#Bmw

Touring motorcycles with their plethora of luxury features tend to be the flagship models for manufacturers because touring riders demand comfort, handling, big power, weather protection, and storage space – and they’re willing to pay for it. Thanks to the Project Rushmore upgrades first seen in the 2014 model year, the ‘Glides have delivered first-class accommodations and the technological features touring riders expect. Just take a look at the Boom! infotainment system and the LED Daymaker headlight. Be it with a frame-mounted fairing as with the Road Glide or a fairing-mounted one on the Electra Glides (among others), the Harley-Davidson touring line commanded a large portion of the luxury touring market. Still, the Twin Cam engine had begun to show its age.

Ordinarily, a recall affecting 29,281 motorcycles would be big news, but in this case, the news is overshadowed by confirmation that the next-generation of BMW R motorcycles are on their way.

The S1000RR was a landmark model for BMW when it was first introduced in 2009, a new high-performance Inline-Four sportbike for a company that established its bona fides in Boxer-Twin adventure bikes. Since then, the S1000RR has been a perennial favorite for MO’s annual superbike shootouts, even against brand new contenders despite only receiving small updates in 2012 and 2015.

Every year, we find ourselves scouring YouTube for racing videos during the MotoGP and WSBK summer hiatus. You know, anything to get our racing fix. Well, this year’s favorite clip features none other than two-time WSBK champion Troy Corser riding the wheels off an 80 year old BMW at last year’s Goodwood Revival. Do you like your racing with a little wobble and weave? You’ve got it here, as Corser pushes the old Beemer to its absolute limit and the top of the timing sheet.

The adventure-bike market is one of the hottest segments in motorcycling, inspiring riders both new and old to seek adventures across horizons both near and far. BMW was the segment’s progenitor, debuting the oddball R80 G/S in 1980. That first G/S had a Boxer motor that displaced 798cc, just like the parallel-Twin F800GS introduced in 2008.

Pure, as in unadulterated, undiluted, genuine, real. Pure, as in elemental, untainted, and distilled down to its most basic form. With the Pure version of the R nineT, BMW has stripped the platform of everything its designers deemed interfered with the integrity of the ride. If the Pure were made with a less care, it might have ended up feeling stripped down, incomplete. Instead, the Pure is surprisingly successful and may be my favorite R nineT variant yet.

BMW announced its initial batch of models returning for 2018 with new colors and optional equipment. We’ve already written about the two most notable changes, a new ex works customization program called BMW Motorrad Spezial for RnineT and touring models, plus a new optional Bluetooth-connected 6.5-inch TFT display for the R1200GS and R1200GS Adventure, called the “Connectivity Option.” Several models also receive Emergency Call feature, though this will only be available in Europe. The rest of the announcement includes cosmetic changes and revisions to BMW’s various optional packages

BMW announced a new factory customization program for its Heritage and Touring models. The new BMW Motorrad Spezial program expands on the customization concept of the RnineT, adding a number of factory-installed options for the RnineT Pure, Racer, Scrambler and Urban G/S variants, as well as the K1600GT, K1600GTL and R1200RT.

For those who’ve lapped up every word, expression, and metaphor of the performance novel that was our 2017 Superbike Track Shootout and Superbike Street Shootout, the heir apparent is as obvious as the bike coming in last place. For those still wallowing in anticipation, unable to decipher our MOrse code, you can take a breath because, without further ado, we give you…

Michelle Christine is a comedian and writer who loves to ride motorcycles. She was first seen on these pages after taking BMW’s Off-Road Academy and writing about her experience. Then she took her first off-road trip as part of RawHyde Adventure’s Base Camp excursion in the Mojave desert. This time Michelle sets off for an adventure on her own. Being gregarious and sweet, she naturally makes several new friends along the way.

The only thing better than producing a hit might be producing one by accident. BMW knew the R nineT was a cool bike they hoped the younger set would like, but they claim to be surprised by just how successful it’s been. They didn’t really corral as many bearded millennials as they’d hoped, since their numbers tell them the average nineT buyer is 49 years old and as wealthy as the typical K1600 buyer. But maybe that’s because that first 2013 R nineT was a $15,000 motorcycle?

A few days riding seven of the most powerful sportbikes available on public roadways without incurring a single speeding ticket is next to miraculous. Johnny Law, wildlife, tourists, and sharing hotel rooms with one another are only a few of the occupational hazards we navigated when conducting our 2017 Superbike Street Shootout. The street-centric comparison may be representative of the actual lives most of these motorcycles will lead in the real world, but for us it’s a necessary precursor to where we prefer to be and where these bikes should actually be ridden: the racetrack.

As Bob Dylan wrote, the times, they are a’changing. All you need to do is take a look at our latest superbike shootout to see that technology is playing an ever-increasing role in how we ride motorcycles. What about simpler things, like instruments? Well, superbike instrumentation has been changing, too. Of our seven superbike contestants, only one has an old-school, swept needle tachometer. The remaining six count on some kind of bar graph. Three of the bikes have LCD screens delivering at least some of their information while the remaining four utilize color on TFT screens. So, we thought we’d ask our loyal *MO*rons what they thought about the instruments. Vote for all the instruments you like, and we’ll figure out which is the best.

It’s been two years since we summoned together the superpowers of the sportbike world. In that time the Aprilia RSV4 RR, Honda CBR1000RR, Kawasaki ZX-10R, and Suzuki GSX-R1000 have either been heavily revised or completely overhauled. These changes beg a reinspection into the pecking order of world’s premier street-legal superbikes. Can Japan wrest away the literbike crown from the European OEMs, Aprilia and BMW, that have dominated the class since 2010?

One of the benefits of experience is the added perspective it brings. In my recent A Decade At The Helm editorial, I discussed many of the changes that have taken place in the publishing world since I joined Motorcycle.com and stretching back 10 years earlier.