Today I want to share my passion for motorcycles, especially those belonging to the BMW brand. It’s about a couple of months i drive my new BMW R18 First Edition. R18 is the new BMW cruiser and I don’t want to bore you with all the technical data, which probably interest a few, and I will limit myself to telling you that this new bike it’s about 350 kg of weight with “only” 90 horse power.
Aesthetically it is very well done, it has a fantastic design that satisfies your sight in every detail. I could tell you about the many chrome plating, the teardrop fuel tank, the hand-made threads, the visible chromed cardan shaft, the mega two-cylinder engine that is the protagonist and if you are looking at it, from the back, it looks like an airplane engine, but that’s not enought. The build quality is impeccable, you reconize immediatly that it is a BMW and it can see that the German brand has worked hard on it and you realize it as soon as you get on the saddle: you turn on the ignition and the powerful twin cylinder starts to swing the bike from right to left and the other way around.
Then when you start moving, you feel the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th progression, the engine pushes like hell and you have to hold on to the handlebars and start enjoying yourself. The emotions continue with the sound of the full-bodied and deep engine and with the “good vibrations” transmitted at each speed but which are never annoying and gradually disappear.
It takes very little to become familiar with your R18 and the size does not become a limit, on the contrary you begin to bend and only the footpegs, that begin to scratch the asphalt, force you to limit the lean, but you realize very well that the bike could go down much more; if you then use the “Rock” riding mode, the response of the engine to the accelerator becomes immediate and your 350 kg jump forward instantly. The only flaw at this point is the tank because with its 12 + 4 liters it allows you to travel only 250 km between refueling.
In conclusion, it is not a copy of Harley Davidson, because the driving position is from BMW and is designed to drive it and not just go to the bar; even after about 400/500 km in a day you don’t feel tired.
What can I say, riding this bike is pure pleasure, I can only advise you to try it, for a morning, for the city, on the country roads, wherever you want, and let yourself be exalted by the emotions this bike transmits to you; if in the first few minutes the driving position seems strange to you, after a couple of hours you will not want to get off again. In one word it is CRAZY!