VOL. 52 ISSUE 27 JULY 7, 2015 P63
Gear Shift Assist Pro fitted. I did not get the
chance to have a go on the Dynamic Pack-
age that had everything the Touring Package
had, with the extra bonus of Dynamic Trac-
tion Control, Ride Modes Pro and ABS Pro,
which is a shame because I've ridden the
HP4 and this year's S 1000 RR and know
full-well how good the system is. But that got
me thinking, maybe I didn't need the DTC
or Ride Modes Pro or ABS Pro, because I
BRIAN CAREY SPEAKS
BMW Motorrad's U.S. Product
Manager, Brian Carey, on what the new
BMW S 1000 XR means to the company.
"The GS's competitors," starts BMW Motorrad's Brian
Carey, "were starting to challenge the GS with bikes like
this, but with more horsepower. So, do we give the GS
more horsepower or do we build an all-new bike to address
that part of the market? We wanted to leave the GS the
way it was. The GS is the
leader in its market and we
didn't want to mess with it,
so therefore we now have
the XR."
The fact that Ducati
has stolen a march with
the Multistrada and even
taken some customers
away from the BMW brand
is not lost on Munich or
Carey, however the advent
of the XR goes some way
to redressing that issue.
"We hope to bring in
new customers with the
XR. This is a new market
sector for us. The people
who have a GS and don't
take it off road on a regular basis, maybe they will consider
something like the XR. This bike has attributes from a
number of different segments. In sports terms, the engine
has the same performance as the S 1000 R. From a touring
perspective there's the cases and the wind and weather
protection of the GS, electronic suspension adjustment,
navigation… there's lots of things that make this a good
touring bike.
"There's five percent enduro built in this bike. We do call
it an "adventure bike" but Germany is not positioning it as a
dual bike. It's got 17-inch wheels, it's not meant to be a full
off road bike, but it handles itself very well when off road.
"[The] sport touring [segment] is looking for something
new. When the S 1000 RR was launched back in 2010, we
had about an 80 percent acquisition of new customers. It
was a new concept. The S 1000 XR may not be much of
a departure from that original concept but we expect it to
bring in new people to the BMW family."
Standard
package
without the
added panniers
still looks the
business.
