Karl-Heinz Gerlinger was in a bit of a pickle. As the newly appointed head of BMW Motorrad in 1980, he had the unenviable task of salvaging the entire motorcycle division from the chopping block. Yes, that’s right—BMW was seriously considering axing its then nearly 60-year-old history and closing up shop. Looking at the lineup that year, it’s easy to see why hope was nearly lost. From top to bottom, the boxer-twin-powered machines were as hip as a farmer in rubber boots weeding his rhubarb patch. In a marketplace awash with furiously fast Japanese machines in an era when the average age of a motorcyclist was under 25, BMW was a heartbeat away from being dead in the water. And then the most bizarre Hail Mary in the history of motorcycles came along—the 1980 R 80 G/S. They had hoped to sell 3,000 of them that first year. They sold twice that.