If you had asked me before the 2019 EICMA show what bike I was most-certain to see debuting for production from BMW Motorrad, the answer surely would have been the BMW R18 cruiser.
The German brand has been teasing this new machine for an inordinate amount of time (since well before the last EICMA show), bringing a bevy of concept bikes to realization in the process to help ease us into the idea of a big air-cooled, pushrod, boxer engine design with an eye on the cruiser scene.
Surely at Milan, we would see the R18 make its debut, and surely were we disappointed when BMW showed us yet another concept for the motorcycle. It is as if no one learned from Yamaha’s mistake with the Ténéré 700.
History Re-Repeating
Dubbed the BMW R18/2 (read: “are-eighteen-slash-two”), this gigantic machine confirms our biggest worries, that BMW Motorrad is aiming to take head-on Harley-Davidson and the other American v-twin brands for their unique piece of the motorcycle industry.
Just like the many brands before them, BMW will have to contend with the fact that the American cruiser market isn’t concerned so much with product details as it is with club membership, and that means having the right badge on your bike when you arrive at the local watering hole.
The only motorcycle brand that we have seen come even close to tempting Harley-Davidson’s loyal minions away from the Bar & Shield brand has been Indian – an American marque with an even deeper history in two wheels and a cache of Americana.
The Japanese have already learned the hard way that building a better mousetrap won’t move units in this space, and I often describe the American cruiser scene as a separate industry from the rest of motorcycling.
The rules, as the rest of the manufacturers know them, don’t apply here, and if you enter this space not understanding the gravity of the physics that govern it, then you are doomed to fall into a blackhole of failure.
Doublespeak
In some ways then, maybe there is hope for this BMW R18/2 creation, as maybe its absurdity mimics the absurdity that the rest of the motorcycle industry holds for the American cruiser market.
The engine is a boat anchor of a design, mammoth in width as its cylinder heads hangout in the wind from either side of the bike.
One can seriously question the need for a kickstand in the motorcycle’s design, as leaning the bike over onto one of its heads would surely suffice for the intended purpose. We can even make jokes about how the maximum lean angle likely wouldn’t be able to order a drink a proper bar – it is so low in numeration.
Of course, the air-cooled pushrod boxer design has history with the German brand, and that design is intended to appeal to the mechanical proclivities of a dying generation.
It is interesting to me though that BMW Motorrad is picking this moment in time to make another attempt at the American twin market (no, I haven’t forgotten about the disaster that was the BMW R1200C).
Consider this, BMW aims to bring to market a giant cruiser of a motorcycle at the exact time that the industry is wrestling with how to survive as the baby boomer generation ages out of riding motorcycles.
The R18 is an entry into a space that even Harley-Davidson is trying to divest itself from, as the current business plan at the Bar & Shield brand aims to bring in new riders into the fold with anything but cruisers. So desperate does Harley-Davidson see the landscape, they have even done the unthinkable and rushed into the electric vehicle space.
And while Indian continues to take a bite out of Harley-Davidson’s business with its own cruiser models, the American competitor has also begun to hedge its bets on more mainstream models. As I have said before, Indian doesn’t want to be the next Harley-Davidson. They want to be the next Honda.
With all of this scrambling by motorcycle brands to be anywhere but in the cruiser market, again I say that it is curious that BMW Motorrad is making such a big (and so drawn out) push into this arena.
This is like the motorcycling equivalent of seeing the gangway drop onto Omaha beach that fateful June morning, witnessing the slaughter that lays ahead, and thinking “this looks like a good place to spend the day and get a tan.”
Who at the German brand is reasonably seeing this segment as the next growth center for BMW Motorrad? How is this the next, next big idea at a company that is usually so methodical at finding the white space on the board?
The Siren’s Song
Of course, the answer to my question is the massive units that Harley-Davidson and the other American v-twin brands push out each year. If a brand can capture just 10% of the marketshare in this space, then it means 30,000 motorcycles or more in unit volume.
Keep in mind, BMW has made it business out of selling roughly 40,000 units of its R1200GS variants per annum, so the cruiser market makes a nice brass ring to reach for, as it could add a substantial pillar to the company’s range.
Beyond just the massive number of sales, there is also the ticket price for entry, with the cruiser market more than willing to shoulder the weight of a $20,000 – if not $30,000 – motorcycle purchase price. This is the power of the baby boomer generation.
Established in life, and unburdened by stagnant wages, rising home prices, and crushing student loan debt, the Boomers can afford the sticker shock that comes with buying a modern motorcycle, which is why they have been such a large component of motorcycle sales in the past several decades.
From the accountant’s point-of-view, it is easy to do the math. High volume potential, high unit sale potential…a big number times another big number… From a strategy point-of-view though, we know this space to be a dead end.
Ok Boomer
The BMW R18 is the epitome of the continuation in the motorcycle industry’s Boomer thinking, and it incapsulates everything that has steered the industry down this dead end road.
As a member of this next generation of motorcyclists, I almost take offense to the idea that BMW Motorrad is building a motorcycle like the R18, as it signals a willingness to remain stuck in time and continue this trend of the motorcycle industry remaining steadfast while the world around it changes.
If we zoom out on the issue, we find a larger struggle at play in mainstream culture – one where a younger generation is becoming louder about its growing rejection of the thoughts and ideas of the generation ahead of it.
This growing discontent has been distilled down to the simple phrase “Ok Boomer” which dismisses not only the interjections for control by a demographic that has lost touch with the world around it, but also comes with the exasperation that the problems recklessly created by our parents and grandparts will be the burden of those who inherit the future.
With that, the BMW R18/2 is just the latest progression down a path that the next generation of motorcyclists knows we will have to retrace our steps back from at a future point in time. It is a two-wheeled senility that is too far past its prime to realize it has lost grasp of reality.
Photos of the BMW R18/2:
Photos: BMW Motorrad
Be sure to follow all of our 2019 EICMA show coverage this over the coming days, for the latest news and releases for the 2020 motorcycle model year.
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