Is a new middleweight bike coming from BMW Motorrad? That’s the debate on the internet right now, as the company’s UK office has released the above language to dealers via a brochure.
Not so fast says BMW Motorrad UK though. While a sport-touring version of the F850 platform would be a pretty interesting model, the company says that the use of the “F850RS” handle was a mistake, and they instead meant to use “F850GT” in the brochure’s text.
Honest mistake? Freudian slip? A sign from the Flying Spaghetti Monster (All Hail His Noodliness!)…well, that is up for you to decide.
Looking at BMW’s motorcycle lineup, there does exists an 850cc-wide hole when it comes to a sporty middleweight tourer.
That is to say, the idea of a BMW F850RS isn’t crazy thought, and it would compliment the BMW R1250RS quite well, which is a perfectly great machine that is just 100 lbs too heavy for the job.
The idea of a copy writer confusing “RS” for “GT” is a hard pill to swallow, but perhaps not the craziest thing in BMW land, which is pretty heavy on the letters, and little light on the names.
You would think such a thing would get caught before going to print, but then again this author should be the last to throw stones at this glass house of issues. Mistakes happen.
For the time being, our senses are convinced by BMW Motorrad’s excuse that the brochure includes a typo – after all, the German firm is pretty regimented on how it debuts models, and a late addition to the 2019 lineup would be very out of line for them.
Then again though, it would be easy to think that such a mistake was made while the very name “F850RS” was being banded around the office water cooler. Something to look forward to for 2020, perhaps?
Until then, may we remind our readers that BMW Motorrad has been teasing a 900cc twin-cylinder sport-touring model in earnest, which is a bike we do expect to see in the next model year. A bit more avant garde than the German brand’s usual fare, perhaps this is also the source of the confusion?
Keep an eye on this space, the middleweight bike segment is hot right now, and BMW Motorrad very much wants to be a part of it.
Source: Morebikes
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