The wife gave me a calender for Christmas of Superbikes the likes of which I am now on is February and it's the BMW HP2. I can not stop staring at it. What a lovely looking bike. I wonder why it never took? off, was it the price, they seem to fetch an awful lot of money now?
Nice ones are fetching £12 - £13k. I was told dealers had to discount them when they were new to shift them. I quite like them, didn't they do a Motard one as well ? they fetch stupid money.
Ohlins suspension, Brembo monobloc race calipers, quick shifter as standard, forged alloy wheels, dripping with carbon, a claimed 128 bhp and supposed to handle really well. MCN thought it was the best BMW ever back in 2008. Andy
Kicking myself now!about 5 years ago maybe a little longer I almost bought a second hand one for aBout 10k. I prefer the standard black and white,the complete body works carbon I believe ? Complete with 2D digi dash ,very nice.of course not a patch on the 1199 dash but that's progress. And yea they handle very nicely ,but to be fair most Bm do It be interesting to see if the HP 4 can hold its price ,they are at the moment.
Beautifully made and detailed bike which looks even better in the flesh than the pictures but speaking from experience it's not a great bike to ride on the road, lumpy seat pad and not the best gearchange, also needs to be ridden much harder than is possible in todays traffic to get a true measure of its performance. I would imagine it's a pretty capable track tool where it can be kept revving and pushed to its limits, wouldn't want the bill for all the carbon fibre though if it ever went horizontal. Always have a look at my mates one when I'm in his garage and we always both agree, a thing of beauty but a real dog on the road.
HOW VERY DARE YOU! Seriously the HP2 is a stunning bike to look at but the riding experience was just not that great to my mind, Looking at the specs I was thinking it would be something like my 998 - similar power, torque, 2 cylinders etc but it was nothing like as good, just didn't have any soul. My mate who swapped it over to ride my 998 thought the same, - "I want to keep it" (with a huge) grin was his response when we pulled over to swap back. Each to their own and I'm sure that there are those who love their HP2 but it's just not for me.
a mate has one and spent a LOT of time setting up,most experts admitted they were lost with the front end among other things,anyhows once set up it is sublime on the roads and has a real presence when following,it sticks to the road like chewing gum and corners on rails. I found it really comfortable and the kind of bike you need a chair and carry out to look at ( except where bmw decided to place the chassis number ). great bike in need of suspension set up.
Certainly more special than the majority of bikes, including most Ducatis. The equivalent of a homologation 'R', it's BMW at their quirky best imho.
There'd be one in my lottery win garage. Would rather take one of these to a bike gathering than a S1000RR that's for sure.
