VOL. 52 ISSUE 15 APRIL 14, 2015 P103
off-road segment? Have you
thought better of selling
Husqvarna to your KTM rivals?
No. We did that because we
don't see a viable market in the
future there for us, and I still don't.
BMW was competing with
a factory team in the World
Superbike Championship, un-
til it pulled out of road racing
officially soon after you came
on board to head up the com-
pany. What was your reason
for doing this?
Because I believe you should
stop when you have reached your
goals. It costs a lot of money to
go racing. We originally entered
that segment because we had
produced the inline four-cylinder
S1000RR supersport model, but
nobody knew BMW as a producer
of supersport bikes. We went rac-
ing officially in World Superbike to
show that this bike is fast enough
to finish on the podium in the first
three positions. We did this for
some years and very successfully,
winning several races. Meantime
the test comparison reports in
motorcycle magazines showed we
are number one in this streetbike
segment, and so did our sales
volume—which at the end of the
day is what we are here for.
We are not a racing company.
We are a volume manufacturer
that wants to show that our
products are on top even in that
Supersport segment derived from
motorsport competition. Having
done that, we decided we pre-
"…WE WILL WORK
TOGETHER WITH
ROLAND SANDS
IN THIS DIRECTION
EVEN MORE CLOSELY.
HE CREATES THESE
WONDERFUL
MOTORCYCLES IN
TERMS OF STYLING
AND FLAIR, BUT
THEY ACTUALLY
WORK, THEY ARE
FUNCTIONAL."
The Roland
Sands designed
R NineT
surpassed
BMW's
expectations.
