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WSBK: Chaz Davies Hits the Wind Tunnel Ahead of Monza

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BMW Motorrad Goldbet SBK’s Chaz Davies had some homework ahead of this weekend’s World Superbike round in Monza, as the Welshman spent time in BMW’s high-speed wind tunnel to work on his aerodynamics with the BMW S1000RR. With Monza being one of the fastest courses on the WSBK calendar, a rider’s ability to have the optimal body position down the the track’s long sections, where speeds can easily exceed 200 mph, is a crucial element to race-day success.

“It was a really interesting afternoon”, said Davies. “When testing on a track, you try new development parts and different settings but you are not working on your body. So it was great to experience in a stable environment with my riding position, to move myself around on the bike, to have elbows and shoulders in different positions and to then see in the data what difference it makes.

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Racing

XXX: BMW Motorrad GoldBet WSBK-Spec S1000RR

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Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the upcoming changes that will “dumb down” World Superbike racing. With Dorna pushing an agenda that brings the premier production-bike class into something that races bikes that are actually similar to the bikes on the showroom floor, there is a vocal portion of fans and enthusiasts that will hate to see the current spec of machinery go away.

While we may think that making World Superbike more affordable and closer in specification to the current Superstock rules is a positive step for the series, we will certainly miss the bike porn that comes from all the fine WSBK machines.

A motorcycle dripping in sex, one can spend hours drooling over photos like these of the factory BMW S1000RR in WSBK-spec. So a hat-tip to the BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK team, for providing this week’s bathroom reading. There are a couple photos of Marco and Chaz in there as well, for the ladies.

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News

BMW Motorrad USA Says Sales Were Up 14% in 2012

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2012 was a good year for BMW Motorrad USA, as the German motorcycle brand saw its sales rise 14% over last year’s figures, despite the industry trend of marginal growth. Selling 12,057 units in 2012, BMW’s leading bikes in the USA were the BMW S1000RR and BMW K1600GT/GTL.

BMW Motorrad sold 1,934 S1000RR superbikes last year, a figure that is surprisingly 21% higher from the RR’s 2011 numbers. Zie Germans also had their first full-year of K1600 sales, where the six-cylinder touring bike had 1,601 delivers of the GTL model, and 697 deliveries of the GT variant (note: these are dealership deliveries, not customer sales), seemingly making it the best-selling motorcycle in the BMW fleet for the USA.

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Bikes

Bimota BB2 – Where Retro Meets the BMW S1000RR

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Our favorite news from the 2012 EICMA motorcycle show has to be the one where Bimota announced that it has entered an agreement with BMW Motorrad to use the BMW S1000RR motor in its rolling pieces of moto-art.

Using an almost exclusive diet of Ducati motors for its most recent creations, it only takes a quick look at the Bimota DB7, DB8, DB9, & DB11 to see that the boutique Italian bike builder has hit a bit of rut with its design inspiration. Our hope was that the partnership with BMW would change that.

Getting our first glimpse of the Bimota BB2, courtesy of sak_art design, the folks behind the machine, we can see our prayers haven’t gone unanswered. A clear homage to the Bimota BB1, the BB2 has some of the now-retro lines that distinguished Bimota so well in the early 1990’s.

Perhaps it is not the obscene hyperbike some were expecting when the S1000RR was tapped for duty, but there is an interesting blend of new and old in the Bimota BB2. Photos after the jump.

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News

Bimota BB2: The BMW S1000RR Powered Bimota Cometh

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Holy motorcycle lust Batman! BMW has just announced that it will be supplying Italian boutique brand Bimota with engines from the BMW S1000RR superbike. The Bimota BB2 will break cover at EICMA in a concept bike form at Milan, and likely ruin Christmas for everyone in attendance.

BMW says Bimota chose the S1000RR engine because of its extremely low weight (132 lbs) and high power output (193 hp). No word yet if the the Bimota BB2 will be a fully faired sport bike, or naked wheelie monster of doom (check out these concept sketches by Oberdan Bezzi), but the news is a welcomed turn of events for Bimota fans who wanted a little variety in the Ducati-heavy model line-up. Press release after the jump.

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Bikes

Markus Hofmann + BMW S1000RR = Vampires?

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I struggle with the work of Markus Hofmann, especially as it pertains to his work with BMW. Maybe it is the awkward intersection where high-fashion meets avant garde photography meets German motorcycles that just leaves me wondering what I am looking at with each photo. His work is impressive, don’t get me wrong…I just don’t “get” it…and today is no different.

I dunno, maybe the whole Twilight & True Blood thing is just now taking off in Germany, and this is the product of the world getting just a little bit flatter. Maybe there is a commentary about society lurking underneath the glossy exterior of these fanged photos. Or, maybe…just maybe, vampires are just waaay cooler than I think they are (werewolves baby, werewolves).

