Bring On the BMW W3 Cruiser Concept

By: Bob Henig

Forget all the technical stuff. None of us have even a gram of input on this anyway.

Doesn’t anyone see the sheer beauty of the overall design concept here? BMW could build exactly what we are looking at here if they desired. They have the technical expertise and BMW dealers are in desperate need of a fresh cruiser offering.

BMW cruiser engineAre there not already enough V twins on the road under several brands? And then there are the copycats from the limited production companies.

BMW exited, mistakenly in my not so humble opinion (IMNSHO), a segment of the motorcycle market that occupies roughly a 40% share when the R1200C was cancelled. I was asked to present a written argument to the then head of BMW motorcycles worldwide (financial and otherwise) as to why the R1200C should go back into production and what specific changes I would suggest regarding price, standard equipment and options.

This was roughly 6 years back and I delivered it as requested. But the tooling had already been destroyed. Another mistake? Perhaps. But without existing tooling production was too costly to bring it back. That overall decision cost BMW and their dealers thousands and thousands of unit sales and countless loyal cruiser riders.

As for this exciting new W3 concept from BMW Motorrad — I say bring it on and bring it on and bring it on soon; I’ll take a black one with a black seat please.