FASHIONABLY LATE

We would love to have been a fly on the wall in Munich when the idea of building the new 2021 R18 arose.

Because after the 2007-2009 recession, cruiser sales sagged … and never fully recovered. Still, big-displacement cruisers are as American as pickups, Stratocasters and barbecued brisket, and so the segment got BMW thinking. Harley has been Harley since time immemorial, first the Japanese and then Victory and Indian made important inroads, and even Ducati and Triumph build bruiser cruisers. So why not BMW with the ginormous 1,802cc R18? After all, a small piece of a big pie is still a nice meal. And BMW directors, shareholders and dealers would surely love the sound of that.

And speaking of sound, you have never heard a BMW like the R18. It offers no liquid-cooling to thwart mechanical and combustion noise. The cylinders and heads are air- and oil-cooled only, and simply enormous — think watermelon sized.