• Welcome to the BMW R18 Forums. Member registration disables ads and allows you to post and share. Register Here.

BMW gives up the R18 !!!!

  • <i class="fa--xf fal fa-check "><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" role="img" aria-hidden="true" ><use href="/data/local/icons/light.svg?v=1758297946#check"></use></svg></i> Discussion starter Discussion starter Gerard
  • Start date Start date
John Bennett said:
Later while riding it high school when I was 14 in 1981 I crashed it and broke the aluminum throttle housing.

The Honda Dealer literally laughed at me when I visited their parts counter and asked for a replacement.

Lesson learned. :sneaky:
Click to expand...
Magura offered better replacements.

Currently this kind of stuff is WAY wórse on muntain bikes with Shimano.
 
Pork Rind said:
I am really kind of curious what kind of MPG the folks running US gallons get on the R18 B, the on board computer on this bike showed 132 miles and 33.4 MPG, which I thought was appalling, or someone is riding the piss out of the bike.
Click to expand...
Hey buddy. I normally see on my dash 58mpg. This is on a mixture of riding conditions, involving traffic jam and clear roads. If I go on a long ride involving mainly motorway cruising, this goes up to 62/63 mpg. Roll mode at no more than 70m/h. These are UK gallons btw.
 
I’m getting about 48/49 mpg (UK gallons) through normal riding, I expect as I get a few more miles on it, it will improve further. No complaints about economy from me.
 
It is not rocket science is it?
The R18 is a very extreme motor and not only off the BMW road, it also is in the USA big twin field.
It was nevvah evvah going to be a sales charts topper. If anything the initial wave of pensioners buying a nostalgic dream was surprising.
Same thing the decline of motorcycle sales in the western world. As logical as the baby boomers aging.
Combine that with the economic instbility and the electric vehicle doom gloom.

The R18 is a pretty extreme niche bike in a sharply declining market.
The cruiser market is the first to be affected, the hardest hit, simply because of age profile. The US big twins are in the same boat. In fact sinking harder because a much bigger boat: The same % is wáy more bikes, way larger losses.
The R18 may very well be discontinued but as a company BMW is less vulnerable because it has more different boats in more vaired waters.
Next though the allroad and then the superbikes wíll be affected hard.

The R18 is móre than a retro thing; it is an anachronism. Cherish it.
 
En France, la gamme R18 est toujours configurable. Seule la Roctane a été abandonnée.
La Classic gagne un garde-boue plus enveloppant et plus long mais perd ses feux additionnels.
 
PHIPHIGOY said:
En France, la gamme R18 est toujours configurable. Seule la Roctane a été abandonnée.
La Classic gagne un garde-boue plus enveloppant et plus long mais perd ses feux additionnels.
Click to expand...
To mé the current reports from various sides indicate that BMW is running the model range out.
Still peddling ´23 models in one country, no longer importing in the next and limited model range in another.
As I observed; a niche model in a sharply declining market. We are ever só lucky that BMW went for it in 2020.

Right, resale value.
I think the resale value will continue to get less for some time yet. Simply because of the demand literally dying off.
The quality of the machines will most likely see the bottom level out higher than that of the US big twins. By then we are talking 2030 though and the Achilles´ heel is the things being extreme bruisers. For the geriatric market literally so. I mean owning/riding a MotoGuzzi Nuevo Falcone pushes many of the same anachronism/nostalgia buttons but is a dimension less tricky to enjoy.
 
Petrus said:
Thanks Anibal.
That is WAY more than I would have guesstimated based on Germany sales only.
It´s rough anyway so a ball park of say 750k. Not real ´niche´ is it?
Also, in Europe at least it will have bitten hard into HD sales although is Spain??, not so sure.

BEEJEEZUS!!!! that´s over 33k € :eek:
And then some here in Spain say HD´s are expensive.
Good strategy by BMW I say.
Not bad for future resales prices either.
I paid delivered at the door 14.7k € for my ´22 (reverse gear) with under 4,5k Kms on it.

Despite the otherwise quite solid BMW marketing, the R18 is all but totally unknown over here in Spain. Even BMW riders are miffed. I assume that the BMW crowd of mainly all-roads and sport bikes simply has not registered the big cruiser bruiser. Same goes for the cruiser buyers; it would not occur to them look at BMW. Well, and never mind HD buyers; they buy an experience.

Me, I only ´tripped´ over the R18 because I have ´39 Nimbus (sidecar) and geneal interest in vintage bikes. The open shaft drive was the common denominator and the peardrop exhaust I had on my dominator (Norton).
Of modern models basically only the Royal Enfield Classic 350 (w/w.o. sidecar) sparks my interest so no way I would have come accross the R18 looking for modern wheels.

See the sidecar element? Am positively surprised by those being fitted to the R18. Now thát seems to be proper niche but mán would that 1800 twin be suiteable. Just carry a (aptly named) jerry-can with petrol in the back of the chair.
Click to expand...
You are right in that the R18 is the perfect choice for a sidecar but with one reservation. The larger tank on the R18B and R18TC give you a better cruising range and even then I wouldn't rule out your jerry can when riding in certain parts of the U.S. or Canada. Throw in a prairie crosswind and watch out. I have a Hannigan sidecar mounted to my R18TC and it gobbles miles and fuel. My son and I are going to the 2026 Isle of Man and I'm interseted in seeing how many BMW R18s will be there.
 
