This year BMW Motorrad celebrates its 90th anniversary, which is why its new cafe racer bike is called the BMW R NineT. PH2 was lucky enough to be invited out to the bike's unveiling recently and managed to grab
a quick chat
with the designer of this new model as well as a lesson on BMW Motorrad's long, and often slightly turbulent, 90-year history...
Bikes and planes laid foundations for BMW
BMW, or Bayerische Motoren Werke, was first set up in 1917 and initially specialised in building aircraft engines. While many believe that this led to the famous badge as it represents a spinning airplane propeller, that's incorrect as the blue and white are simply the Bavarian colours.
In 1917 a young engineer called Max Friz developed the company's first aeroplane engine, a six-cylinder in-line which made 185hp from a massive 19-litre displacement. However, it was his unveiling of the R32 motorcycle in 1923 that provided the catalyst for BMW.
Using a boxer engine, shaft drive and double-loop frame, the R32 was BMW's first complete motorcycle and although it had produced a motorcycle engine in 1920, this was the shape of things to come. Selling over 1,500 units in its first year, the R32 established BMW as a major motorcycle manufacturer and racing success soon followed. As well as several German championships, BMW won the Six Days Trial in 1933, 1934 and 1935 and in 1938 Georg Meier won the Senior TT, the first time a non-British rider on a non-British machine had claimed victory.
Retro look is a Euro take on cafe racer style
With the company on a high, BMW was seen as a motorcycle manufacturer who also made cars. However, by the 1960s this situation was reversed as the motorcycle market went into decline in the 1950s. With vehicles such as the 1954 Isetta bubble car (which was powered by a motorcycle engine) providing cheap family transport, BMW decided to build BMW Motorrad a dedicated production plant in Berlin and focused on making its motorcycles a lifestyle choice rather than a cheap form of transport. Part of this decision was forced upon BMW as the emergence of the Japanese manufacturers had made BMW's two-valve boxer motor seem old fashioned. But there was soon to be a huge change within BMW Motorrad...
In 1979 a new management team took over the struggling Motorrad, a firm that was described as 'almost dead in the water'. Sensing they needed a new model that was exciting and fresh, the team began development of the K-series bikes, the firm's first four-cylinder motorcycles. However with a four-year development period, BMW Motorrad needed a quick fix - it was found in the company's basement...
Boxer twin an essential nod to BMW tradition
Some of the younger development rider and technicians had been taking their boxer engined bikes and riding them off-road. Sensing the potential of this machine, in 1980 launched the R80 G/S and a legend was born. While the K-series helped BMW grow (you have to love the insane looking 1988 K1), it is the GS that continues to provide the company's bedrock.
Nowadays BMW Motorrad is firmly established and produces around 100,000 motorcycles a year. Over half of the production carries the GS brand name and last year over 27,000 R1200 GS models rolled off the production line. The firm employs 1,900 people in Berlin, has 1,000 dealers worldwide and has invested 300,000,000 euros updating the Berlin plant in the last 10 years.
Birthday model
The BMW R NineT uses the old air-cooled 1200 boxer engine rather than the new water-cooled GS lump but it does signify a new thinking for BMW. This cafe racer style bike combines technology such as inverted forks and radial brakes with a new philosophy of customization. Yep, BMW is actually actively encouraging riders to customise their NineT. According to BMW the bike has been designed to be very easy to modify, and as such even the subframe can be removed, leaving just the rider's seat.
Bobtail look sets the NineT off very nicely
While obviously BMW can't promote this kind of activity as it would require, amongst other things, illegally fitting rear lights, it certainly isn't discouraging it and instead is giving riders very unsubtle winks about what can be done. Obviously it is also selling a huge array of aftermarket items as well such as exhausts, footpegs and the rest.
PH2 got the chance to poke around the NineT and it seems to have all the usual high level of build quality you would expect from a BMW bike. The seat height is low, the spoked wheels and twin pipes do look very cool and the level of detail in items such as the aluminium hangers and even BMW logo in the headlight is very impressive. With a price tag of £11,500 when it arrives in the UK in March the NineT is quite expensive, but it also a cracking looking bike that should sell well.