically adjust to control distance between the bike and any vehicle ahead of you. 

The bike’s rear radar will enable a blind spot assist system, technology most are by now familiar with on automobiles. We know this because light-up triangular hazard icons can be seen clearly in the bikes’ rearview mirrors. 

The test mules in the photos are not identical twins, however. For example, one shows the turn signal indicators embedded in robust-looking hand guards, while the other has traditional fairing mounted stock and pod design. It will be interesting to see which is revealed on the production model, or if the integrated hand guard option will be an upgrade (though off-roaders will likely see these as money bombs).

Both bikes in the photos are still encumbered with heavy camouflage in the headlamp and beak areas, but the windshields are fully exposed and it appears the new screen may be electronically controlled, a first for the GS line. 

Getting to the meat of the new model, we can see more of the brand new 1300cc boxer-twin engine in the fresh photos, too. In spy shots dating back to the summer of 2021, as well as in a video captured in the fall of 2022, much of the bike, including the engine’s cylinder heads, were disguised in crude shrouding, making it appear more rat bike than flagship. 

However, the fact the running cylinders were covered was a hint it might be the GS line’s first fully liquid-cooled boxer, and that guess was supported by two large cowlings that seemed to be housing larger radiators than currently found on today’s 1250GS. The new photos back up the conviction BMW is ditching the targeted air/water-cooling system we see on today’s R1250GS models. 

Motorrad, which seems close to the project, predicts an all-new aluminum frame with a bolt-on subframe replacing the current tubular steel design. It also predicts there will be a completely new paralever swingarm, new final drive and a switch to a semi-dry sump. And while those forecasts do seem likely looking at the photos, some of Motorrad’s projections appear upended by certified data revealed in the Swedish homologation documents, including the theory the bike will be lighter and more compact than the current R1250GS.

The certified vehicle approval data from Sweden shows a laden weight rather than dry or curb weight, which is recorded as 738.6 pounds. It includes the bike with unnamed accessories and a rider weighing 165 pounds. Dissecting that package weight to reveal only the bike’s weight is tricky, but using the same certified info for the current 1250GS for comparison — 736.3 pounds — it appears the new model will not be lighter, and may even be a cheeseburger heavier, with data analyst Chung predicting a curb weight of at least a 552 lb. 

The R1300GS will also have a slightly longer wheelbase than the current equivalent 1250GS. That measurement comes in at 59.8 inches for the new bike, whereas the current GS measures 59.6 inches and its Adventure variant is 59.2 inches. The overall length of the bike is longer as well, measuring 87.1 inches compared to the current GS’s 86.9 inches.

In the power department, the new GS is certified in the Swedish documents with peak output of 143.5 hp at 7,750 rpm, nearly 10 ponies more than the 1250’s output in the same records (134.1 @ 7,750 rpm.). Top speed for the new model is listed as 140 mph, while the current GS is documented to be 136 mph. Torque is also recorded as slightly higher, with the new bike offering 109.9 ft-lb at 6,500 rpm, whereas the 2022 GS is listed as producing 105.5 ft-lb at 6,250 rpm.

The data from Sweden also confirms ABS and that wheel sizes remain the same as current, with a 19 inch front and a 17 rear. In the spy photos the most current test mules wear familiar cross spoked rims instead of the cast set we saw in the last round. Also carried over appears to be the utilitarian, dual port, right side-mounted exhaust. 

Even with all the fresh information here, there’s still much to be revealed about BMW’s brand new 1300 GS, and even more to learn about its forthcoming siblings. We know from BMW’s own leaked data there is an R1400GS on the way, a bike likely to be this 1300’s off-road oriented ADV variant, though with increased displacement in name only. The M bike is projected to be an up-spec’d variant, something like what BMW did with its M1000RR.

We’re beyond ready for the big reveal, which might happen as soon as early July during BMW’s annual Motorrad Days event in Berlin, an extra big deal this year as the manufacturing giant celebrates the 100th anniversary of its first production motorcycle. It’s been two long years of deciphering data and inspecting spy photos. We’re ready to see exactly what will be jumping out of BMW’s 100th Birthday Cake. 

Author: Jamie Elvidge

Jamie has been a motorcycle journalist for more than 30 years, testing the entire range of bikes for the major print magazines and specializing in adventure-travel related stories. To date she’s written and supplied photography for articles describing what it’s like to ride in all 50 states and 43 foreign countries, receiving two Lowell Thomas Society of American Travel Writer’s Awards along the way. Her most-challenging adventure yet has been riding in the 2018 GS Trophy in Mongolia as Team AusAmerica’s embedded journalist.