Raising dust.
Erzbergrodeo, Baja California, GCC – the first model in the HP series is being sent by BMW Motorrad straight to where a lot of dust is whipped up. It's a reflection right down to the roots. And at the same time, the starting signal for something entirely new.
It is certainly no coincidence that the first machine in the HP range is based on the GS. The exceptional Boxer made its way through the dessert too successfully. The reputation of the street motorcycle that can also go offroad was too good. All the experience that BMW Motorrad gathered with the GS in offroad sport and in rallys like the Paris-Dakar are now flowing into a new project: the HP2 Enduro. HP stands for High Performance, the 2 stands for the number of cylinders of the Boxer engine, Enduro is self-explanatory. In 2005, the standard machine built in Berlin entered the market – and set the trend.
Berthold Hauser
Twin-cylinder boxer engine
As easy as it was in the eighties.
As easy as it was in the eighties.
Technically, the HP2 Enduro is based on the R 1200 GS. On that basis, it is uncompromisingly trimmed to offroad racing: lighter, more agile, and sportier. For the development into a thoroughbred off-road sports bike, a great deal of weight had to be lost, making the HP2 Enduro a mere 196.5 kilos when unladen and fully fuelled. This corresponds with the clarified target: building an Enduro that unites the weight from the eighties with the performance and technology of today. There are no specifications and no gatekeepers. There is only one thing that remains consistent: High Performance. 105 hp, upside-down fork, suspension strut, paralever. A motorcycle for those that tear their way at full speed ahead over the gravel – leaving nothing but a cloud of dust in their wake.
Harsh practical test.
Harsh practical test.
When project manager Markus Theobald's team is put to the test, the competition and the customers are amazed. With dynamism as the foremost maxim emerging from the boxer engine and continuing on into every little detail. As extreme as the HP2 Enduro itself is the acceleration under which it is tested. At the German Cross Country championships (GCC), it demonstrates its off-road capabilities just as much as it does at the infamous Baja California dessert race or the Austrian Erzberg rodeo. The latter is considered to be one of the harshest Enduro races in the world and a breeding ground for talented offroad riders. Such riders include Simo Kirssi, Jimmy Lewis and Chris Pfeiffer, who will be testing the HP2 Enduro in Erzberg once again.
Sensations at the Erzberg.
Berthold Hauser is taking part live as a motorsport boss, when his riders provide for sensations at the Erzberg rodeo. In 2006, Simo Kirssi dominates the Iron Road prologue with the HP2 Enduro and repeats his performance in 2007 with a victory in the champions league and in the prologue. The HP2 Enduro really stands out from the starting grid of well over a thousand participants against the small, agile Enduros. "Everyone was amazed at how much power could be gleaned from the seemingly heavy boxers", Berthold Hauser recounts. "The HP2 Enduro surprised us most with its rideability. It climbed the steep slopes with such an incredible pull that we all said: That's incredible."
