As just mentioned, the big news is BMW has officially launched its new World Superbike contender, the S1000RR. It will be entered in the 2009 WSB Championship in a two-man factory team run by Alpha Techniik and they hope to get consistent top-10 finishes in their first season and some wins in their second in 2010.
However, independent teams will be allowed to use 'customer' race bikes (which will be very close to full factory spec), to contest national championships. This is similar to the Ducati set-up with the main team doing development on parts and then these being fed down to these satellite teams.
So what did they actually launch? Well, the bike shown will form the basis of the production machine, which is of course necessary to allow it to race. BMW Motorrad President Hendrik von Kuenheim did however point out that the race bike shown was not the finished version and some things may have changed on the production version.
BMW does, of course, need to produce 1000 examples in 2009 to be eligible to race, but don't expect the bike to be on sale before 2010. The good news is that because they want to compete with bikes like the Yamaha R1, the price is likely to be in the same bracket as opposed to the premium range that some of their bikes currently sit in! The final styling may also closer mirror the R1 or a GSX-R Suzuki, as BMW desperately wants to attract new riders to the brand and move away from its older, boring, safe image. So definitely expect traction control and a new version of ABS, which will be able to be switched off by the rider.
The suspension will obviously not be the state-of-the-art Ohlin's as shown at the launch, but it could be a cheaper version, again to attract the customer looking for performance and racetrack breeding. Obviously though, the main thing is that BMW has moved away from its trademark Boxer engine. Likewise, the frame is now a beam section and the forks are inverted telescopics with the rear being a monoshock working off a conventional (if longer) swingarm with chain drive. Admittedly all of these have appeared on other BMW machines, but never all together.
No specific details of the engine were given, not even the capacity, although expect this to be at the maximum 999cc as we have said before. Power would need to be in excess of 215 hp to make the bike competitive and as they are serious about their assault on the championship, this is likely to be a figure they already have seen, given BMW's commitment to the project.
Hints were made about the cylinder head and valve train, which could be taking the Double Vanos system from their cars to give three-stage variable valve timing, or alternatively it could be pneumatic valves making this a first on a production machine.
On the racebike, fuel injection is from Dellorto and the exhaust from Akraprovic with brakes from Brembo. Wheels from Oz are fitted with Pirelli tires. Like the suspension issue, how much of this reaches the road bikes remains to be seen! But, one thing is for sure, the bike is physically small and compact and will not be that far off the pace in either the race version or the road version, if not ahead of it.
Moving on, at the same conference they confirmed that they would not pursue the MotoGP project we have mentioned before because of costs. Also, no real surprise that the 1000cc Superbike will spawn a 600cc sibling in due course, given the middleweight class currently makes up to 60% of the sportbike market.