BMW unveils WSBK racer, talks targets.

Now that's an interesting piece of news!
KTM should follow...

Interesting news indeed! What does everyone think when he says
"a number of special features, especially on the cylinder head"?
A Pneumatic valve-system perhaps? It would be a first for a road bike.
(to the best of my knowledge anyway)

Good luck BMW - with KTM joining next year and possibly MV Agusta (subject to sponsorship)XPC7 the series is looking very healthy.

I read yesterday that their supersports machine will probably be a 675 triple based on the engine of the superbike - I presume the supersport effort is more likely to debut in 2010?

Doesn't honda call their CBR's RR's??...couldn't BMW come up with a more original name for a SBK..lol And Bravo, it's about time that some other manufacturer other than Ducati take the fight to the Japanese. With that said, its funny how it mentions in the article that the Japanese have 20 years of developement advantage over them.........they forgot that it took 1 year for Ducati to win a race in moto gp and 5 years to win the championship!! Forget about the Japanese beemer guys...you better get ready to scratch paint with Ducatisti.

"Doesn't honda call their CBR's RR's??...couldn't BMW come up with a more original name for a SBK"

Well, they cut themselves in the fingers a bit with the designations over the years. "R" traditionally means naked bike for BMW, the old racing RS (RennSport) is associated with sport-touring bikes these days so that would be confusig too, S is used for sport now, not racing. So that leaves, what?

As far as Ducati, they are pretty evenly matched with the J4 these days, now they changed the rules again in their favor. WSBK is not MotoGP.

The looks of the bike are also surprising. It looks like a genuine sports machine, unlike the company's efforts so far, which at least to my taste look a bit unwieldy and cumbersome.

I like it but I also think it looks just like a Suzuki GSX-R.
Let's hope it competitive next year, it would be good to see another
manufacturer doing well and stirring things up a bit! ;)

Looks just like any unified japanese 4-cylinder bike. I hope, KTM will join WSBK, it's a much more interesting bike.

Now thats strange, going for a 1000cc 4cyl and not a 1200 2cyl even though they have a far longer tradition of making twins than Ducati, and their road bike are twins. Is there going to be a rule change for the 1200cc twins?

they have 'in line' twins and boxers engines, not 'V'! for me Bimota SB8R Santamonica looks more "BMWly" they also have boxer superbike (BMW HP2 Sport) 1200cc but I doubt it's competitive bike but for sure it's that bike you can called 'individual BMW's'

Response to tm:

yeah,I know moto gp is not wsbk Einstein. Moto gp is more difficult than wsbk and Ducati was successful from the get go...........

Interesting, If BMW can get there collective heads around this, with there resources they could be very challenging for the other manufactures.....if they build a fast bike?????

I am curious about the "heads", You need a gas/air bottle to run pnumatic valves, and to have a system on a road bike is simply not viable, Its like a gas tank, eventually you run out and need to fill her up? Maybe they miniturised their F1 system, it would be the first bike with a air compressor, that would tax the engine power though. Looking at the pics, it might be in/under the the false petrol tank, or not.--
The bike appears conventional, side view looks lika cbr, front looks like gsxr

World Superbike Fans - just a quick reminder - channel 442 (ESPN Classic Sport) is showing the best WSB races from yesteryear this week, every evening at 21:30 and approx 03:30. I've just watched the 1996 Hockenheim race 2 which must be one of the greatest races ever.

Maybe the head design on the BMW isn't pneumatic valves, but radial valves a la MV Agusta.

I think the decision to go with four cylinders isn't odd - the race effort is for marketing to support a new superbike and a shift in image.

Son - I have heard several expert commentators say that WSB is harder to win than MotoGP because they are not prototypes - you have to make a good enough road bike to base the racer on. If

By harder to win I mean for the manufacturer not the rider. BMW have gone with WSB because it is better for marketing their bikes and changing their image than MotoGP.

It's also a bit cheaper

Big blow to Moto GP ... kudos to BMW, bring it on!!!

Kjuba, If you read my comment I made no reference to BMW V twins, never seen an inline BMW twin! are you thinking of their inline 3&4 cyl flying bricks

"never seen an inline BMW twin"

F800S

As for special features especially in the head... BWM make a fuss about the K series and the F800 having four valve heads with double overhead cams and followers.... hardly anything new or exciting. Maybe they have managed to get their Valvetronic system small enough to work on a bike, that would be interesting, fully variable lift and duration timing.

Thanks for the info Al, you learn something every day, I thought the F800s was a parallel twin!

inline and parallel is pretty much the same thing.... unless you wish to split hairs on one meaning longitudinal in the chassis as opposed to side by side across the chassis. The term parallel is usually only applied to twins not 3 or 4 (or even 6)cylinders, which are usually refered to as inline (which ever way the crank runs). Suffice to say it sure as hell isn't a boxer, a tandem or a V twin.