Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128212
2004 BMW R 1150 R Rockster stars, I thought that sounded pretty PHOTOS By BRIAN J. NELSON fire truck collection - very cool. He's cool. Everyone knows that Leno is a By BLAKE CONNER one of the nicest guys you'll ever huge fan of anything and everything meet and knows how to ride a motor- hen BMW invited me to come with a motor and wheels, and he gave cycle pretty darn good. Not that I'm a and spend a day hanging out us a tour of his two airport hangars which house his car/motorcycle/bus/ Leno it sounded cool to hang out and W with Jay Leno and a bunch of rock groupie or anything, but even without Separated at birth? C-3PO meet the Rockster. 42 MAY 7, 2003' cue I e n • _ s party like a rock star for the day. With that said, I guess I was a little disappointed when I pulled into the parking lot where a row of BMW's new R 1150 R Rocksters were neatly parked. I guess my visions of throwing back a couple of fifths of Jack Daniels with the boys in Metallica after a long day in the saddle weren't going to happen. My liver will thank me later. Okay, so the Rockster is motorcycle and not a lifestyle, but I bet it will get just as much attention cruising down the boulevard - with either of the bike's Spandex-colored paintjobs and those bug eyes - as Ozzy Osbourne would standing around with a headless bat in his hand. I've got to admit that one of my favorite BMWs is the R 1150 R naked standard. I spent a ton of time riding the bike in the Italian, Austrian, Swiss and French Alps back in September on an Edelweiss Bike Travel tour. The bike, however, is fairly vanilla and in its standard form doesn't exactly scream for attention. While I was over in Europe for the Edelweiss trip, we attended the Intermot bike show in Munich, Germany. I wandered through the massive display of everything that the blue and white spinning propeller - a.k.a. Bayerische Motoren Werke - has to offer, and there it was, the R 1150 R Rock· ster concept bike, like an apple in a bushel of bananas. The second I saw it, all I could think was how non-German it looked but also how cool I thought the concept was. For the same reasons, I was positive that it would never see the light of day, but then I was reminded of the equally wacky (progressive) F 650 CS and figured that maybe there was hope yet. The R 1150 R Rockster is kind of a Frankenstein's monster in that it borrows from many other models in the company's lineup. It borrows styling elements from the F 650 CS, and the paint is inspired by the Boxer Cup bikes, while a few of the components such as the wheels and headlights come directly off of the R 1100 S. Somehow BMW's VP of motorcycle design, David Robb, and his team have made it all work together. I'll have to admit that wherever I've ridden this bike, I've rarely escaped without hearing someone give me their two cents worth. The conversation usually ends in a 50/50 split between the lovers and haters. As for me, I'm a big fan of anything different, and that's what this bike is. To my surprise, because the BMW guys are primarily based in New Jersey, I was elected to lead our press launch ride through the canyons of Malibu, California, which I didn't mind. However, I take no responsibili· ty for losing half of the group at the very first turn we made 200 yards into the ride. As for me, and the few