While the 2,000cc Big Boxer engine is already featured in several BMW production models, it now shows up in a new concept called the R 20.
The minimalist design strips unnecessary components to force even more attention to the giant motor propelling the relatively lightweight machine. An exposed drive shaft transfers power from the updated mill with its new cylinder head covers and new oil cooler.
BMW calls the paint on the tank “Hotter Than Pink”, while polished anodized aluminum accentuates the black frame and components. The concept also features Ohlins suspension.
BMW has offered no indication that the bike will go into production, but you never know.
As a BMW guy, but R18 hate, this seems to be a good use for that motor. Given that the R18 has been a market failure and quite likely to go away, BMW’s accountants would definitely like to spread the motor’s development costs across more sales, so this is likely headed for production. Rear fender and passenger seat will likely be similar to the R9T and that gas tank looks like it was pilfered from the 9T parts bin. The remaining stuff needed for a street bike will also come out of existing inventory.
Will it sell? Who knows, it would be far too heavy for me, but others aren’t as concerned about that.
Interesting concept and why not. The engine with this displacement will certainly have plenty of mechanical personality and shaft drive on anything but a full on sport bike is a good choice. In a world where 1300 cc street bikes pretend to be enduro machines why wouldn’t a 2 liter engine in a standard format be worthy of equal consideration. Too many folks preaching “ see the world as I see it”, get a grip on reality. Your opinions are only there so you can hear your own voices. BMW builds good motorcycles and has a following at or near Harley-Davidson for dedication to brand. The pictures of this motorcycle are art worthy sculpture, if they produce anything near this on the final take it will be a beautiful exercise in excess and minimalist at the same time.
I’ve never ridden a shaft drive bike that I ever wanted to ride more often. I just don’t understand the appeal.
Bikes like this, huge ADV bikes and anything from Harley Davidson are bikes for people see motorcycling as an equipment based activity. People who love their motorcycles. I get that. It’s obviously very popular. Lord knows the market is Lazer focused on these people. Every dealer a candy store.
My interest in motorcycling is activity based. A well made motorcycle is a piece of equipment that simply dissappears while in use and becomes part of the rider. For this to happen the motorcycle needs to weigh about as much as the rider or very little more. The bike doesn’t have to look good. It doesn’t need to associated with a large number or power figure. It only needs what it required to preform very well in it’s given venue and absolutely nothing more. My opinion is obviously not very popular at all among the street bike crowd. Lord knows the market doesn’t care about people like me at all. Every dealer a warehouse of disappointment.
Fortunately for me there are forests, deserts, and dirt bikes. Unfortunately even in that market is being over engineered to death. But that’s OK. My oldest dirt bike is twenty years old, and it still rocks harder than Rammstein.
My oldest dirt bike is 52 years old and has a better power to weight ratio than a modern WR250R. My Beta 200 out performs it in that aspect but the old bike is still a hoot to ride hard. As for shaft drives, my old 82 Seca XJ650RJ was smooth and powerful and my K75S just eats up the miles while still out-performing many modern sport-touring bikes in the canyons. You need to appreciate bikes for what they are and not limit yourself based on expectations that historically have not been met – even if they are somewhat realistic. Love the one you’re with.
“For this to happen the motorcycle needs to weigh about as much as the rider or very little more.”
Wow this is some magical thinking. I weigh 160 pounds. Where am I finding this unicorn bike that weighs “about as much as the rider or very little more”? Mick, unless you are a dangerously obese person, the motorcycle you desire has never, and will never exist. Please, show me the examples of these perfect street-legal motorcycles?
Don’t engage with Mick. He’s just a pile of miserable cantankerousness given a crude semblance of life and access to a keyboard.
I have owned a couple bikes that weighed the same as me or a little bit more ( 210 lbs ), and they were NOT exciting.
“A well made motorcycle is a piece of equipment that simply dissappears while in use and becomes part of the rider. For this to happen the motorcycle needs to weigh about as much as the rider or very little more”
Nothing “disappears” less under the rider than a bike so light that the only thing the rear suspension is braced against, is the rider’s tailbone….
A stripped out race bike never disappears at speed, on any road with even the tiniest amount of bumps, the way a big, heavy ‘Busa or ’14 does.
Offroad I see your point. As well as on tight; or I suppose any; track, if ridden aggressively enough. And in tight cities. Anywhere where every ounce has to be wrestled with. But out on the open road; at least in America where roads were last maintained in the 50s; a good amount of sprung weight for the suspension to brace against, can only aid in “disappearing” the bike under you.
BMW continues in their madness of using boxer engines in some of their line-up.
Unbelievable but true.
The stupid boxer idea keels the whole bike over when you hit the throtlle. Dangerous !!
These heaps of manure cannot corner, won’t let you stretch your legs, roast your feet and shins in the summer and make you hit them with your shins continously.
It is the granddaddy of bad design.
Couple this with a shaftdrive that even after 100 years of “development by BMW technicians” will still first lift the backend up and only then move you forward.
