2017 BMW R NINET RACER
FIRST TEST
P92
The Racer sports a massive vintage
headlight in the same style of the Triumphs
that spawned the café racer movement 50
years ago. And it's got the hulking great
boxer twin motor sticking out either side of
the chassis that signals I could be on no
other motorcycle than Bavaria's finest.
The Racer is the latest in what is
becoming a very long line of R nineT
models. BMW couldn't have imagined the
worldwide splash the original niner of 2014
would make—even a company as big as
them couldn't keep up with demand for
the retro-themed roadster—and the advent
of not just 2016's Scrambler but also the
R nineT Pure and this Racer variant has
done little to slow the enthusiasm.
If BMW is in the business of selling mo-
torcycles, they are doing a very good job
of it right now.
The existence of the R nineT range
goes back to the world's motorcycle cus-
tomizers. Yes, the café racer and scram-
bler builders. For eons, it was near sacri-
lege to tear apart a BMW boxer machine.
Now it's fast becoming the norm for any
boxer past the age of about 10 years old.
Yet for every boxer café racer or scram-
bler or bobber or whatever done right,
there's plenty done wrong. This is where
BMW and their Heritage Collection of
motorcycles come into the picture. The
original R nineT gave you a great platform
to build a custom bike, or just leave it
stock. Now with the Scrambler and Racer,
BMW gives you the option of buying what
is essentially a custom bike done right
by the manufacturer, without the need to
learn how to weld. Whether that gets you
hipster points or not is up for debate.
There are
details
everywhere
on the R nineT
Racer, but
those BMW
racing stripes
had us
from the
get-go.
