The new BMW F800GS – as tested by Touratech founder Herbert Schwarz

If you were asked the question, ‘Who were the first members of public to see the new BMW F800GS?’ you could be forgiven for mistakenly thinking this would be visitors to the Milan show where the bike was launched. This however isn’t the case as 4 weeks before the bike was launched Herbert Schwarz, one of the founders of Touratech, took a prototype version of the machine to deepest darkest Africa to put it through it’s paces.

The trip followed a similar route to the Long Way Down and saw Herbert, accompanied by wife Ramona on a G650X Challenge, take the bike through Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and on to Uganda covering approximately 5000km. Herbert had dropped everything to do this trip as he had been given the bike at the last minute. The trip was organised in a very short 2 weeks from the time BMW called to say Herbert could have the bike.

Herbert is a veteran to this kind of trip and usually does one long journey a year, usually on the newest BMW. These trips gives Herbert the chance to test out the newest addition to the BMW family while also producing a new DVD and most importantly testing our own Touratech kit. This trip was no different and Herbert and his team franticly fit everything they could to the bike in the week he had it before he left.

BMW were naturally nervous about letting the bike out on public roads, as they didn’t want anyone to get any photos of the bike before it’s official launch in Milan.