Wings aside, you’d be forgiven for thinking much of the new M 1000 R mimics the foundations of BWM’s S 1000 R. The frame is the same. The swingarm is the same. The wheels are the same… and so the list goes on. But this was never about reinventing the wheel; this was all about taking something that was already decent and making it a whole lot more exceptional. Or, to use BMW parlance, to give it the kind of treatment that would make it worthy of the ‘M’ people. Of course, I’m talking about the Bavarian brand’s esteemed performance arm, not the 1990s pop group, which, unlike the latter, entered the motorcycling scene only last year with the launch of the M 1000 RR. For the brand, the upping of the ante was not only necessary, but logical too. They had the tech, they’d done the development, so why the hell wouldn’t they raise the bar with a 200bhpplus supernaked. Or to be more precise, to launch the most powerful production supernaked known to motorcycling.
BMW claims the ‘M’ makes a whopping 207bhp, which is hard to dispute considering the ShiftCam motor that powers it is the exact same masterpiece that fuels the brand’s new S 1000 RR. It’s got the same internals, the same throttle bodies and even the same gearbox ratios, with the only major difference being to the rear sprocket’s tooth count, which has been increased by two to ensure this motorcycle is nothing short of ludicrous. But to counter the craziness of the specs and make the bike still
