The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este at Lake Como is one of the highlights of BMW’s events calendar. It’s mostly a car event – the firm’s four-wheeled division gets the big guns out, with classic machines and concept designs on show to a host of VIP guests at the super-posh Villa d’Este hotel.
But the two-wheeled church-mouse cousins get an invite too, and there’s always an interesting concept bike on show. The firm often presents upcoming new models ranges, in disguised prototype form. The R18, for example, was first shown there in 2019, and last year saw a futuristic take on the next generation of the S1000 RR superbike.
This year, it’s the firm’s inline-six platform which took the stage though. The K1600 Bagger, GT and GTL have been the mainstay of BMW’s super-heavyweight touring class for more than 16 years now, first launched in 2010 and going straight to the top of the class from the off.
BMW brought all its engineering skillz to play on the straight-six engine, in an attempt to make it as compact as possible. And the engineers did a great job: despite being a full 1,649cc capacity, with an oversquare 72×67.5mm bore and stroke, it’s commendably narrow (just 67mm wider than the K1300 inline-four engine), and not at all unmanageable in terms of mass or handling.
And while it has the luxury and comfort to take on the likes of Honda’s Gold Wing uber-tourer, complete with kit like a reverse gear, shaft drive and radical chassis setup, the K1600 is remarkably sporty, with sharp handling and eager performance from the 160bhp/300kg package on the GT version.
It’s perhaps due an overhaul mind: there’s only really been details changes since 2010, mostly tech upgrades and emissions regulation mods, plus the Bagger version launched in 2017. This Vision K18 could well then be a sign of a new 1.8 litre straight-six hypertourer range from the Bavarian firm.
The machine on show in Italy itself was a classic piece of near-nonsense, beloved of concept bike artists. It ticks a lot of concept bike boxes: hand-made aluminium fairing, outlandish exhaust pipeage and a riding position which seems as practical as commuting to work on top of a train carriage.
It looks gorgeous though: the press release speaks of ‘Full Force Forward’ sweeping lines borrowed from aerospace designs, and homage is paid to the likes of the BAC/Sud Aviation Concorde supersonic airliner.
Top-end materials are used: hand-made forged carbon fibre parts, exotically-finished formed exhaust pipes and a massive carbon tail section that looks like luggage from the side, but contains nothing but lights, air, end-cans and chutzpah.
The suspension is hydraulically lowerable, and the six LED headlights are actively cooled because of course they are. Details like the visible air filter, two-metre long single-piece aluminium top fairing and the exotic six-pipe ram-air intake system are the icing on this particularly mad cake.
Tucked away amongst all this flibbertigibbetry, is a new 1,800cc version of the inline-six engine, and probably the most relevant part of the whole deal for the end user. Of course, the current 160bhp K1600 powerplant is not at all short on low-down urge, midrange grunt or top-end scream.
But you can never have too much we reckon, and with bikes like the R1300 GS approaching 140bhp, and the top-class M1000 XR adventure machine boasting more than 200 ponies, perhaps Munich has decided its big special K range could do with a power-up. More prosaically, it needs to comply with Euro 5+ emissions, and forthcoming regs will ratchet up those rules even more, stifling performance.
So, to meet those, while also gaining a bit of a power boost, an extra couple of hundred cc might be just what the doctor ordered. Around 180bhp and 180Nm from an 1,800cc motor sounds eminently tempting to us.
We spent a month or so on a K1600 GT at the end of last summer, including a mega tour to Scotland and back, and are very much here for even more upgrades to its already-stonking performance. Watch this space for more on a possible K1800 GT range update if/when/as we get it…
Speaking about the concept bike, Markus Flasch, CEO at BMW Motorrad said, “With the BMW Motorrad Vision K18, we show how we interpret performance, luxury and emotion in a new, very confident way. For us, the inline six-cylinder is far more than an engine – it is a statement.
The BMW Vision K18 translates this power into a sculptural form that makes dynamism and speed tangible even at a standstill. This bike stands for our passion to redefine the boundaries of design and performance repeatedly.”