Sales surge late in the year may have put the Motorrad over the edge.

BMW may have claimed honors for best selling motorcycle of 2006, but so far the numbers are unofficial. The current unofficial benchmark is that it has surprassed last year’s sales record of its nearest competitor by a comfortable margin.

Combined UK sales of its R 1200 GS and R 1200 GS Adventure models totalled 2,277 units in 2006. This is a figure that comfortably beats that achieved by Honda’s CBR1000RR, which at 2,067 units was officially the best selling motorcycle of last year, according to figures released by the Motorcycle Industry Association.

Until fairly recently, BMW’s ‘GS’ range of motorcycles was considered as a rather niche proposition, used mainly by globetrotters and desert racers. However, the legendary ‘Gelande Strasse’ (on/off-road) genre, which made its debut back in 1980 with the iconic R 80 G/S, has now firmly entered the mainstream, buoyed by a general move away from race replica machines and a realisation that road-specific suspension, ergonomic efficiency and all-day comfort make more sense in the real world of high insurance premiums, poorly maintained roads and traffic congestion.

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