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I find that hard to believe. Their big GS has been their best seller for years...
Harry
1999 was 16-yrs ago...............
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I find that hard to believe. Their big GS has been their best seller for years...
Harry
Why you're not published in the ON, or even linked from our home page, is beyond me.
All you need is a spell check...
1999 was 16-yrs ago...............
Just to pipe in here again: the K1600 is ugly, no getting around it.
It looks like a "knock-off" of the Honda Goldwing F6B, which is a 'knock-off" of an HD Street Glide. I don't think the F6B has been flying off the showroom floors, so for BMW the dilemma is, will a $30,000 copy of the Street glide be a sales success? The BMW has the same useless sloping passenger seat as the Street Glide, and the seat height is so low that it looks rear shock travel might be around 2", same as the Street Glide. I am not sure anybody besides HD can make form over function sell.
Thank you for taking the time to find it and the kind words.
In response to Bud's 1200C observation:
I do not have my sales notes handy to see where the 1200C ranked in any year. The key number to consider may be the year 1999, rather than any sales figure.
In the 80s through much of the 90s BMW, led by the auto segment, went on an expansion binge. Led by the 3 series, production was expanded as was the product line the company owned. In Britain alone it acquired the rights and control of over 200 active and inactive brands. It had a protracted fight with VW over the Bentley / Rolls Royce Motorcar brands. By the end of the 90s the company sold off Rover along with some other active brands, retained MINI and the inactive brand names for future use or sale, and went back to Munich to figure out what was next.
In 2001, under new management board leadership, every BMW segment went under review. BMW Motorrad was the first segment to complete and survive the process. Others would be spun off or reorganized and retained. The process took six years for the entire company to complete.
On the Motorrad side, the 90s saw a couple of major changes.
Importer / dealer strategy changed. BMW had worked mainly with private companies that would hold the right to import and distribute. In turn those importers developed their own independent strategies to award dealerships within their distribution areas. In the 90s this strategy began to go away and the MotherShip began to take direct control of the importing / dealer process.
Motorrad production was ramped up to feed the expansionist growth strategy. In the 90s it went from a niche brand cranking out 30k + units per year world wide to over 100k units at the end of the last century. With the dawn of the new century that number would drop back into the low 90k units per year with the dropping of the C1 scooter line and declining rate of 1200C sales.
The C1 scooter was very well received but was developed and built on the assumption its safety features would let EU regulators allow riders to opt out of wearing helmets. This didn't happen. The end result were risky projected sales the 2001 review wouldn't allow.
The 1200C hung on longer. The build out for the 2005 model year allowed production part inventory to be used and or transferred to the support parts inventory system. Sales may have been strong enough to continue in a static product line but not strong enough to pay for development and win a spot in the next gen engine lineup.
BMW has been looking for production capacity, replacement options and funding ever since the C1 and 1200C models were dropped. The new Maxi C models are filling the scooter niche. Now the MotherShip is looking for a cruiser to sell.
Since David Robb was mentioned above, does anyone know what he is doing or where he is now ?
IIRC for 1999 it was their highest selling model.
They sold over 40,000 units during it's run.
According to BMW, they thought the 1200 cc engine was too small for the cruiser market.
See This article where they quote the president of BMW Motorod
Of course, the 1600 will be plenty of cc's and hp and torque to compete in the market segment.
The styling is another thing altogether.
And charging BMW prices will make it even more difficult to sell.
snipped...you could smuggle elephants in those pipes....
FTFYGot enough plumbing on the thing for cry eye?
I know you need to get the exhaust past the bags but wow, you could smuggle a bushel of sweet corn in those pipes.
Bet it's really quick between taverns
But seriously and as always I really have no opinion
Roland must be swimming in corporate bucks didn't he just do a scrambler for Victory? Pikes Peak bike
I hope lots of riders buy one. Lots and lots. In fact, I hope it scares HD with its favorable press coverage and, ultimately, its sales. We will all benefit from one more successful BMW motorcycle. Whether you like the Concept or not, whether you ever ride one or not, if it is highly successful, my hope is that it results in doubling or tripling the number of BMW dealerships across the USA. The thin dealer network is the only thing I DO NOT like about BMW bikes.
I didn't recall correctly.
According to Cycle World, September 1999, page 55, the R 1200 C was the larges selling model in 1998.
I stand corrected.