Motorrad Magazine has published spy shots of the new retro-styled motorcycle that BMW has been teasing for about a year now.
When news of the water-cooled R1200GS broke, some longtime fans were upset, worrying BMW would abandon their tried-and-true oilhead and airhead designs. Not to worry, the Germans said, there’s a retro-naked on the way. And, here it is in all its glory.
Except in this case, retro naked seems to hark back more to the 1990s-era naked revival, when bikes like the Ducati Monster ruled the streets. Anyone wanting a machine recalling the R75/5’s toaster tank had better keep on looking. There is a cafe racer tailsection, which will appeal to hipsters who read BikeEXIF, but that’s hardly traditional BMW fare.
But at least the machine retains a classy-looking set of spoked wheels, and a shaft drive for reliability. It’s supposedly awkwardly named the NineT (it’s the 90th anniversary edition model), but no doubt Beemer fans will quickly come up with a clever nickname to push that moniker into the background.
GALLERY
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If they build it, I will buy it. Seriously.
And lose the seat cowl !
Nice enough but how about a traditional exhaust system with a silencer in a traditional location. Yeah I know mass centralization and some other concepts that I obviously don’t now about are all the rage but for crying out loud it’s a street bike. A street bike they’ll try/need to sell to an older demographic that recalls fondly the bikes of the 70’s and 80’s. Spare me the high mounted single silencer or the ridiculous looking twin pipes on one side and just put it where it looks nice, lower right side.