If you need to fettle your BMW enduro for hardcore long-distance racing, the company to speak to is HPN. The German outfit has an illustrious history, largely built on preparing the motorcycles that took BMW to four Dakar Rally victories in the 1980s. HPN built this particular bike for the Baja 1000 in 1985, trimming the wet weight down to a mere 155kg (340lbs) with fuel. The suspension travel is a plush 300mm (12 inches) front and rear, plenty enough to soak up the big hits. And of course, it’s got that brilliant retro Teutonic styling, but this time, in the slightly unfamiliar colors of red. This machine is superficially similar to BMW’s ‘Africa’ enduro bike, the R80G/S Paris-Dakar, but the race version is known as the BMW GS980R. HPN bored out the air-cooled boxer motor from 797 to 980cc—bumping up the power up from around 50 to 69hp—and just about every other component is either heavily modified or custom made—down to that white shield on the front wheel, which hides a 260mm Brembo disk. BMW riders Gaston Rahier and Eddy Hau won the large-capacity class in the 1985 Baja 1000: if you want to emulate their successes, take your pick from HPN’s range of hardcore modified BMW enduros.
