BMW’s motorcycle division has transformed itself in less than 20 years. It used to be the provider of trusty transport to traffic cops and bearded long-distance tourers, but now it makes a huge variety of cutting-edge bikes that look amazing, push the technology envelope and set the agenda with a verve that leaves other more timid bike makers playing catch-up.
The old boxer twins used to pull off the unlikely trick of being simultaneously eccentric and dull. Today, BMW creates new niches, redefines what’s possible and converts car drivers into motorcyclists. It’s not just ahead of the curve – it’s dictating the shape and colour of the curve.
Show them a trend and they’ll buck it; the average age of a BMW motorcycle owner has gone down when everyone else’s typical buyer is getting older. And that looks likely to continue with the imminent arrival of BMW’s scooters – internal combustion versions first, with an electric version to follow, having been unveiled in impressive concept form at Frankfurt.
Like the other high-profile European niche bike makers Ducati and Triumph, BMW Motorrad (it’s German for motorcycle) has been growing market share while the Japanese have struggled. (The exchange rate has helped too, with Japanese bikes getting very expensive in the last couple of years, to the extent that BMWs are looking like tremendously good value.)
There’s no single explanation for BMW Motorrad’s huge success. Its GS models – essentially two-wheeled Range Rovers, as ridden by Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor in the Long Way Round TV series – have been the main driving force behind the big-selling adventure bike class. That’s one big factor. BMW has returned to international road racing, albeit with distinctly mixed results, and that’s got to be another factor. The company has led the way with innovations in aerodynamics, suspension and braking – but the motorcycle buying public is notoriously conservative, so those developments could have hindered as much as helped BMW’s cause.
No, if we’re looking for the single most important element in BMW Motorrad’s transformation, it’s a charismatic American called David Robb. He spent part of his childhood in Kobe, Japan, where his father was a missionary, and later got a scholarship to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. One of his brothers is a minor rock star, another ran security for Metallica. His hobby is acrobatic flying.
More to the point, he designed cars for Chrysler, Audi and BMW before transferring to Motorrad in 1993, at the same time as the division also got a new boss and a new engineering chief. They’ve moved on but he’s stayed – and continues to inspire change way beyond his design remit.
‘About eight years ago we had the opportunity to look at the business and we realised that people liked BMW engineering and quality – but always added “I’m not that old yet”. We were regarded as the Mercedes of motorcycling, not the BMW of motorcycling.
‘Motorrad began in 1923 and we had 40 years of winning races. In the ’60s and ’70s our bikes were very well engineered but our race heritage was no longer a high priority. They were rational and good, but lacking sex appeal. Now we think you can have both at the same time.
‘We had a car philosophy and strategy and a motorcycle philosophy and strategy. We decided to re-write them as one, to adopt the sporty and fun quality of the cars.’
When he started, BMW was selling about 30,000 bikes a year, most of them worthy plodders. Now it’s 100,000 bikes, ranging from the £5000 G650GS to the phenomenally accomplished six-cylinder K1600GT hyper-tourer. And then of course there’s the S1000RR sports bike. Unusually for a BMW, the RR accepts the Japanese terms of engagement, and uses a highly tuned four-cylinder engine, chain final drive and conventional suspension. It has one or two technical advances over the rival Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Yamaha, but the real achievement is that it has matched or beaten them at their own game.
And it manages to look like a BMW, with the asymmetrical ‘split face’ that’s Robb’s signature (although he insists there are always good engineering reasons for it) and a distinctive top/bottom split. ‘Many BMWs have an upper and a lower half,’ says Robb. ‘The upper half has the contact surface, like a horse’s neck, while the lower half is more technical.’
He adds: ‘The intention with our products has been to go up a notch: sportier, faster. We have taken the design up a notch too. You need to be careful, though. If a bike looks like it’s got 200 horsepower but it’s only got 100, people will be disappointed.’
The S1000RR has sold extremely well, satisfying those BMW loyalists who had been waiting for a full-on sportsbike, but also bringing many newcomers into the BMW family. It’s as full-on as they come – think M3 GTS – to the extent that it can seem a bit overwhelming for road use. But stick with it, and you find that it’s a fundamentally very well sorted bike, and that the switchable engine mapping and other electronic aids can be made to work for you, to help you get closer to the full amazing experience. It’s one hell of a way to get to work, and it costs about the same as a Vauxhall Corsa.
Robb’s every bit as excited by the new scooters as he is by the 190bhp S1000RR. ‘Green doesn’t need to be dull or unexciting, despite what people thought for a long time. The electric concept has lots of typical BMW Motorrad elements, but not with the aggressive styling you expect from a motorcycle. It’s dynamic but not aggressive. We hope it will sell to people who are not currently motorcyclists. For the first time since the ’50s or ’60s motorcycling is becoming practical again, not just something for people with time on the weekend.’
KEY BIKES OF THE ROBB ERA
Funduro (1993)
Robb inherited the Funduro, the first single-cylinder BMW for decades, and for 2000 transformed it into the much more on-brand F650GS, aligning it with BMW’s Dakar heritage.
K1200RS (1997)
The big leap forward: BMW abandoned its policy of limiting bikes to 100bhp, and Robb gave the 125bhp RS the looks to match.
R1200C (1997)
‘With particular segments there are rules that you have to understand,’ says Robb. The R1200C wasn’t a cruiser in the true sense, and we didn’t fully understand that at the time.’ But he’s proud of it, and the company continues to explore possibilities for a return to this lucrative segment, dominated by Harley-Davidson.
R1100S/Boxer Cup (1999)
The path to BMW’s current World Superbike campaign with the S1000RR began with the Boxer Cup, a one-model championship using the R1100S.
C1 (2000)
A scooter with a roof. Not, it turned out, what the world had been waiting for. ‘The C1 was not well communicated,’ concedes Robb. ‘It was a great product we could have done more with. They’re now getting quite valuable; my wife has one.’
R1200GS (2004)
As bikers get older (and fatter, and creakier) they move away from their highly strung sports bikes in search of something more comfortable without being duller. This is the bike they buy, in their thousands.
HP2 Megamoto (2007)
WTF! A stripped-down, beefed-up, groundshaking, hardcore off-road version of the GS. ‘That really upped the noise,’ says Robb, speaking figuratively and literally.
S1000RR (2009)
Very powerful, very fast, and rammed with electronic safety aids that allow you to use more of that power and speed.
Concept 6 (2010)
Previewed the six-cylinder engine that turned up in the K1600, but you’d like to think the styling will make its way on to a production bike too.
K1600 (2011)
‘At the moment I love the K1600GT and GTL and I’m figuring out which one to buy,’ says Robb
Scooter/electric scooter (2012)
‘Urban mobility’ is one of BMW’s new buzz phrases, and what could fit the bill better than a scooter? Well, an electric scooter could, and there’s one of those coming too, fitting in beautifully with the four-wheeled ‘i’ programme.
Colin Overland
THIS IS THE FULL TEXT OF A STORY THAT APPEARS IN THE CURRENT ISSUE OF CAR MAGAZINE IN EDITED FORM
No comments:
Post a Comment