It is an odd passion in life, but I find the international pricing schemes by various motorcycle manufacturers to be simply fascinating.
While this will surely mean that I will die alone (so very, very alone), this odd curiosity is bringing up some interesting thoughts about the new BMW S1000RR superbike.
And the signs point to the Bavarian brand’s newest liter bike costing quite the pretty penny in the US market. Let me explain.
The wait is finally over. The 2019 BMW S1000RR is finally here. Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated motorcycle for the next model year, the BMW S1000RR is so important that it is taking the German brand back into WorldSBK racing, with help from Tom Sykes and the Shaun Muir Racing team.
There is reason to be excited too, as the 2019 BMW S1000RR makes a big splash on the spec sheet. Most notable is the 204hp (152 kW) at the crank, with 83 lbs•ft of torque, which is aided by the new ShiftCam valve train that debuted on the BMW R1250GS and other “R” models from BMW Motorrad.
This marks an 8hp increase over the outgoing generation of the BMW S1000RR superbike, but that’s not all. The 2019 BMW S1000RR also does away with 25 lbs of bulk at the curb (albeit, with a liter less of fuel onboard), for a wet weight of 434 lbs (197kg).
The new BMW S1000RR hasn’t even officially debuted yet, but it feels like we already know a great deal about this new superbike.
Photos and details of the machine have already leaked ahead of the EICMA trade show, giving us a good idea of what to expect from the German brand, and now more photos have leaked online.
Found on Reddit, and first posted by the Instagram account @S1000RRgram, these photos appear to come from the catalog for the 2019 BMW S1000RR, giving us a good perspective on how the bike compares in size to its rider.
The photos also give us a strong look at the S1000RR’s front fairing and headlight design, which finally features symmetrical lights.
Some of the technical details of the 2019 BMW S1000RR have been leaked to Facebook, which show the upcoming superbike to make some considerable gains over its predecessor. We first saw the leak from US tuner Alpha SBK, which posted a photo of the basic specs on its Facebook page.
The goods? 204hp (152 kW) at the crank, with 83 lbs•ft of torque, which is aided by the new ShiftCam valve train that debuted on the BMW R1250GS and other “R” models from BMW Motorrad.
Curb weight is 434 lbs, when 4.35 gallons of fuel is in the bike. That weight can be reduced to 427 lbs, when the option “M Package” is installed, which includes a bevy of carbon fiber pieces and forged wheels.
What do you call a group of unrleased BMW S1000RR superbikes? A gaggle? A pride? A teutonic trio? The latter sounds more like a porn thing, but then again catching the 2019 BMW S1000RR out in the wild before its debut is very erotic to our two-wheeled minds.
That is exactly what we have for you today, as Germany’s new liter bike has been spotted by a BMW dealer in Spain. Actually, not just one bike can be seen, but several S1000RR superbikes can been seen in nondescript solid-color liveries, which gives us all the tingles.
We have only a month longer to wait until BMW Motorrad debuts its all-new superbike, and the German brand has now begun teasing the new liter-bike on its social media channels.
Showing only a race track, with sounds of an accelerating motorcycle off-screen (and then a quick flash going by), zie Germans are not giving too much away yet, and we are left to our own sources to figure out what is in store for the 2019 BMW S1000RR.
The big news is the arrival of a counter-rotating crankshaft, which should help keep down the front wheel, and improve side-to-side transitions. This means that BMW Motorrad will join Ducati in producing a current superbike engine that uses this race-derived engine setup.
We also expect BMW to bring out several versions/trim levels to the new S1000RR, so as to better take advantage of the changing rules in the World Superbike Championship. This should mean a higher-spec race homologation bike, which could include aerodynamic aids.
Last week, we brought you our first good look at what the 2019 BMW S1000RR will look like, as BMW Motorrad registered design patents of the machine that showed off its sporty lines.
The grayscale CAD models of the superbike are very detailed, but their cold grey tones can only show so much of what the motorcycle will feel like once we see it debut at EICMA later this year.
Thankfully, one of our readers – Csorin – is pretty good with a pen. Photoshopping in some color and liveries over the gray models, the 2019 BMW S1000RR comes to life.
It is amazing what some artwork and lines can do in terms of reshaping the way a motorcycle looks, and Csorin’s work is a testament to the graphic designers throughout the industry, who spend all day making ugly look good.
Today, we get a good look at the 2019 BMW S1000RR, which after much teasing is likely to debut at this year’s EICMA show in Milan, Italy – though it could arrive as early as the INTERMOT show in Cologne, Germany. Described to us as a “game changer” in the superbike space, the 2019 BMW S1000RR is set to once again disrupt what we have come to expect in the liter-bike category.
Now with CAD renders leaking from the bike’s design patents, we can see quite clearly the 2019 BMW S1000RR in detail. The first obvious change is to the bike’s engine, which is obviously completely new based off the case design. Inside those cases our sources tell us a counter-rotating crankshaft resides.
It might be still be summer, but our eyes are looking ahead to the new bike season in the fall and winter, where the major motorcycle manufacturers will debut their new motorcycles for the future.
The big trade shows to watch are INTERMOT and EICMA, as these have traditionally been the venues of choice for new model unveils, prototype teasers, and concept debuts.
One brand that is certainly going to be showing us some new motorcycles is BMW Motorrad, with the German company saying that it plans to launch nine new models in 2018.
What those nine models will be is up for conjecture, though we have some good ideas, and some bad ideas, on what they could be. Let’s take a look.
I wouldn’t call it the worst-kept secret in the motorcycle industry right now, but the fact that BMW is bringing a new S1000RR to market for the 2019 model year isn’t exactly new information.
In fact, we thought that we would see the new RR break cover last year, as spy photos of the machine showed it out testing, and looking close to production form. A no-show at EICMA however, the timetable on expecting the S1000RR had to be adjusted.
Now, we get confirmation of what we already expected, with Althea Racing’s bossman Genesio Bevilacqua confirming the new BMW S1000RR for the 2019 season in an interview with GPOne.
Documents filed with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) show that no changes will be coming for the 2018 BMW S1000RR, with the emission levels for the popular superbike shown to be the same as those for the 2017 model.
This means that it is unlikely that we will see a new S1000RR model debut at EICMA later this year, despite seeing spy photos of a restyled S1000RR a month ago.