Modern adventure motorcycles all look pretty dang good, in my opinion. That said, they also all look pretty similar, as they follow a very similar design. There's a large windscreen, a boxy and aggressive middle, tall suspension, and some knobby tires shod on wire wheels.
But that design language of aggressive and angular in the towers and bodywork sorta just follows the same path, leading many to look like carbon copies or as if I was copying someone else's homework. I get though, it's what the market is demanding.
Again, I have no problem with that design language being put onto almost everything. But it can get stale. You sort of end up looking at a bike and wondering, "Which make is this?" You absolutely can't do that with the new 2026 BMW R 12 G/S, which looks like it was plucked out of the 1980s and off the sands of Dakar. The only thing missing from this retro adventure motorcycle is a Marlboro livery and a mustachioed rider smoking cigarettes by the side of some cafe.
I absolutely adore it.
I just have one problem and that's more to do with whoever's putting together BMW's launch images. You have this dope-looking retro bike. And based on its specs, which I'll get to in a second, it can do dope things, like blasting through the Sahara on a whim. So why are you using AI images to make said dope-looking bike look like it's doing dope things? Why not just do them and bring along a photographer? Why not be retro and even get someone to shoot it on film?
Because this, well, this feels wrong.
Update: A BMW spokesperson replied to our request for comment, stating, "Due to timing constraints leading up to the start of communications, riding R 12 G/S images have been sourced from images used for Marketing/advertising. These are always much more heavily edited than press photos.
In this case, the riding R 12 G/S photos were created using AI tools.
The press department plans on taking actual R 12 G/S riding photos in late Spring and these will be posted to the media site as soon as they are ready." The original story follows.
"With the new BMW R 12 G/S, BMW Motorrad is offering a classic enduro for puristic off-road fun. The abbreviation borrowed from the legendary R 80 G/S stands for 'Gelände / Straße' (Off-road / Street) and signals that the new member of the BMW R 12 family, masters both equally. We know that numerous fans have been eagerly waiting for this motorcycle," says Markus Lederer, BMW's Head of its Boxer Series.
And truly, you can see the DNA from that original R 80 G/S in the bike's design, with the central hawkbeak/dirt bike-esque fender, to the singular headlight and stance of the bike. It looks excellent without looking too retro or pretentious.
As for mechanicals, an air/oil-cooled 1,170cc boxer engine provides the rider with 109 horsepower and 85 pound-feet of torque through a six-speed sequential manual transmission. That's then sent to the rear tire via BMW's famous driveshaft, which provides less of a chance of breaking or damaging a chain when you're railing on it through the desert or woods. A "high-mounted" exhaust completes the drivetrain package, thereby reducing the possibility of shearing it off when you're sending it.
You also get fully adjustable "upside-down telescopic front forks" with BMW's Paralever rear swing arm, which also comes with a fully adjustable rear shock. A 21-inch front wheel and a 17-inch rear wheel come standard, but there is an optional 18-inch rear wheel. Three ride modes come with the bike, including Rain, Road, and Enduro, while those who spec the R 12 G/S' Enduro Package Pro get Enduro Pro.
And you can get all this with a starting price of $16,395, which is more than reasonable! But the AI of it all...
Listen, I get the desire to use new technology. And I get it if BMW wasn't quite ready to show off a production motorcycle rampaging in the dunes. But for this retro bike that emulates a heritage model, one steeped in the company's history, it feels like an odd choice to use AI-generated images as press materials and to get everyone hyped about the bike. And there's no getting around that these are anything but that, as everything in the "action shots," as well as the lifestyle photos with "people" look...off.
The hallmark of AI generation.
What you end up with are shots of the R 12 G/S, a suitably capital "R" rad motorcycle doing all the things you'd expect a rad motorcycle to do, i.e. blasting through sand, getting parked up near some cool geological features, stopping at a local Baja restearant called "Bari Bar," and shown with a couple of pretty-looking people having the times of their lives.
But if you look closer, the beach the motorcycles are blasting down doesn't quite line up with how beaches look, nor how water works, and the shadow cast by the rider is nowhere near what a human riding a motorcycle would look like. The photo of the guy stopping at the aforementioned "Bari Bar", who has some odd fingers. I also searched for Bari Bar in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France and got nothing. And the shot of the motorcycle in what appears to be the American southwest at first glance looks more and more like Mars if you stare at it for longer than a second.
My point in all this is, why pretend when the real thing is so readily available and when your motorcycle is so seemingly perfect for doing everything in these pictures? BMW could've called me up and I would've either taken the shots myself or told them where to go and returned with way better photos than this.
I reached out to BMW to ask what happened, with a representative telling me they were going to send my inquiry up the food chain. So when or if I hear back, I'll update this story. But for the time being, as much as this motorcycle looks freakin' awesome, it's leaving a weird taste in my mouth about the photos the company chose to put forth.