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Bikes

BMW HP4 Mega Gallery + Video

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The international launch of the 2013 BMW HP4 is now over, and while we may not have been in Spain to bring you our thoughts on the pepped-up S1000RR, BMW was at least kind enough to provide A&R with some more photos of its winky-faced superbike. More than just an updated BMW S1000RR, the BMW HP4 features the German brand’s Dynamic Damping Control (DDC) system, a semi-active suspension system that fine-tunes the HP4’s suspension settings on the fly for the road and riding conditions.

Initial reports on the HP4 appear to be very favorable, though expect the pricing here in the United States to be as extreme as the Bavarian motorcycle’s tech specs. BMW hopes that with the DDC and bevy of aftermarket parts, the HP4 will more than justify its expected $20k+ price tag. Will it be enough to persuade riders away from the Aprilia/Ducati/KTM of their choosing? Check out the 126 photos and two videos after the jump and let us know.

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Bikes

BMW HP4 – Your Track-Tuned BMW S1000RR

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We teased you with the BMW HP4 last week, and now the Bavarians have made their tuned-S1000RR officially official. Starting with the top-selling superbike from the German company, BMW has taken the S1000RR and made it the track weapon of choice. The lightest four-cylinder superstock bike on the market at 373 lbs dry (with ABS), the BMW HP4 is also the first motorcycle to get BMW’s Dynamic Damping Control (DDC), a computer controlled semi-active suspension system.

Getting a number of improvements over the S1000RR, the BMW HP4 maintains the same 193hp peak horsepower figure, but gets a boost from more mid-range torque. As we said, the BMW HP4 is also more svelte than its predecessor, as it sits at 439 lbs / 199 kg at the curb with the fuel tank 90% full — a full 13 lbs lighter when wet, and 26 lbs lighter when dry. Other changes include a revised traction control system, launch control, quick-shifter, and a 200/55 ZR 17 rear-tire size.

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Racing

BMW Consolidates 2013 World Superbike Effort

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In an effort to reduce costs and focus resources, BMW Motorrad announced today that it would be consolidating its World Superbike racing program for the 2013 Championship. Folding the factory BMW Motorrad team into the current BMW Italia squad, the Italain arm of the German company will run the WSBK program, developing the chassis, finding sponsors, and handling all race-related items, while Munich will develop the WSBK-spec BMW S1000RR’s powertrain and electronics package.

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Reviews

Ride Review: The 2012 BMW World Superbike Race Bikes

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As often happens when a major manufacturer decides to take a major leap by participating in a World Championship series the media goes crazy, which is exactly what happened when BMW Motorrad decided to descend on the tracks of the WSBK Championship. At the time, there were those who said that the BMW bike would have never been able to win a race, but the majority of the voices in and out of the paddock were pretty united in the concept that “if BMW decides it wants to win, sooner or later it will reach its objective,” something that as we have seen that happened in relatively little time.

After three seasons of “apprenticeship” that were necessary to get all the cogs working smoothly and to acquire the necessary experience on the track, BMW has finally reached the necessary competitive edge to reach the front of the pack, and from the beginning of the 2012 season the S1000RR has established itself as a contender at the top of the leaderboards. BMW Motorrad for the third year in a row, has given its most accredited journalists the possibility to try its racebikes mid-season, and we were clearly not going to let this opportunity slip by us.

The first time we were given this opportunity, it was BMW Motorrad Italy who gave us the handlebars of the S1000RR Superstock bike with which Andrea Badovini dominated the FIM Superstock Cup, and the success of this journalist test was so great that BMW Motorrad proper (the Germans) decided to open up the test to the official team bikes. In the meantime the Italian BMW team had debuted in WSBK, and so in 2011 we had the incredible opportunity to try all three types of racebikes.

So here we are in 2012, with the S1000RR which won its first victories in the WSBK Championship. More competitive and intriguing than ever and as has become a tradition, we are again ready to try the newest racing bikes with the famous BMW propeller on their tanks. The location may be different, as we now find ourselves in Misano Adriatico (which should make the Monza track haters among us quite happy), but everything else remains basically the same.

For the format, there are now four bikes to try. The warm-up laps to learn the track will be done on a stock S1000RR street bike, followed by a ride on the Superstock bike belonging to Sylvain Barrier and Lorenzo Baroni. Following these we get some laps aboard the BMW Motorrad factory bikes of Leon Haslam and Marco Melandri, and the day on the BMW Motorrad Italia machines that are campaigned by Ayrton Badovini and Michel Fabrizio.

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