A child could design a better system like ALL other manufacturers have.
I wish anyone who owns a BMW boxer a succesful therapy. You’re gonna need it.
So then, how do you feel about Gold Wings?
Never ridden one but they don’t suffer from the shaftdrive nonsens that BMW presents to it’s customers.
Sounds like your only boxer experience is with the R1200C turd. There are much better examples that weren’t designed by BMWs marketing department.
Nope.
F650, OK-ish axcept his one had the chinese Rotax engine, which was a POS.
K100. An unremarkable experience. Not for bikers but for efficient transport from A to B.
I made a police bike out of it, lane splitting champ.
GS1250. A behemoth of a bike. Stupid fall-over effect from the longitudonal crank and the absurdity of the shaftdrive first raising the rear and then moving forward !!!
Veru bad drive. Dynamics were also abhorrant, frankly dangerous.
Why BMW persists with these nonsense boxers is beyond me. They are the pinnacle of all things bad.
Love these comments. It’s ridiculous, no doubt. But that’s BMW, always pushing the envelope or rattling cages. You pick.
Love these comments. It’s ridiculous, no doubt. But that’s BMW, always pushing the envelope or rattling cages.
Yeah. It is a styling exercise. If you don’t get it, you haven’t been paying attention. What’s odd about concept bikes is what they actually turn into by the time they reach production. Some are like this bike with mirrors and stuff like that. Others become nearly unrecognizable save the engine.
My guess is that the color will certainly change. The tank will end up less angular. The tail section will grow but still be too short. The swingarm and driveshaft will come off of another model. And of course something really inexplicable will happen to the overall design to try to sell the thing to the car people, who now all drive trucks now that they have properly destroyed them.
In the end what you are looking at is chocolate. The production version will be vanilla. Twas ever thus. This being the street bike industry, weigh that bike right now. Add 100 pounds to the production version at the very least. Absolutely no effort will be made to save that part of the concept.
All of the comments about what it’s missing…doesn’t anyone comprehend the operative word in the title…”CONCEPT”.
This bike as is has no production intent. It’s a styling exercise.
Is “incomplete” and “not useable” a new styling trend? I guess the whole OC Chopper thing has been around for a while.
Motorcycles are starting to become something that you don’t actually ride.
This is true of a lot of things. There’s a thing called Booktok, the book / reader corner of TikTok. Nobody posting there actually reads books. They just use books as a cultural emblem and “reader” as an identity to try and differentiate themselves amongst a vast sea of different quirks / lifestyles / kinks / angles.
Man! That is so weird on so many levels.
You brand yourself with a book you did not read and hang out on line with people who do the same.
I guess I’m cool with that as long as they all treat sex the same way. These folks don’t need to breed.
It’s silly and will be stupidly expensive but it is kinda awesome.
Well it is going to need pipes with mufflers and cats, an air box, and let’s not for get the ugliest piece that will need to be added on will be that horrendous style killer rear finder thing connected to the swing arm. They brought that disgusting thing to the market, they should be required to be punished with it for years to come. How about an actual tail piece that holds the license plate?
Asinine excess engine size. Will appeal to asinine image conscious poops. Oh, watch out for trees by the side of the road, and children on sidewalks.
I still miss my 1500 cc VW type 1.
If this thing makes production, my guess is that it will after a little vanilla is mixed in, it’ll illustrate just how bizarre the street bike industry is. You can have anything over the self imposed weight minimum and absolute zero under that minimum. I wonder if the lightest bike on the market is still the Honda 250 Rebel. It was for decades.
Next up they’ll go full Marvel Comics and make a super ADV tractor extrodinare with this engine as well. Then Triumph answers with the Kill Dozer ADV Triple with one of those Rocket 3 engines. Then Harley will wonder what it was thinking and finally issue an ADV with a CVO big twin. Maybe they’ll team up and start up a chain of bars with dirt driveways called Thunder Dome where all those ADVs of thunder can go buy T shirts…and actually ride on some dirt.
I am not a fan of the less is more concept. Removing useful things like fenders, passenger seating, and leaving the shaft drive exposed and then charging more for these un-features is crazy.
Its a bucket compared to the Rocket 3
The BMW version of the Yamaha MT-01. A torquey motor, and a place to hang on.
I want one.
I actually came here to say the exact same thing. Same conceptual space as the MT-01.
Ditto. I had the MT-01 concept rendering as my monitor wallpaper for longer than I care to admit, but alas, Yamaha over-promised and under-delivered, and here in the states, failed to deliver at all. I wished in one hand, and well, you know – good thing for antibacterial soap. Too bad.
Will likely be just as (un)successful.
Successful or not, it was a great bike. This has potential once they make it an actual production model.
Unfair to the MT01, I reckon. At least that bike didn’t hang its guts out over the street.
Fair enough. This one probably won’t either once it’s a production model. But honestly, I was referring to torque and simplicity rather than style.
All that motor and you can’t carry a passenger or ride in the rain. I don’t get it.