Motorcycle Monday: BMW Aims Right At Harley’s Heart

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The Germans want a nice thick slice of the American pie…

BMW Motorrad USA recently unveiled two new additions to its popular R 18 product family, the 2022 R 18 B “Bagger” and R 18 Transcontinental. To anyone with sense, it’s obvious these motorcycles are positioned to be as American as apple streusel pie in a bid to peel away some customer base from Harley-Davidson. This is the beauty of free markets, consumers get more choices than all those wonderful government-mandated vehicles made in the USSR way back when, so they can either reward BMW for this gambit or punish the move.

When the brass at BMW Motorrad made the final decision to go ahead with these new R 18s, it was back when many were thinking Harley-Davidson was in full retreat and maybe was even on the ropes. However, the American motorcycle manufacturer has fought back and done so by really digging in with its core consumer base in North America. So with Harley surging in this market and BMW trying to strike at the same sweet spot, plenty of people will be watching eagerly to see how this plays out.

The marketing for the 2022 BMW R 18 B and R 18 Transcontinental are about as obvious as one can get. Promo photos look like they’re straight out of the Harley-Davidson playbook, minus the exclusive use of all-black leather getups and the bikes parked at rustic roadside stops. Why, the Germans even recruited help from The Cadillac Three, using the country band’s latest music video for Get At Itas a long commercial for the new motorcycles. I haven’t seen this big of a sellout since Maroon 5.

But enough about the marketing hoopla: let’s focus on the actual motorcycles. Just keep in mind all information available at the moment has been thoroughly sanitized through BMW’s PR department, so sorting fact from marketing spin will require some real world experience once both of these bikes launch.