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Does BMW Make the Ugliest Line of Motorcycles?

BuddingGeezer said:
Who designed the GS's head lights? Jack Elam.
Click to expand...

no, bill the cat.

BillCat.gif


ian

(proud as hell of his ugly-ass GS)
 
Maylett said:
It's a highly industrial, minimalist and practical aesthetic founded upon the notion that form should follow function. In other words, decoration is discouraged in favor of the object's beauty being the result of its functional and structural elements.
Click to expand...

the one nod to decoration in bauhaus was asymmetry. it is used elegantly across architecture, typography, graphic and industrial design.

David Robb, BMW's chief stylist employs it brilliantly.

i *especially* like the bill-the-cat headlamps of the GS. Some models feature off-center fuel fillers. The headlight arrangement on the S1000RR is another example.

yet none of these decisions are gratuitous, each has a function.

There's the sameness and safety of mainstream design and then there's the excitement created by those that dare to risk.

ian

ps => some bigshot magazine writer once compared the S1000RR's asymmetric headlights (and BMWs predilection to asymmetry in general) to your weird Aunt Jane that's been showing up at family gatherings a little too long because she embarrasses everyone with her off-kilter behavior. some people just don't get it.
 
rockbottom said:
But isn't this like the fact that no one thinks their own kids are ugly?

I used to get compliments on my F800ST, but I'd also get people asking what's up with the hump.
Click to expand...

"What hump?" asks Igor.

r11rs94 said:
2.) Except for the R-1200-ST, I think BMW makes some of the best looking bikes on the planet.
Click to expand...

HEY. I've got an ST, and I think it's fabulous! And that headlight has two H4 bulbs in it that really light up the night.

R1200ST.jpg


"What hump?"
 
I have a graphite 2000 R1100RT that draws favorable comments everywhere I go with it. I also have a 2005 K1200LT but that doesn't get the comments that the R1100RT gets. Now if only the R1100RT was more comfortable for the pillian rider.......
 
The following are merely my personal thoughts and opinions...

It's all "ugly" when it doesn't fit your illusion of "beauty"...

Before riding my first LT, I, honestly, never looked at BMW's twice.. they were, well, obsolete... the newer had some interesting engineering.. but the "package" wasn't together.

That was a bad view.. and totally my incorrect bias.

I love my LT.. it's opened my eyes to the possibilities of a promise of what Motorcycling may hold .... :thumb :wow

BMW is in business to make money... and to do interesting, creative things...

BMW must hope they are delivering product today which will define their "heritage".
 
Maylett said:
Yes. If the function is to sell motorcycles, for example, HD has certainly designed a functional brand, image and motorcycle styling that is consistent with achieving that function.

The aesthetic introduced by the German Bauhaus, however, was something of a revolt against the excessive nature of German decorative styles that existed before World War I. The school also existed during a time of great social upheaval in German society that corresponded to Germany's war defeat, the Great Depression and the socialist, anti-bourgeois mindsets that were gaining traction.

The Bauhaus positioned itself as taking the best of German culture, building upon it, and rejecting the decorative, class- and region-based aesthetics that had typified German design and crafts before that time. They built a new aesthetic around efficiency, engineering, precision and technology. Their idea was that beauty (or form) should stem directly from these qualities and should not be grafted on as a decorative afterthought.

BMW motorcycles, like most modern German industrial design, are a reflection of this 20th Century German design movement.
Click to expand...

I have certainly enjoyed your informative comments, and have also enjoyed comtemplating them. It is interesting to me that this is how I became attracted to BMW in the first place. I was riding my Road King at the time, but owned a BMW X5. It was being serviced at Rhine West in San Antonio, and I was in their waiting room, along with several used BMW bikes (they used to service both cars and bikes there). I was fascinated by the differences in frame, suspension, engine design, ergonomics as I sat there examining these bikes. They were "ugly", in the sense I was used to, but "beautiful" in their function. The rest is history. Fantastic thread.......have enjoyed it!

(PS Goldwing is one beautiful bike!):)
 
I remember when I started riding that I was all about chrome (I've never owned a Harley though). I spent about as much time washing my bike as riding it.

Very quickly, I decided to start working on my bike. I started reading and learning more and slowly came to realize that form was less important than function. This was reinforced by the longer and longer trips I attempted on my bike and by how inherently inefficient cruisers are (removing piles of chrome and carbs just to top up a radiator, removing most of the engine just to access the valves, having my crappy rear drum brake lock up all the time). It got old fast.

The more I look at bikes like BMWs and Guzzis the more I love them. The design IS the beauty, but you have to look close.
 
"Chrome don't get you home."

But, it is a great reflector of Police, Ambulance, Wrecker lights, and you can adjust your "doo rag" without being obvious and using a mirror.
 
Maylett said:
German aesthetics are highly influenced by the Bauhaus school of design that existed in Germany between the World Wars. If you're not familiar with the Bauhaus, its designers, artists and architects pretty much set the stage for all modern design that we take for granted today ÔÇö everything from steel and glass skyscrapers to typography to freeway overpasses.

It's a highly industrial, minimalist and practical aesthetic founded upon the notion that form should follow function. In other words, decoration is discouraged in favor of the object's beauty being the result of its functional and structural elements.

Chrome plating, for example, is not part of this aesthetic unless the chrome plating serves a functional purpose. This aesthetic view, however, most definitely does not neglect "looks" in favor of engineering. Instead, the premise is that an object's beauty should be derived from and should not be separated from its function, and that doing so actually lessens the beauty of the object and risks compromising its function.

Viewed from this Bauhaus aesthetic, Harley Davidsons, for example, might be regarded as aesthetically inferior. Instead of HDs obtaining their beauty through the skillful synthesis of form and function, the traditional HD look is merely a non-functional, decorative veneer of chrome, fancy paint, styled noise and cartoonish affectations applied to a functionally compromised motorcycle.
Click to expand...


So they were just copying F L Wrights work/ideas? :laugh
As he put it, Style is not what you start out with, its what you end up with; it comes about as a result of the form and function of the design. It was that view from which his "Modern" architecture developed.

RM
 
rocketman said:
So they were just copying F L Wrights work/ideas? :laugh
As he put it, Style is not what you start out with, its what you end up with; it comes about as a result of the form and function of the design. It was that view from which his "Modern" architecture developed.

RM
Click to expand...

I have sat in some of his furniture, it is torture.
:ha
It looked great though.
 
I think what's beautiful about a BMW is the attention to detail. Everything about the bike seems to have been very well thought out. You may agree or disagree with the design, but there's no question that it has been designed by someone with a clear vision in mind. Nothing ever seems to be just thrown together or added on at the last moment.

In this way, all BMW motorcycles are beautiful. It's just that, as individuals with varying tastes and preferences, we are always going to find certain models more attractive than others.

:cat
 
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