The sun was shining and the Putty Road to the northwest of Sydney beckoned, and while a big, heavy cruiser wouldn’t be my first choice up such an iconic piece of tarmac, there was no doubt the day ahead looked promising.
While the R 18 Roctane is no shrinking violet, parked in front of me it too looked promising. Big, sure, but stylish as hell thanks to its 1930s BMW R 5-inspired ‘streamlining design’, headlined by the big boxer engine, teardrop fuel tank, rigid-look frame and black-on-black finish.
With a rangy 1720mm wheelbase and a claimed kerb weight of 374kg, the Roctane is a big mutha… and it looks big too, with that black-painted 1802cc boxer twin the dominant visual feature. As well as the engine block, the cylinder heads are black, the rocker covers are black, and even the twin exhausts have a trick-looking black chrome finish. Too much black? A bit of contrast can be obtained by ordering the bodywork in Mineral grey metallic matt or Manhattan metallic matt… or there’s the standard Black storm metallic for those who simply like… black.
The appearance of the R 18 was paramount in its development process, and as such a dummy bike was initially built up to get the look right, and then the final product was reverse engineered from that. The Roctane is the fifth model in the R 18 line-up, joining the R 18, R 18 Classic, R 18 B and R 18 Transcontinental, and although all share