St.moritz92 said:
You are right in that the R18 is the perfect choice for a sidecar but with one reservation. The larger tank on the R18B and R18TC give you a better cruising range and even then I wouldn't rule out your jerry can when riding in certain parts of the U.S. or Canada. Throw in a prairie crosswind and watch out. I have a Hannigan sidecar mounted to my R18TC and it gobbles miles and fuel. My son and I are going to the 2026 Isle of Man and I'm interseted in seeing how many BMW R18s will be there.
Click to expand...
Anóther advantage of the sidecar is that you have ample space for a jerrycan or two.
 
I don't think any of the big cruisers, new or used, are selling very well now. In North America, both HD and BMW sales are hurting. I have a freind with a 2023 Trans Continental in Blue with 8400 miles on it. He was looking at a new 2025 R1300 RT until he found out the local dealership offered him $8000 US on his 2023 TC. He is so far upside down on that Trans Continental that he gave it to the wife and instead went out and bought himself a used 2009 K1300 with 15k miles on it for $7000 cash, and then flew out and rode it back from Portland OR to San Diego, CA. There's 2021 or 2022 Standard model R-18s at dealerships going for $7000 state side, with about the same mileage.

My question is who is going to know how to work on these R18's once they are 10 year or older models, since dealerships stateside won't touch them? Dealerships discount them so hard when buying back from customers, because they are so difficult to sell and sit on show floors so long, tying up money in inventory that's not generating a profit.
 
Pork Rind said:
I don't think any of the big cruisers, new or used, are selling very well now. In North America, both HD and BMW sales are hurting. I have a freind with a 2023 Trans Continental in Blue with 8400 miles on it. He was looking at a new 2025 R1300 RT until he found out the local dealership offered him $8000 US on his 2023 TC. He is so far upside down on that Trans Continental that he gave it to the wife and instead went out and bought himself a used 2009 K1300 with 15k miles on it for $7000 cash, and then flew out and rode it back from Portland OR to San Diego, CA. There's 2021 or 2022 Standard model R-18s at dealerships going for $7000 state side, with about the same mileage.

My question is who is going to know how to work on these R18's once they are 10 year or older models, since dealerships stateside won't touch them? Dealerships discount them so hard when buying back from customers, because they are so difficult to sell and sit on show floors so long, tying up money in inventory that's not generating a profit.
Click to expand...
These bikes are built like tanks and mechanically simple with easy access for routine maintenance so I’m sure folks will either learn how to do some things themselves or be able to find an independent bike shop, especially when warranty periods have long expired. Let’s not forget this forum is itself a great source of information and YouTube has lots of tutorial type stuff for us to learn from. I use it all the time for all sorts of DIY jobs, it’s very satisfying. I read something only yesterday about the EU postponing the deletion of new petrol & diesel engines until 2040. No doubt because 1) EV sales are really struggling, despite them trying to cook the books and make out it’s going well and 2) Europe’s economy is heavily invested in the car industry so can’t afford for it to go down the gurgler. BMW motorrad is not going anywhere IMHO and if it ever does go ‘belly up’ I expect things will be so bad riding my bike will be the last thing I worry about.
 
Looking at a 2023 R18 B, low mileage, 4000. Seller supposedly traded it in on a Gold Wing. it's been dropped both on left cylinder valve cover side and the right cylinder valve cover side. Thoughts? Is that a walk away item from the bike, or just discount it heavily for price of replacement parts installed?

Sorry for the sidetrack.
 
Pork Rind said:
Looking at a 2023 R18 B, low mileage, 4000. Seller supposedly traded it in on a Gold Wing. it's been dropped both on left cylinder valve cover side and the right cylinder valve cover side. Thoughts? Is that a walk away item from the bike, or just discount it heavily for price of replacement parts installed?
Click to expand...
Have a very good look at all of the damage. It is very unlikely that the handlebars and such have nothing etc.
Replacing bits is going to add up astonishingly fast and make the bike an economical write off.
S long as it is sáfe this does not need to be a bad thing if you are ok with some scratch and dent. It is also very relaxing :-)
Also it is a great opportunity to get some custom bits.
 
Rufus said:
These bikes are built like tanks and mechanically simple with easy access for routine maintenance so I’m sure folks will either learn how to do some things themselves or be able to find an independent bike shop, especially when warranty periods have long expired. Let’s not forget this forum is itself a great source of information and YouTube has lots of tutorial type stuff for us to learn from. I use it all the time for all sorts of DIY jobs, it’s very satisfying. I read something only yesterday about the EU postponing the deletion of new petrol & diesel engines until 2040. No doubt because 1) EV sales are really struggling, despite them trying to cook the books and make out it’s going well and 2) Europe’s economy is heavily invested in the car industry so can’t afford for it to go down the gurgler. BMW motorrad is not going anywhere IMHO and if it ever does go ‘belly up’ I expect things will be so bad riding my bike will be the last thing I worry about.
Click to expand...
You are spot on in there mate. I was thinking the same thing as I was reading the previous post.
 
I walked into the garage and looked at my 2025 Brooklyn Grey ‘Blacked Out’ piece of art and did I think to myself, “Oh no, BMW is not bringing these into Australia anymore. What will I do”?
Instead, I thought to myself, “F😉ck, I love this bike. It’s the best thing I’ve ever owned”.

IMG_5251.jpeg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top