Lake Como is one of the most beautiful parts of Italy, and the lakeside town of Cernobbio hosts the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este – a high-end classic car and bike show – every year.
BMW is one of the organisers, and takes it very seriously, on four and two wheels, regularly showing off new prototype machinery that almost always ends up in production format. The Concorso d’Eleganza was the first place we saw bikes like the R18, RnineT, F900 XR, R1200 R, K1600B and even the CE04 electric scooter – so it’s got a solid hit rate in terms of predicting the future.
That means we always take it pretty seriously – and so we’re looking very closely at this, the star of the 2025 show. Called the BMW Motorrad Concept RR, it is an unabashed superbike, clearly based on the firm’s current M1000 RR and S1000 RR lineups.
It’s festooned with special parts, and we’re hoping it will be the precursor to another version of the firm’s HP4 series of uber-superbikes. The original HP4 was a road-legal variant of the S1000RR, sold in 2013, with a heap of extra kit which went on to be featured on the standard bike. The follow-up HP4 Race was a no-holds-barred full-on ultrabike, which ironically wasn’t eligible for any race series.
It had carbon frame and Suter aluminium WSBK swingarm plus carbon wheels, a hand-built 230bhp WSBK-level engine together with the finest suspension, brakes and electronics available when it launched in 2017. Rumour was that BMW lost money on every one of the 750 limited edition bikes built despite the sticker price of £68k.
Back to today though, and the prototype superbike on show by Lake Como. BMW’s not actually revealed too many concrete details about it in advance, which is useful. It’s billed as the ‘preview’ for the next generation of 1000RR bikes, meaning the M homologation racebike and the S road variants.
Design-wise there’s a lot of gold highlights, which is almost a teeny bit garish, but it’s calmed down by the dark black paint on the carbon bodywork. There’s subtle winglets and plenty of cunning air-ducts, all designed to optimise airflow through and around the bike at speed, finished off with a brushed aluminium race fuel tank.
The frame itself is also aluminium, with a carbon swingarm and forged aluminium wheels, while the yokes and rear subframe are pure race parts from Bonamici Racing. Suspension is by Öhlins, again, top-end race kit, and the brakes look to be the same Brembo parts as used by Ducati for its latest Brake Pro option on the Panigale V4: GP4RS calipers and 330mm T-drive discs. The show bike wears Pirelli Diablo SC1 slicks, in a further nod to the race programme’s influence on the prototype.
The inline-four 999cc DOHC 16v ShiftCam engine is apparently straight from the firm’s WSBK programme, meaning a base power output of 230bhp, depending on how much they de-tune it for eventual sale to the public.
Electronics are the top-end suite of programmes from the M1000RR, rounded off by a sweet race dash, and there’s what looks like a full race Akrapovic exhaust with special Concept RR logos. Finally, British firm GB Racing provides the race engine case protectors, another authentic WSBK touch.
Speaking about the concept machine, Markus Flasch, head of BMW Motorrad said, “Never before has BMW Motorrad provided such an early glimpse into a future generation of the RR models. The BMW Motorrad Concept RR is a true masterpiece of our development team, both technically and in terms of design language.
Guided and inspired by the BMW Motorrad factory superbike M 1000 RR, with which BMW Motorrad factory rider Toprak Razgatlioğlu was able to dominantly win the FIM World Superbike Championship last year, the Concept RR offers a true firework of superlatives for both street and track use.
The transfer from racing to road has never been shown more clearly. It represents BMW Motorrad’s leadership claim to offer the highest engineering level and maximum performance in this segment.”
No word on what all of this means for future RR models. The firm gave its range a modest update for this year, with minor changes to the S1000RR and an uprated engine and chassis on the M bike.
Neither were big changes though, so you’d maybe expect a heftier revamp to appear in late 2026. How much of this concept superbike makes it into the next generation remains to be seen.