Frankly, I am curious how the new development will help the bike in the WSB championship. They have the power, but the chassis was somewhat lacking…

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correct. and they’re not supposed to be. yet another deliberate and premeditated aspect of the design process you’ve keenly observed. the consumer cannot be left to their own devices. they will “devalue”.

re: “I suppose that is why BMW riders are such a loyal cult.”

YYYAAAHHTZEE…!!! see, the process works.

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R&D money getting a few more minute refinements here and there is not going toward other bikes.

The fact that R&D on the S1000RR doesn’t spread to R&D on the K, and especially not on the R series is the problem, because the finite budget means that they can only direct it in so many directions at once.

BMW has a history of proving what can be done without carbon copying the rest of the market’s status quo.

Now they are copying the status quo. As I said… I wouldn’t have a problem with that in and of itself, if the rest of the line wasn’t suffering for product diversity, in the lines that nobody else offers. There are 7 liter-class sport bikes like that, if you count Ducati and MV Agusta, along with BMW and the Japanese 4

There are no alternatives to the BMW boxer bikes that BMW no longer builds. Maybe a Moto-Guzzi, MAYBE, and there is no current LeMans or Daytona from them.

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I doubt that the evolution in the Boxer line you so desire has anything to do with the R&D expended on the 1000RR. The big GS is far too much of a golden goose to let boxer platform development fall by the wayside. Will you see an S or an ST again? Who knows? The F800ST and F800S were fails. There are very strong competitors in the “sport touring” category. It would be difficult for BMW to offer such machines at a price point that would attract customers in large enough numbers. Of course, that is what they said about literbikes, too.

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Driveline maintenance might be slightly more involved, but it is also less often required with shaft drive than lubing and replacing a chain every few thousand miles.

Frankly, speaking of aesthetics… the Japanese big 4 have little high ground to hold in that respect, and the S1000RR, along with the J4 liter sport bikes all look like origami clones of each other, even if the J4 bikes happen to be symmetrical. Some of them used to look nice. now they just look like a bundle of angles and cut lines.

None of them hold a candle to the likes of some older Ducatis and the MV F4, if you want to talk aesthetics. Even the new Ducatis are falling prey to over-complicated styling.

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Frankly, as someone with comparatively little interest in the 1-upmanship of race-ready/race-replica street bikes…

I DO THINK THIS IS JUST ANOTHER ME-TOO LITER SPORT BIKE!

I am glad that BMW has beaten everyone else at their own game, but I am not happy that they have done it somewhat at the expense of BMW’s own game.

Other than a forward leaning transverse 4 that somewhat resembles a new K-bike… this bike shares NOTHING with other BMWs.

No Duolever. No shaft drive. sure as hell no boxer engine. S1000RR is BMW beating Yamaha, Kawasaki, Honda, and Suzuki. Whoopie.

I would have no problem if that were the extent of it. As I said, I am glad they have pushed that envelope.

But the cost has been seen elsewhere.

No R1200S DOHC. The HP2S is a too-expensive, completely impractical bike that seems to be eclipsed by the S1000RR anyway.
No continuation of the K1300R in the US, and the R-Sport is gone.
R1200R gets the GS’s DOHC motor but no other significant upgrades, and also no R-Sport half fairing.
R1200ST is gone, rather than being re-designed not to be hideously ugly. No new R-ST or R-RS.
The Lo-Rider modular-boxer-bike concept remains a concept, and is not being produced.

The GS, RT and K-bikes are getting some continuation, and supposedly there is a water-cooled boxer in the works…

Where are the developments in the MEAT of BMW’s range, that aren’t trying to out-japanese the japanese bikes?

But maybe I am just bitter… I want a new R1200S DOHC with a bit of R1100S versatility and design appeal. or a good looking successor to the ST and 1150RS, or even just an R-Sport half fairing option on the R1200R. And Duolever on a boxer bike.

The japanese companies do what they do, and that is fine. They aren’t going to out-BMW BMW’s R or K lines. If BMW doesn’t do it because they are pushing the S1000RR, nobody else will.

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no…

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This is a triumph of BMW’s quirky sense of style over symmetry.

You can’t tell me that this look was not well thought out and championed through design and production process. If this were about function, they would have cut and trimmed in a whole host of other areas as well. Hell, they could use flat black paint, unpolished swingarm, muffler, etc. They would have ditched the faux air ducts in the tail section (wow talk about a functional improvement there!) Perhaps deliver power at some point less than maximum warp. None of this happened by mistake.

I have had the same experience with their cars, quirky, often uncomfortable, less reliable than one would expect, and not particularly serviceable. When you buy BMW, you are buying an engineering culture and aesthetic. Don’t make the mistake that this asymmetrical, Bill The Cat Lopsided Land Shark represents anything special either. Great work BMW, your overpriced Grendel-bike has finally allowed you to get close enough to draft the Japanese big 4!

I have heard it said that the Japanese design their products to suit the end user, while the Germans try to cultivate the end user to suit the product. I suppose that is why BMW riders are such a loyal cult. You have to be one of the small percentage who naturally click with their performance and style quirks and their oddball sense of German engineering, or you must learn to fit their expectations of the riding experience. Beemers are fine bikes, but they are by no means easily accessible, tunable, or shade-tree fixable.

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