VIDEO: 2021 BMW R 18 Daily Rider Review

The Epitome Of Style

Zach from Revzilla takes us on a 35-minute ride to give his thoughts on the new and beautiful BMW R 18.

Personally, I find this new bike one of the most beautiful and classically styled cruiser bikes in recent years. Unfortunately, as I learned today, sometimes you must trade comfort and ergonomics for style.

Being an 1800cc cruiser, it’s obvious that you will be riding a bike catered towards going in a straight line for long distances but I got worried after Zach mentioned the awkward seating position due to the low nature of the motorcycle. Albeit, we’re both tall dudes but if you’ve ever sat on a Harley-Davidson you will understand the importance of comfort in a motorcycle suited for cruising.

The peg scraping. Oh my lord. I cringed every time this bike went into any form of a mellow corner. This thing couldn’t turn without scraping if its life depended on it. I can’t stress this enough; BMW made a major tradeoff to take lowered styling to the nth degree as the suspension has lower travel and as a result gives the motorcycle quite a bumpy ride as noted in the video.

There are still some great features to note stemming from the mechanical components of the motorcycle though. BMW has made high-quality motorcycles for a very long time now, and it really shows in the overall performance of the engine and clutch.

Polaris and Zero

Zach puts it perfectly in his own words, “The problem with the R 18 in my mind, is Harley-Davidson is leaning on all that heritage and history that they have of building bikes like that – building big cruisers – and I guess I just don’t see it with the R 18. It feels like a beautiful well-engineered homage to a heritage that doesn’t exist and I guess I don’t know why it’s a thing, even though I think its well-executed and rides nicely…

Source: MotorbikeWriter.com

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