BMW R 1200 GS AdventureFor fourth consecutive time, BMW Motorrad showed just who’s boss when it comes to motorcycle and maxi-scooter scales.The Bavarian manufacturer once again posted record growth for the first half of the year; through June 2016, BMW delivered 80,754 motorcycles and maxi scooters worldwide; this is up 3% over the same period of 2015 (78,418 units). Once again, the attribution goes towards the BMW R 1200 GS adventure tourer, the top-selling BMW motorcycle.
This was the first time BMW Motorrad sold over 80,000 units in a six-month period, regardless of less-than average June sales of 14,993 compared to 15,490 (-3.2 %).Heiner Faust, BMW Motorrad Head of Sales and Marketing, says: “As of June 2016 we were able to set our fourth six-month record in succession, at the same time supplying more than 80,000 motorcycles and maxi scooters to our customers by the middle of a year. Based on this positive development we will now strive to achieve another sales record for the year as a whole.”For the fourth-straight year, the R 1200 GS was the unrivaled top-selling model; through June, 13,972 of the ADV machines were sold, which is up 3.8%. It’s more off-road worthy brother, the R 1200 GS Adventure, also increased; in its third year of production, 11,732 were shipped through June, showing a 12.5% increase over the same period. Also, this shows that 44.5% of all GS motorcycles were ordered in the Adventure model.BMW S 1000 XRThe third best-selling bike through June was the S 1000 XR (5,480 units), followed by the S 1000 RR (5,291 units), both bikes powered by inline-four powerplants. Fifth was the R 1200 RT (5,123 units) followed by the custom bike R nineT (4,629 units).BMW Motorrad reports that demand for the C 650 maxi scooter is also well above the previous year. As of June, 5,259 units (+73.2 %) were sold of the new edition of the two premium scooters. In addition to this, 447 BMW C evolution electric scooters were supplied in the same period (+1.4 %).“In spite of a much tougher competitive environment, our two top-sellers, the R 1200 GS and GS Adventure, are asserting themselves very impressively on the market. All other new models of the last two years are also contributing to sales success.“Meanwhile our sporty S models S 1000 XR and S 1000 RR have moved up to third and fourth position in our sales ranking for the first time,” Faust says. “And the C 650 maxi scooter – launched at the turn of the year – is going down extremely well with our customers. Nonetheless, trade is being solidly supported by our attractive model portfolio as a whole.”As for markets, Germany was the strongest with 13,792 (2%) units sold in the over 500cc capacity; BMW also leads the market in Spain, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Brazil and Russia.In regards to growth markets, the strongest stimuli are mainly coming from the major European motorcycle markets of Spain (+22.6 %), Italy (+6.9 %) and France (+5.6 %). The smaller markets of South Eastern Europe also saw pleasing growth. The Chinese market in particular is continuing to show considerable growth potential for BMW Motorrad with a dynamic increase in sales. As compared to the equivalent period of the previous year, sales increased by 74.3 % to 2,388 units. Sales in Thailand (+62.6 %) and Japan (+10.4 %) were also well above the previous year.Save
Hello everyone and welcome once again to the Ultimate Motorcycling podcast—Motos and Friends. My name is Arthur Coldwells.
Motos and Friends is brought to you by the Yamaha YZF-R7—Yamaha’s awesome supersport machine that is as capable on the racetrack as it is on the street. …and it’s comfortable too! Check it out at at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com.
In this week’s first segment, Senior Editor Nic de Sena rides the BMW K 1600 GT. This is the sporty bagger version of BMW’s K series of machines, those are the models with the awesome 6-cylinder engine. The GT has been given a little makeover for 2023, and Nic gives us his take.
In the second segment, I chat with one of my all time heroes—three-time World Champion racer ‘fast’ Freddie Spencer. I’ll do my best not to come off as too much of a fanboy here, but frankly it’ll be tough!
In my humble opinion, Spencer is a contender for the GOAT—greatest of all time. Sure, his career was a little shorter than some, and his number of championships falls behind the likes of Lawson, Doohan, Rossi, and of course Marquez. But at the time, Freddie literally changed the way motorcycles were ridden. 30 years before Marc Marquez, Freddie was able to push the front wheel into a slide, corner after corner, lap after lap in order to get the bike turned faster than anyone else. Freddie took completely different lines and was able to get on the throttle so early he could out accelerate anyone off a corner.
In the modern era, of course Freddie is the chairman of the FIM MotoGP Stewards panel. This is the panel of referees for all three classes of Grand prix racing. I talked to Freddie about his task there, and although for contractual reasons with Dorna and the FIM he cannot talk about specific riders, teams, or events, nevertheless his explanation of the job makes for interesting listening. It’s a tough job, and frankly I wouldn’t want to do it!
At any rate, Freddie’s new book ‘Feel’ is available on Amazon—I’d highly recommend you reading it whether you’re a fan of Freddie or not, even whether you’re into racing or not; every rider has something to learn from his mental approach.
Actually—Ultimate Motorcycling is giving away five copies of the book—signed by Freddie himself—to the first five listeners who contact us with the correct answer to the question: How many national AMA championships did Freddie win, and which years were they?
Please email your answers to producer@ultimatemotorcycling.com and we will contact the winners and send you a signed copy of Feel. Those five winners will be announced on a future episode. Unfortunately for legal reasons this offer is ONLY open to US residents.
So, from all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!