Having ridden Beemers for years I was quite used to the feeling, but to have a 900cc piston on each side was a whole new sensation.

As MotoShare and BMW Motorrad Benelux had teamed up to promote the R18 models. I was offered the opportunity to ride this giant for a week. Next thing I knew I was finding myself riding my ‘rear fender-less’ caféracer for an hour while avoiding cats and dogs falling from the sky in large quantities.What a start of my Monday morning!

Arriving in style but soaked to the bone at BMW Motorrad’s Fleet Services, I quickly wrapped up the paperwork and hopped on the R18 to speed to my next business meeting.

The rain was with me all the way for another hour while I was doing my utmost to get to grips with this battleship. Traditionally riding with a jet helmet, I had my goggles fogging up constantly. My very limited view turned my close encounter with this baby into a challenging ride, sweaty armpits included.

Learning curve
It took me about a day to get used to the BMW and its unique road behaviour, but that might well have been more between my ears than anywhere else. It’s the sheer size that may scare you off at first glance. When starting up the bike, it will greet you by wiggling its hips. Automatically you will find yourself immediately planting both feet firmly on the ground to create a sense of stability, but after a while, stopping at a traffic light will feel OK with just the right foot on the ground. It takes a bit of getting used to, that’s all. The R18 is much more of a Gentle Giant than you might expect.

Hooligan
I was riding the ‘option 719’ edition which comes with about all the extra’s (and more) you can think of. Anything you can imagine is added to the R18 making it utterly complete and always ready for long hauls. The storage space side cases are a bit limited by the speakers mounted in the lids, but leaves enough room to store stuff you may want to drag along on a longer ride. The top case is spacious and will let you squeeze in loads of goodies that don’t fit into the side cases.

The top case being the larger one, I decided to store my inner hooligan in that little dark cave. There was no room for him on this machine I figured. It was funny to experience the difference in attitude I had when riding this awesome machine. A sense of royalty if you will, stimulated by the reactions you get from other people on the road. The R18 is by no means a bike you will often see on the road and the Transcontinental is even more outlandish. You get a lot of second looks and passengers in cars giving you the thumbs up.

All of this will make you (at least this is the effect it had on me) sit up and have a face that beams with confidence. You have it all under control and you are having the time of you life. No hooligan in sight.

Pandora’s box
However…… after a couple of days riding it felt as if the machine and I had grown really fond of each other. We started playing around and curves yet again became the usual invitations to twist the throttle. The top case must have been Pandora’s box, and I must have given my inner demon a chance to escape. Together we challenged the R18 to a duel and experienced the might of the 1800 cc engine. Floorboards were scraping the tarmac on a regular basis as the mutual respect between rider and machine continued to grow.

Straight as an arrow
The steering damper is an accessory that added a lot of stability to the road handling at high speeds straights (we hit 170 km/h easily) as well on fast corners at around 130 km/h. The signature on the bike reads ‘made in Berlin’. It refers to the heritage of the R18, but it has the Bavarian seal of modern day quality that makes riding a blissful experience.

In spite of its size the R18 it is surprisingly nimble and has a very short turning circle, making it easy to manoeuvre even in tight urban spaces. Unfortunately these bikes are wide because of their front fender and the cases in the back, so I had to give up on my habit of crawling forward in the city between rows of cars to be the one on pole position at the traffic lights.

Lane splitting is something else however. When the ‘Batwing’ appears in people’s rear view mirror the immediate reaction is to veer sideways to let you through. Which is kind of nice. Lane splitting works on highways when there is enough room the keep a safe distance from the cars on either side. On smaller roads the bike is just too wide for comfort.

Road side reactions
The response from people you meet on the way vary enormously. The majority will admire the BMW and comment on the way the German manufacturer has designed this build. As it should be, every little detail is just right. And, yes indeed, the Bayerische Motoren Werke have done a damned good job as you might expect.

But then there are the fans of American Iron. They will claim the R18 Transcontinental is nothing more than a rip off of one of their beloved brands. Also they will complain about the footboards being mounted too much in the center which they view as less comfortable compared to the forward positioning of the controls on American machines. This being caused by the two gigantic cylinder heads sticking out on either side of the frame.

I did not experience it as being more uncomfortable. And those cylinders, with the two bottles of Coke vigorously swinging left and right on the inside, are a very pleasant sight, also when riding. In response to the remarks on the position of the feet I’ll add that riding those big V-twin bikes, especially in the Summer, can sometimes become unpleasant with the heat from the rear cylinder warming up your inner thighs beyond comfort.

But as always it is a matter of very personal preference.

Technical data on this particular R18 Transcontinental:

• It comes with a package called ‘option 719’** which includes lovely extra’s such as exquisite special paint, hand striping, meticulously hand-stitched seats and loads of other stuff
• They also added a whole list of accessories such as:
o Hill start control
o Headlight Pro
o Central locking
o Reverse gear (electric)
o Active cruise control
o Automatic tire pressure sensors
o Intelligent Emergency call
o Marshal Gold series Stage 2 Sound blaster (magnificent sound!)

Special thanks to:
Bikes:
BMW Motorrad
Apparel:
Lifestyle Motowear
Photography:
Gijs Paradijs

The post How To have fun with two bottles of Coke – BMW R18 Transcontinental appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.

