BMW R 12 Cruiser Expected

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Remember the BMW R1200C that was produced from 1997 to 2004? Its replacement may be coming almost two decades later in the R 12. (BMW Motorrad/)

This new trademark filed in Europe by BMW for the name “R 12″ is intended for “motorcycles and parts thereof,” and given BMW’s naming protocol it can only be intended for a boxer cruiser model, along the same lines as the existing R 18. Ironically, the R 18 was developed—after several years hiatus—because BMW decided that the engine in its old R1200C cruiser, sold from 1997 to 2004, didn’t have enough capacity. That certainly isn’t an accusation that can be leveled at the R 18, which has one of the largest-displacement engines and is one of the heaviest bikes on the market. But times have changed, and today there’s a growing appreciation for smaller and lighter cruisers.

Back when the R1200C was dropped from the lineup, BMW Motorrad’s boss Dr. Herbert Diess (now the CEO of the Volkswagen Group), said: “There will be no direct successor to the cruiser in our next model generation. This is due to technical considerations: The new engine you know from the GS is designed consistently for low weight and therefore—quite intentionally—offers only a small margin for an increase in engine displacement. And since the trend in the cruiser segment has now been pointing far beyond 1,400cc for quite some time, a cruiser in its former, classic style with a smaller engine would no longer fit into our concept for the future. But this does not mean that we are turning away from the cruising philosophy with BMW motorcycles once and for all. On the contrary, it would be quite conceivable for us to reinterpret this theme quite differently some time or another.”

If BMW’s naming protocol and model history are to be trusted, a new family of R 12 models, similar to the R 18 lineup, could be on the way. (BMW Motorrad/)

It took 16 years before that reinterpretation would emerge as the R 18, but the trend toward ever-bigger cruisers that Diess referred to—marked in the early 2000s by bikes like the Kawasaki Vulcan 2000 and Honda VTX1800—have evaporated, with smaller (and an increasing number of water-cooled) cruisers appearing like Indian’s Scout range, and, most recently, Harley-Davidson’s Sportster S and Nightster. It turns out that the old R1200C might have been more at home than Diess could have imagined, had it been gradually upgraded with the sort of technical improvements that we’ve seen on the company’s other R-series boxers since its demise.

The R 12 trademark is pretty unambiguous. The “R” means it’s a boxer twin, while the “12″ is both an indication of capacity and a clue that this is a cruiser, matching the nomenclature of the R 18′s badging. BMW isn’t lacking boxer twins around the 1,200cc-plus size. The water-cooled 1,254cc engine of the current R 1250 range would be one option, but it’s arguably the older 1,170cc air-cooled engine used in the R NineT that is the more likely choice. The latter of which, is basically the latest version of the twin used in the old R1200C, sharing the same capacity, bore and stroke but with a DOHC cylinder head. Whichever way BMW goes, we can be pretty sure the result will use a shaft final drive.

The name R 12 isn’t new to BMW. The original bike to carry that badge was launched in 1935, alongside the R 17, however, back then the numbers weren’t representative of engine size. The first R 12 was just 745cc with a flathead-flat twin and hand-shifted transmission. It was widely used by the military in World War II.

In terms of styling, the R 18′s 1930s-inspired looks are likely to be carried across to the R 12. BMW’s R 18 range already includes four models—two cruisers and two tourers—and the firm has put a heavy emphasis on customization with a huge array of bolt-on options to individualize the bikes. We expect the same philosophy to be carried over to the R 12 when and if this machine is revealed.

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