With its new Concept Roadster, BMW has incorporated just about every possible mechanical metaphor for aggression, attitude, and radical performance. The idea is clear: Let ’em have it with both barrels!
At the front, there’s a pure Superbike front wheel with Brembo radial-mount calipers, giant discs, and a gold-slider Öhlins fork. A blacked-out appearance (with honking scoops inspired by those of the Yamaha V-Max), adds to the mystery, while a hooded-cobra tank increases the evil. What’s more, there’s a touch of Ducati trellis in the Concept Roadster’s blue tubular frame elements, and the “chin scoop” shape of the front of the under-engine muffler takes us back to Kawasaki’s “earth-scraper” roadrace fairing of 1973, which was validated in that company’s Gifu wind tunnel.
Next, there’s a factory look to the cut-angle-and-weld final upthrust exhaust (but what if it rains?). The eye then jumps to the “pointed prong in space” seat, inspired by that of the tiny MotoGP bike Honda built for Dani Pedrosa for 2007. And at the extreme rear, there’s one last resonating visual statement—a single-sided Paralever swingarm and deep-dish rear wheel that are evocative of Ducati’s classic 916 and Honda’s potent RC-45.
The shocker? It’s not a Superbike’s 200-hp inline-four in the engine room; rather, it’s a venerable boxer-twin! If this strikes you as strange, think again—it’s simply another example of BMW packing this machine with all the symbolic power the designers can muster.
What do you think of when you think of BMW? You think of Max Friz’s decades-old boxer. The point here is to ring all our bells in iconic BMW style.
Don’t forget that in the 1970s, Udo Gietl, Todd Schuster, and the late Kenny Augustine wrung Superbike-winning performance from tube-framed BMWs designed for touring with heavy bags. Running some of their engines as high as 10,000 rpm, reinforcing chassis with welded-in tubes, and generally ringing all the high-performance bells, those Butler & Smith flatties won the first-ever US AMA Superbike title in 1976, with rider Reg Pridmore.
As part of the process to arriving at the design of the S1000RR Superbike, BMW prototyped a notional Superbike twin—the boxer R-1, which was liquid-cooled and had the potential to produce 210 horsepower.
How does boxer-philia work? We can’t begin to say. Love is not rational and calculating. Love is irrational and passionate. Just as there are those for whom Harleys are gold, or in whose eyes Ducatis eclipse all else, so there are those forever bonded to BMW’s flat-twin. Accept it.
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