There’s an atmosphere of novelty and relaxation in Bavaria. BMW’s new boss, Markus Flasch, is challenging fans via his Instagram profile: on April 9, he posted a rather “cheeky” photo in which he peeks under a tarpaulin at a new motorcycle on the way. His comment is simply “something big is coming”.
The photo was taken at BMW Motorrad’s prototype workshop in Munich. What we can see under the tarpaulin is just a very wide rear wheel and an apparently new aluminum swingarm, but which seems to have some points in common with the R 18, starting with the visible drive shaft. The detail of the wheel shows us a low, sporty tire, and the use of the hashtag #Dreambike by BMW’s number one allows us to imagine that this is, at least for now, a prototype. It could be the same prototype that Flasch recently announced in an interview with his German Motorrad colleagues. In the same interview, he commented on the sales results of the R 18 and the very brave decision to undertake a project like this, revealing a desire to strengthen it by emphasizing precisely what its strengths are. The large 1,800 cc boxer will be used, he said, in a more typically BMW bike and, on the same occasion, he let slip that the planned date would be the Concorso d’Eleganza in Villa d’Este, on Lake Como. So it’s not a new R18 or a model to replace what’s already in the range, but it seems to be more of a new experiment with the same technical base.
A few hours after Flasch’s social post, a BMW press release appeared precisely about the Concorso d’Eleganza 2024. Cars are obviously mentioned, but at one point the world premiere of “Rock’n’Roll on two wheels” is also mentioned. The hypothesis is therefore that this is a dream bike, or rather a show bike, a concept study that combines the classic style of the big boxer R 18 with something more aggressive, probably a roadster.
It should also be remembered that in 2020, when the first R 18 was presented, BMW used precisely the motto “Rock’n’Roll” and that on the bike’s screen there are precisely “Rock” and “Roll” modes. We can therefore expect something closer, at least in style, to the R nineT family. Of course, we’re talking about a 1,802 cubic meter twin-cylinder boxer engine with 158 Nm at 3,000 rpm and 91 hp (67 kW) at 4,750 rpm. The Big Boxer is already Euro 5 approved and could be adopted for the new model with little technical or formal effort. Work could simply be done to bring the power up to the round figure of 100 hp, but mechanically we don’t expect any changes.
In any case, let’s not wait too long to find out more, because the Concours d’Elegance is scheduled for May 24 and it’s guaranteed that the bike BMW will bring will be the one Flasch presented to us.