Road test: BMW r1150gs v f800gs.

(From Nottingham Evening Post)

If you are in the market for an all-singing, all-dancing, trail-inspired, adventure-sports tourer then the letters G and S are probably running through your mind. Not only has BMW convinced thousands of British bikers to ditch their back-cracking sports bikes for the world of upright riding and knobbly tyres, but the R1200GS actually outsold the perennial chart-topping Honda Fireblade in 2006.

Put simply, the renaissance of the adventure sports genre begins and ends with the BMW GS. And for years the big Boxer GS only had to share its name with a tiddly 650cc single-cylinder thumper but now there's a new kid in town - the F800GS.

Lighter, more economical, with a brand new engine and most importantly, it undercuts its bigger brother in the range by GBP2,500. Just GBP6,695 will get you a brand new F800GS - so why would anybody ride the old boxer again? Well this is exactly what I was wondering until I spotted in the small ads that for a grand less than the young pretender you could get your hands on a 2003 R1150GS, the very same "cult" machine that whisked Messrs McGregor and Boorman off around the globe. Not only that but it would come fully-kitted with heated-grips, ABS, BMW-official panniers and just 25k on the clock (so it's barely stretched its legs for the sort of marathon mileages these bikes return in their life spans). And, if you need any more convincing, there would be even cash left over to buy a year's insurance, a new lid and a road map of Europe.

So here's the plan - take both fully-laden machines for a 2,000-mile jaunt to the South of France that encompasses every type of road from endless Autoroute trudges to the tightest hairpins this side of the Pyrenees.

The most striking difference between the two machines when ridden back-to-back is their engines, perhaps unsurprisingly. One uses a tried and tested, lumpy flat-twin and the other a brand-new Rotax-designed, free-revving, parallel-twin. One is meaty, punchy and most definitely quirky - the other is smooth, slick and peppy.

The Boxer plant delivers power in, as its name might suggest, knockout blows. It drives forward like a steam train and is lots of fun. The Austrian-made 800cc motor winds the power on smoothly and progressively, it feels more akin to a 600cc four-cylinder thanks to the clever balancing shaft that all but alleviates the vibrations that would otherwise interrupt the silky ride.