Interesting Move From Bmw

Ah-hah! See?
Someone does think that the good-looking sports tourer, more sports than tourer, market still exists.
For Ducati, you have to be sitting bolt upright about 1'000 feet in the air.
Will Ducati take any notice of this and build their own version (with their more interesting 150 bhp motor)? I'm not going to hold my breath.

 

That rider has to be pretty tall or there isn't much legroom on it. Nice looking bike though.

 

BMW are definately doing the intelligent thing here seeing as this is exactly what most people who buy 'off road capable' tourers end up using them for. When is the last time you saw a GS or indeed a Multistrada with any mud on them?

 

Been saying for ages Ducati should build a post-modern ST with the 1199 motor, with the torque in the right place.

Sub 200kg's fully loaded - or as near as dammit - want

 

Looks good, if they make it in yellow I`ll be tempted.

 

anything over 200KGs is too heavy these days, no matter what type of bike. for me anyway !

 

Quite like that but it still is a BMW ! Think they got that niche right...

 

It looks great. The hybrid air/liquid cooled 1200 engine is a peach for road riding. It's basically a GS12 with 17" wheels for proper road riding. After seeing the S1000XR leaked photos (will be launched at EICMA), I swapped my order for the S1KXR to the R12RS. Can't wait!

 

I'm probably alone in disliking this fad for tall, floppy 'go-anywhere but go nowhere', over engined nonsense. I too like comfort. I like high performance. I like economy and low maintenance (few of which my current steed enjoys), but these contraptions are just marketing flim-flam. Nonsensical 'beaks' that fulfil no function whatsoever. Ludicrously tall ride height to allow the floppy suspension to wriggle about without grinding on the daisy's...... many not even soft, just sky high for no good reason at all. Covered in vastly overpriced plastic or tin boxes in a vain-glorious attempt to mimic a car's load capacity. The current Ducati Scrambler, while both cynically marketed and not a scrambler in any way, is actually a good bike, well designed and effective at it's job. One's subconcious is vastly greater than one's concious and it is my theory that really good stuff perculates through because however much the visible world tries to force us otherwise, reality says differently and one recognises the truth for what it is. This is true of many other great bike designs..... Versys, VFR750, et al.