BMW R18 – 1800cc cruiser

Until you start reading the spec sheet, and realize that there is something quite provocative about the R18. To begin with, there’s that massive engine. 1800cc boxer twin engine to be precise, still air-cooled, but with a little bit of help from an external oil-cooler. The 90hp of peak power at a lowish 4750 rpm isn’t too bad considering the displacement, but the 158Nm of torque at a ridiculous 3000 rpm is what gets our hearts pump faster; this we gotta try!

And try we did. BMW Motorrad in the Netherlands invited us to try out their new, dressed-down version of the R18, called ‘First Edition’, and the full-fat version of the R18 known as the ‘Trans Continental’. This review is about the R18 ‘First Edition’. The review on the R18 ‘Trans Continental’ will follow next.

First impression of the R18 ‘First Edition’
Wow, this thing is massive! That was the first thing that came to mind when I saw R18. It’s that engine that blows your mind. 900cc on each side, the barrels are huge compared to what we’re used to. The black color with white pinstriping is simple and elegant at the same time. It looks timeless on the R18. Then there are the beautiful chrome polished fishtail exhaust pipes; they look incredibly beautiful; we wish more manufacturers would put them on cruiser! What BMW did really well with the R18, is hide the ugly catalytic converters underneath the engine, between the exhaust headers, out of eye-sight. Wire-spoked wheel, with stainless steel spokes and black rims add to that distinguished look and feel. But the ‘piece-de-resistance’ has to be that exposed shaft drive. It’s so incredibly old-school, we fell head over heels for it. That’s how you build a retro bike!

Second impression
When you swing your leg over the seat, you feel you are seated on something special. There is one minimalistic speedo, but make no mistake, it has an LCD display that allows you to access information most companies would be jealous of! The R18 is brought to life in a similar way like most modern cars and motorcycles. You keep the key in your pocket, and simply press the power button on the right controls. There are 3 ride modes from which you can choose: Rock, Roll, and Rain. We had to guess and search up what Rock and Roll did, but there was very little doubt about the Rain-mode. This impacts the throttle response and traction control in a pleasant and non-intrusive matter. Rock would be similar to ‘Sport’ mode on most bike, and Roll is the equivalent to ‘Normal’ or ‘Touring’. We kept the R18 on Rock, because it allowed for a very useable throttle response.

Third impression
Picking the bike from it’s side stand immediately gives away the elephant on the room; 345 kilograms of wet weight. Maneuvering the R18 at stand still is difficult to say the least. Getting the bike rolling will help, so you hit the start button. First thought: This bike rocks! Quite literally! The slightest opening of the throttle results in a massive swing to the right, caused by the inertia exerted by the flywheel, which must be huge. That’s also when the first lesson was learned: you keep both feet firmly on the ground when you pull up in first gear. If you forget that, you risk tipping the bike over to the left by the sheer force of the flywheels’ movement. But, as predicted, once the mass is in motion, the R18 hides its weight pretty well. A neat feature the R18 has was the ‘reverse’ gear, which needs to be operated manually. This helps with moving the bike backwards without looking like you’re hitting the gym, if needed.

King of the road
The sound the exhaust produces when you open up the throttle is magnificent. It reminds me of the sound a turbo-charged V8 diesel engine makes; deep, short, throaty. With a similar powerband too! A small twist of the right wrist results in incredible acceleration. It feels as if the road is moving underneath your tires, and not the other way around! The R18 invites for some serious mile-munching. The handlebars aren’t too far of a reach, the seat is very comfortable, but the seating position leaves much to desire. If you have a larger shoe size than 43 (Size 10), you’ll struggle with keeping your feet from hitting the cylinders and air-intake. You want to sit with your feet a bit further to the front, but you can’t. Instead, it looks like you’re sitting a on a small camping chair. Too bad, because it could have made a massive improvement on the ride quality. The same goes for the suspension. The front Showa fork works well under most circumstances, but the rear ZF shock with its limited travel of 90mm only (!) can be a bit too harsh on anything that isn’t silky smooth tarmac. The brakes are good for such a massive bike, but they’re not nearly as good as the radial Brembo brakes that can be found on Moto Guzzi’s 1400 California. The 16-liter fuel tank provided a sufficient range for comfortable riding without getting range anxiety, we averages around 16 km/l or 38 US MPG under mixed riding conditions. Rides of up to 2 hours or done effortlessly, especially with nice comforts like cruise-control and heated grips, which worked flawlessly.

Verdict
Overall, the BMW R18 ‘First Edition’ was a very pleasant surprise, to the point where we are foreseeing a renaissance of the custom cruisers. We’ve seen revivals of retro style motorcycle before, such as café racers and scramblers. Could the cruiser be the next big thing? If so, then BMW has set the standard pretty high as far as we’re concerned. Just like with any other new BMW, there is an accessories catalogue that seems to be endless with exclusive and high-quality special equipment, were a potential buyer can opt for features such as cruise control, special paint, special wheels, heated comfort seat and so on. With a starting price of just below 28,000 Euro in the Netherlands, prices can go up to nearly 40,000 euro. That’s a lot of money, question is if the R18 is worth it. We’ll let the market decide, but we sure would love to see these beasts more often on the road.

Photographs:
Gijs Paradijs
BikeBrewers – Adnane

BMW Motorrad Nederland
MotoShare

The post Review: 2021 BMW R18 ‘First Edition’ appeared first on BikeBrewers.com.