The REVEAL! The biggest boxer engine ever built with 1.8L of refined grunt. And we got the keys to one of the first edition bikes. We’re super stoked to have this beauty in our workshop and can’t wait to chop it up and customise it. Of course, we’ll share everything with you, so stay tuned!
Thanks to BMW Motorrad Melbourne.
Jimmy G
I’m gonna head over now, so we’ll probably be 20/25 minutes. All good? Sweet. We just got sign-off for our new Kommune shop bike. Excited about this one and I think you guys are gonna absolutely love it as well. So it was a concept back in 2019 and then this whole COVID thing happened and it just kind of appeared in dealerships around Australia. I haven’t even seen one yet but we’re going to do some negotiating and see if we can actually chop it up a little bit. We’re gonna head down there now. We’ll see you there.
So here we are at Melbourne BMW, with Jarryd Butler, the Brand Manager. Jarryd looks after all the BMW motorbike gear. And this is our new workshop bike, the R18.
Jaryd Buttler
There’s a lot of design elements here that are truly conceptual. Number one being the open shaft drive, which is really, really cool. The whole bike is super modern but does hark back to the old BMWs. Foremost, the big box, that engine…
Jimmy G
With the engine, it would’ve been really easy to do a water cooled, liquid cooled engine but I’m absolutely stoked they decided to go with a full 1800cc of air and oil cooled. That’s a big point of difference because most other brands are putting their big twin engines to water cooling but we like it old school so this is awesome. I did hear something about the the rider modes too, which I’m curious about…
Jaryd Buttler
Yeah so we have rain mode, which is pretty self explanatory. Then we have roll, and then our favorite: rock. Rock and roll!
Jimmy G
So I’m assuming that rock mode is the more hyperactive in your face.
Jaryd Buttler
Yep. So more responsive throttle, but it also opens up the exhaust as well. So there is an exhaust change.
Jimmy G
Man, I’m excited about this one. It’s such a good looking bike. You might not get a scale of it on camera, but it is huge! It looks like it’s two and a half meters long and it’s even got a reverse gear, that’s pretty cool. So when I have my hip replacement, I can actually reverse it. So 1800 cc, that’s a 900 cc cylinder. That’s massive, in both size and power. Look at all these little details. This is the stuff that I like about BMW. You know, everything’s metal, like this logo.
Jaryd Buttler
You also get these badges which you can replace on the petrol tank as well, which came out on the original. I don’t know another manufacturer that does stuff like this.
Jimmy G
And when we’re building bikes, one of our goals is we want to see hardly any wiring and that’s pretty much the case already with the stock set-p but I’m sure we’ll find plenty stuff to change. We’ve got some plans already, mate. I haven’t actually heard this thing going yet, but I’m going to assume Euro emissions? Yeah, so it’s gonna be pretty quiet. So I reckon, that’s something that I’d really like to do first. I’ve got some other stuff up my sleeves that I haven’t told Jarryd about yet, so it’ll all be a bit of a surprise. So at what point is warranty an issue? Are turbos okay?
All right. So, first things first, straight back to the workshop and straight on the lift. Let’s measure this bad boy up and see what we can make for it. That is awesome! See you back in the shop.
