If you’ve been following the unrolling saga of BMW’s new S 1000 RR wünder-bike, you’ve seen it go from rumor to concept to unveiling to the announcement of the new street model. But maybe you were as incredulous as I was when presented with the news that the bike would be priced competitively – within $1,000 – of the Japanese Supersports, which range from the $11,799 Kawasaki ZX-10R to the $12,999 Honda CBR1000RR ($13,999 with ABS).

“No way!” declared the Internet peanut gallery, in between criticizing the bike’s asymmetrical headlamps and lambasting the styling for looking too much like a Japanese design, “it’ll be $20,000 and won’t perform like a Japanese 1000.”

Fellas, I hate to break it to you, but a local dealer is now taking deposits for January delivery, locking in pricing at the MSRP of $13,800; $801 more than the Honda. There’s no word on pricing of accessories and options (like ABS, dynamic traction control and a power shifter), but adding these things would likely raise the bike’s price to $20,000 or more, especially considering demand will almost certainly outstrip supply. And it’s unlikely that there will be more than a minimal number of $13,800 “strippers” brought in, as BMW customers like their bikes loaded up like a Cold Stone Creamery hot-fudge sundae.

But if the bike is good enough to do as well as it has in its first season of WSB racing, $13,800 for a low-volume machine seems like a bargain to me, and more importantly , to legions of current and soon-to-be BMW fans. It’s a long wait until January, but two “Ambassadors” – Nate Kern and Jason Turner – will accompany two bikes at various events around the country through November. To find out when they’ll be in your town, go to the BMW Planet Power website.

MD Readers Respond:

• What, no bags or cruise control? RC
• Follow this link to see the official press release from BMW Motorrad USA regarding pricing on the 2010 S 1000 RR.
• Wow! That is very aggressive pricing from BMW. For BMW to make money at that price, they must be forecasting to capture a large piece of the market segment – something on the order of 10% – 13% – over a very short period of time. And I think they just might do it! I wish they would have taken that strategy with their nice F800 line of bikes. – Jeremy
• It’s amazing how some people have such biased opinion like the one saying the bike was going to cost $20k. If they already have a preconception (or misconception in that case) about a product we can’t expect to get an accurate observation from them. It seems to be a reasonable price for such a limited production machine and really close to the cost of a Japanese bike as far as MSRP.I ride a 05 GSX-R1000 and my wife rides a 04 ZX6R (636) on both the street and occasional track days. We’re not planning on buying a BMW but compared to the Japanese bikes it might perform just like them for the average street and track day rider. At least is good to see some variety in the market. KTM, Aprilia, BMW are definitely here to stay and give us some more options when it comes to “race- replica” sportbikes. – CD
• Here are the option prices for the BMW ($3,075 if you got everything, so a total bike price of $16,875 fully loaded):Options:

  Race ABS (excluding DTC): $1,000.00
  Race ABS and Dynamic Traction Control (DTC) Combined: $1,480.00
  Gear Shift Assistant: $ 450.00
  Anti Theft Alarm: $ 395.00
  Motorsports Paint Scheme: $ 750.00

  Regards, Andre

• I believe that BMW has announced pricing for the options you mention in your article. A co-worker received an email yesterday from BMW that included prices on these options – TCS, Race ABS, and “shift assistant” add about $2k to the price. Jesse

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