It’s as long as a train and riddled with soul – give a large round of applause to BMW’s monster 1,802cc cruiser. Now look before we get into this vast motorcycle, it’s not everyone’s cup of schnapps. BMW aren’t acknowledged for building cruisers, even though they’ve had a dabble in the past with their awful 1200c range. James Bond did throw one through a window though, so it must have had some sort of appeal, I suppose.
Sport-tourers are certainly not as common on our roads as they used to be. Why is that you ask, or should? Well, it has to do with the rise of the Adventure bike. ‘They’ can do everything a sport tourer does, with the added advantage of being able to venture into serious off-road excursions. The latest breed of adventure motorcycles also tends to have powerful engines, where in the past the ‘sport-tourer’ had the advantage on the horsepower scale. So, are sporty-touring motorcycles a dying breed?
There are many bikes featured in Sci-fi films. Some are weird concoctions of parts that resemble a motorcycle; others are just modified shop bought motorbikes to suit the Hollywood genre. All well and good and there’s nothing wrong with drooling over a ‘fantasy’ ride, but invariably a universe away from being practical.
If I’m brutally honest with myself, and by extension you, I really didn’t want this new bagger version of BMW’s R 18 to be any good. In fact I was hoping it might be at least a little bit crap because, cynical old fart that I am, I thought that should be its just desserts.
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