A concept motorcycle has a charm of its own. It looks ravishing, has all the bells and whistles you dream your dream bike would have and has a powerful engine. Perhaps it’s all that because it’s exactly what its name tag says, a concept. However, there’s something different about the latest BMW Concept R 18.
BMW Motorrad just put the world in awe by presenting its latest Concept R 18 at the Villa d’Este in Italy. There are a plethora of factors that make this bike extremely special. But the most important of them all would be that the Concept R 18 is the first completely in-house design of BMW. It is designed by the lead designer Bart Janssen Groesbeek.
Clearly, it’s a bike with a classical appearance. The design of some of its elements is inspired by the earlier BMW bikes like the R5, R50, R60. And that’s what makes it so astonishing, it’s bare bone design.
And it’s not just the way this machine looks, it’s also what’s powering it. BMW has incorporated a massive 1800cc air-cooled Boxer engine. It’s massive in terms of both displacement and size. Just look at it. It’s humongous. Of course, there are no power or torque figures on the table right now but they’re going to be mind-bending. We can say that because the Concept R 18 is a shaft-driven bike.
Being a German bike, its attention to detail will obviously blow up your mind – polished aluminium cylinder covers, subtle colour treatment to the motor, teardrop tank and fork, and areas of pin-striping with golden yellow effect in the deep, layered paint treatment.
BMW hasn’t said anything about the launch of the Concept R 18, but we’re expecting it to be up on the display at the EICMA show in Nov. BMW is also going to present a series of production cruiser motorcycles powered by the ‘big boxer’ engine during 2020.
