BMW R12 cruiser on the way?
After a decade and a half away from the cruiser market, BMW's massive R18 was perhaps the perfect machine to launch as a statement that the German firm was back in the game and serious about its intentions. Given the R18's vast dimensions and weight, riders who want a BMW-branded cruiser with a little less excess will be pleased to hear that the chances of a smaller version of the bike reaching production have just increased.
BMW has filed trademark applications across the globe for rights to use the name 'R12' on a future motorcycle, and given the company's current naming protocol, that badge seems sure to be used on a cruiser similar to the R18.
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| BMW's last venture into the Cruiser segment - the R1200C 'Independent' was launched in 1997, but dropped after 2004. The original R12 is legendary - it was an R11 successor based on a 1933 Alfred Boening Art Deco styled R7 concept. It was the first production bike to feature hydraulically damped telescopic front forks and ran from 1935 through 1942 - 36,000 were made. |
The R12 name clearly sits alongside the R18, with the 'R' denoting a boxer twin engine and the '12' indicating a capacity of around 1,200 cc. The existing 1170 cc twin from the R nineT retro roadster would seem to be the ideal engine: with 109 hp it has got all the performance it needs to compete in the 1,200 cc cruiser sweet spot against machines like Indian's 1,133 cc Scout, Harley's 1,252 cc Sportster S and Triumph's 1,200 cc Speedmaster.
The proliferation of 1,200-class cruisers and the potential that the BMW R12 will join them illustrates how much the market has changed since BMW's last attempt at a cruiser - the 1997-2004 R1200C. While warmly welcomed by reviewers, the R1200C was left behind by the early-2000s trend for ever-larger engines in the class. By the end of its life in 2004, rivals included the Honda VTX1800, Kawasaki VN2000 and, of course, the then-new, 2.3-litre Triumph Rocket III.
Speaking in 2004, BMW Motorrad's then boss, Dr Herbert Diess (now one of the most powerful men in the motor industry as CEO of the VW Group) said: "There will be no direct successor to the cruiser in our next model generation. This is due to technical considerations: The new engine you know from the GS is designed consistently for low weight and therefore - quite intentionally - offers only a small margin for an increase in engine displacement. Since the trend in the cruiser segment has now been pointing far beyond 1,400 cc for quite some time, a cruiser in its former, classic style with a smaller engine would no longer fit into our concept for the future."
Even then, he left the door open for a return, saying: "This does not mean that we are turning away from the cruising philosophy with BMW motorcycles once and for all. On the contrary, it would be quite conceivable for us to reinterpret this theme quite differently at some time in the future."
Fast forward to 2022 and the market today is very different, with a thriving class of cruisers in exactly the capacity category where the R1200C used to be. Since BMW already has the right engine for the job - in fact the R nineT's 1,170 cc twin is directly descended from the identically-sized motor used in the R1200C - the development costs of a new R12 cruiser would not be great. In fact, there's already an aftermarket kit from NMoto - called the 'R sevenT' - that converts the stock BMW R nineT into a pre-war-style cruiser inspired by the 1934, one-off BMW R7.
