De BMW R18 Transcontinental, it's quite a mouthful. We as motorcycle experts got to ride both the impressive Transcontinental as well as the BMW R18 'First Edition' for a full week.

This must be the strangest opening sentence I have ever used to start a review of a motorcycle. Nevertheless the first picture that popped into my head was me holding two bottles of coke in each hand while shaking them vigorously from left to right when I fired up the massive engine of the BMW R18 Transcontinental.

Having ridden Beemers for years I was quite used to the feeling, but to have a 900cc piston on each side was a whole new sensation.

As MotoShare and BMW Motorrad Benelux had teamed up to promote the R18 models. I had to ride for an hour avoiding cats and dogs falling from the sky in large quantities on my rear fender-less caféracer to pick up my ride for a week.

Arriving in style but soaked to the bone at BMW Motorrad’s Fleet Services, I quickly wrapped up the paperwork and hopped on the R18 to speed to my next business meeting.

The rain was with me all the way for another hour while I was doing my utmost to get to grips with this battleship. Traditionally riding with a jet helmet, I had my goggles fogging up constantly. My very limited view made up for a challenging ride and sweaty armpits.

It took me about a day to get used to the BMW and its road behaviour, but that might well have been more between my ears than anything else. It is the sheer size that may scare you off at first glance and when starting up the bike will start wiggling its hips. Automatically you will want to plant two feet firmly on the ground to create a sense of stability, but after a while stopping at a traffic light will feel OK with just the right foot on the ground.

I was riding the ‘option 719’ edition which comes with about all the extras (and more) you can think of. Anything you can imagine is added to the R18 making it utterly complete and always ready for long hauls. The storage space of the side cases is a bit limited by the speakers mounted in the lids, but leaves enough room to store stuff you may want to drag along on a longer ride. The top case is spacious and will let you squeeze in loads of goodies that don’t fit into the side cases.

The top case being the larger one, I decided to store my inner hooligan in that little dark cave. There was no room for him on this machine I figured. It was funny to experience the difference in attitude I had when riding this awesome machine. A sense of royalty if you will, stimulated by the reactions you get from other people on the road. The R18 is by no means a bike you will often see on the road and the Transcontinental is even more outlandish. You get a lot of second looks and passengers in cars giving you the thumbs up.

All of this will make you (at least this is the effect it had on me) sit up and have a face that beams with confidence. You have it all under control and you are having the time of your life. No hooligan in sight.

However... after a couple of days of riding it felt as if the machine and I had grown really fond of each other. We started playing around and curves yet again became the usual invitations to twist the throttle. The top case must have been Pandora’s box and I must have given my inner demon a chance to escape. Together we challenged the R18 to a duel and experienced the might of the 1800 cc engine. Floorboards were scraping the tarmac on a regular basis as the mutual respect between rider and machine continued to grow.

The steering damper is an accessory that adds a lot of stability to the road handling at high speed straights (we hit 170 km/h easily) as well on fast corners at around 130 km/h. The signature on the bike reads ‘made in Berlin’. It refers to the heritage of the BMW R18, but it has the Bavarian seal of modern day quality that makes riding a blissful experience.

In spite of its size, the R18 Transcontinental is surprisingly nimble and has a very short turning circle, making it easy to manoeuvre even in tight urban spaces. Unfortunately these bikes are wide because of their front fender and the cases in the back, so I had to give up on my habit of crawling forward in the city between rows of cars to be the one on pole position at the traffic lights.

Lane splitting is something else however. When the ‘Batwing’ appears in people’s rear view mirror the immediate reaction is to veer sideways to let you through. Which is kind of nice. Lane splitting works on highways when there is enough room to keep a safe distance from the cars on either side. On smaller roads the bike is just too wide for comfort.

The response from people you meet on the way varies enormously. The majority will admire the BMW and comment on the way the German manufacturer has designed this build. As it should be, every little detail is just right. And, yes indeed, the Bayerische Motoren Werke have done a damned good job as you might expect.

But then there are the fans of American Iron. They will claim the R18 Transcontinental is nothing more than a rip off of one of their beloved brands. Also they will complain about the footboards being mounted too much in the center which they view as less comfortable compared to the forward positioning of the controls on American machines. This being caused by the two gigantic cylinder heads sticking out on either side of the frame.

I did not experience it as being more uncomfortable. And those cylinders with the two bottles of Coke vigorously swinging left and right on the inside are a very pleasant sight, also when riding. In response to the remarks on the position of the feet I’ll add that riding those big V-twin bikes, especially in the Summer, can sometimes become unpleasant with the heat from the rear cylinder warming up your inner thighs beyond comfort.

But as always it is a matter of very personal preference.

It comes with a package called ‘option 719’** which includes lovely extras such as exquisite special paint, hand striping, meticulously hand-stitched seats and loads of other stuff

They also added a whole list of accessories such as:

• Hill start control
• Headlight Pro
• Central locking
• Reverse gear (electric)
• Active cruise control
• Automatic tire pressure sensors
• Intelligent Emergency call
• Marshal Gold series Stage 2 Sound blaster (magnificent sound!)
  
  

In case you want to add this to your wish list for Christmas, make sure to have an amount North of 40.000€ in your wallet. In all other cases I would say this is a true ‘Dream Bike’ and in those dreams it will probably stay.

To end on a high note however, you don't have to buy the bike to ride it. You could also rent the beautiful BMW R18 Transcontinental for a day. You can find the R18 and many other BMW motorcycles here. Rent is for as long as you like. Get ready for days of pleasure!