BMW have pulled the covers off a new six-cylinder concept bike as part of the three-day Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on the shore of Lake Como, Italy.
Dubbed the Vision K18, the bike is powered by the 1649cc inline-six motor used across BMW’s K1600 touring collection – though that’s about where the similarities end.
It’s important to stress the word ‘concept’ here, because this weird and wonderful creation clearly isn’t anywhere near production ready. Specs of any kind are not disclosed, though power is likely to be around the 160bhp mark and weight in excess of 300kg, as is the case with the above mentioned K1600 family.
Suspension is lowerable via an inbuilt hydraulic system and bodywork is crafted from a combination of aluminum and carbon fiber.
BMW describe the machine as “a new expression of performance, luxury and dynamism” which seemingly means letting the Munich firm’s designers loose with unrestricted access to the company crayons in a bid to create the most out-there machine imaginable.
The bike’s stretched proportions and aircraft-inspired silhouette – so BMW say – are all centered around that hulking six-cylinder engine, and as such there are six, yes count them, six headlights (which are ‘actively cooled’ though no further detail is provided), a six-into-one air intake and six exhausts festooning the sides of the bike.
The mile-munching comfort and kitchen sink-carrying levels of practicality found on the concept’s distant K1600 relative are mostly all forgone here.
Instead, the bike is presented with a spartan-looking seat pad more akin to something from a track bike than tourer. What’s more, while the body panels flanking the rear wheel appear to house integrated panniers, they are in fact just sculpted shrouds surrounding the massive ensemble of exhaust piping.
The bike as shown doesn’t even appear to have a side stand, nor any form of rear hugger covering the exposed back tire!
There is of course a bigger picture here and that’s what the K18 concept could eventually evolve into. While the bike as it exists today is obviously wildly impractical, it could be a sneak peek of an engineering idea that later filters into a later-down-the-line production machine. BMW themselves describe it as “inspiration for future series-production solutions.”
If a road-going model does eventually emerge, we’d expect something closer in application to BMW’s R18 cruiser range, albeit with perhaps a more modern twist than the brand’s current Americana-meets-retro-European boxer cruiser.
Perhaps a contender to Honda’s Gold Wing Bagger could be on the cards and maybe, though this is all speculation of course, such a platform could even signal the eventual replacement of the R18 with a six-cylinder successor.
Credit: Nye Davis
Photos: MCN
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