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TECHNICAL MOTOBRICK WRENCHING In Remembrance of Inge K. => The Motobrick Workshop => Topic started by: Pagman on April 29, 2013, 05:23:59 PM
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BMW is know for making fine motorcycles, but wouldn't you say the r1200C is a god awful ugly crusier? I know it's no longer in production, but what the hell were the designers thinking? Where is the symmetry? Is that a sissybar? I'm trying to get myself to somewhat like it, but i can't. AND they make it in CREAM? WHY?? Maybe they were trying to stear away from cloning the harley look, so they totally went into left field. I think perhaps they should have cloned, but in bmw style. I'm sure the r1200c has got to be a comfty ride, but what's up with the front and rear shocks surrounded by opened space? AHHH! :bang-head: This has got to be the elephant man of bikes, right there with the Honda Magna.... UGH! Don't even get me started with that one because that one comes in factory yellow, DOUBLE UGH!!
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I kind of want one of the final drives off of that. Put it on a turbo k75. 3500 rpm freeway cruising.
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I have owned a C bike , and currently ride a CLC as well as a K100. I love them both. The C bikes are great to ride, and also quite unusual, eh?
There is a group of us that are rabidly in love with them.........I will never part with my CLC......the K bikes are great as well, but a "dime a dozen".....
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Another BMW abbomination -- BMW LO Rider
(http://www.motorcycledaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/110808top.jpg)
The scrambler exhaust and "futuristic" headlight are the design clues that ruins it for me. Others are free to disagree with my lack of modern aesthetics.
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nope, nope, nope
sumbitch was ugly from the start and stayed ugly
people don't buy ugly stuff
so it died an ugly death
not soon enough for my liking
BMW tried to please everyone
shoulda just stuck with the incredible winners they had been creating all-along
definitely ugly
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I really do like the classic R & K bikes, and from an engineering standpoint, modern BMW bikes have many fine qualities. But when I visit the dealer for parts or service, I have yet to see a new BMW bike I like the looks of. Some of them are just plain ugly.
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I only bought my R1200CLC because she was the nakedest touring bike I could find and because the deal was absolutely unbeatable. At the time, I would have agreed with you wholeheartedly. I thought she was ungainly and odd. Since then, everyone else has convinced me that I must have been dead wrong.
You can believe this following or not: If I ride this bike eight miles to work and eight back five days a week, then four out of those five days someone will roll down their window at a stop light to tell me what a beautiful ride she is. This is the literal truth.
If I stop for gas people stroll over from their pump to admire. If I walk into a store I return to find people gathered, telling their friends how much they like it. People want to sit on her. Drivers hold a thumb up as they pass. I am not making this up. Nor am I the only one. All C owners experience the same thing. Ask them. If you park in a line of HD owners, they all gravitate. For sixteen years I was a high school football official. I once emerged from the locker room to find three cheerleaders stroking her tank. This is the truth. Old people, young people, working men, suits, braided beard bikers, housewives, perfect strangers. Everyone. Carefully coiffed trophy wives will roll down the window of the Escalade to tell me they admire this bike. I stopped at the cigar store the other day, the guy had to come out and see.
Is it like rap, an obviously ugly commercial racket sold to gullible youngsters? No. No one ever advertised this bike. Does it satisfy some favorite stereotype? No. It is unique. Is it beautiful? People seem to think so. It must be something innate in the shape of it.
I have been riding 55 years and have probably owned thirty bikes. I've never had anyone admire a bike like this. No, not even my V65 Magna. My daily commuter the last four years is usually a sweet K75, purrs like a kitten, runs like a deer. You know how many times anyone has ever admired her?
Never.
Bricks are a bargain to buy because they look like a frikkin brick, not because they are loaded with engineering flaws. Not by a long shot. No one wants them cause they're angular and the engine looks like a chunk. Soon as bricks hit the road, even beemerphiles said what a headache, and demanded their boxers back. BMW caved. Even those hideous GSs with their aftermarket tragkorbs looking like diamond plate medical waste bins demand inflated prices. You can pick up a fine brick for a song. But ten, twenty, thirty, fifty years from now, these chromehead cruisers will be a highly sought collector's item. Truth.
Ugly? I thought so too. After a while, I got the message.
Don't shoot the messenger.
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I happen to like the looks of a naked brick. But the R1200c? Not only ugly, BUTT UGLY. At least it is not painted that horrible yellow that North America K bike were offered in for a short time. I know, some of you like that wuss yellow. I don't.
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I know, some of you like that wuss yellow. I don't.
Didn't you just post in another thread about getting a quote for having your bike painted yellow? Of course that was Mustang Yellow, I haven't seen this exact yellow you're referring to here. Must be pretty awful.
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Is it this ivory white colour??
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QVPukqz3pFY/THCIQIRvwKI/AAAAAAAAGSs/N3fPRggIry8/s1600/IMG_2209.JPG)
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...Is it like rap, an obviously ugly commercial racket sold to gullible youngsters...
Pop music is a better example of a "commercial racket" marketed to young people.
The urban poetry at the core of rap can be quite be beautiful, however rap's lyrical messages are generally not on track with the lifestyle of your average BMW motorcycle owner.
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I know, some of you like that wuss yellow. I don't.
Didn't you just post in another thread about getting a quote for having your bike painted yellow? Of course that was Mustang Yellow, I haven't seen this exact yellow you're referring to here. Must be pretty awful.
Here is the wussy pastel yellow that BMW offered on bikes and cars only in North America. Can't remember what the correct name from BMW is. My wife calls it daffodil yellow. This is a very good picture and actually makes the paint look better that it really is. I hate pastel colors.
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Here is something closer to color that Ford paints the Mustang with. Just a little darker than BMW's offering. My wife calls it buttercup yellow. I know that Ford calls one of the yellow paints they use "Screaming Yellow". A fitting name for paint on a K bike.
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...Is it like rap, an obviously ugly commercial racket sold to gullible youngsters...
Pop music is a better example of a "commercial racket" marketed to young people.
The urban poetry at the core of rap can be quite be beautiful, however rap's lyrical messages are generally not on track with the lifestyle of your average BMW motorcycle owner.
2chainz got a 4.0 in college. :2thumbup:
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...Is it like rap, an obviously ugly commercial racket sold to gullible youngsters...
Pop music is a better example of a "commercial racket" marketed to young people.
The urban poetry at the core of rap can be quite be beautiful, however rap's lyrical messages are generally not on track with the lifestyle of your average BMW motorcycle owner.
Horse pebbles. Unremitting monotonous thump without melody is not music, nor is foul mouthed chanted doggerel song. Turning it up louder does not make it any better, nor does calling it "urban poetry" make it beautiful. Your use of "urban" is just a euphemism for slum and there's nothing beautiful about it.
Although pop is also a good example of commercial racket. Rock was the intentionally ugly genre of my generation. All about excitement. That's the milieu of your average BMW owner.
Given a budget, you can sell anything to people and call it music. Yes, even the Monkees can be sold.
Now watch: A politically correct fellow will now feel compelled to step in and say aesthetics are all relative and not subject to discussion.
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I only bought my R1200CLC because she was the nakedest touring bike I could find and because the deal was absolutely unbeatable. At the time, I would have agreed with you wholeheartedly. I thought she was ungainly and odd. Since then, everyone else has convinced me that I must have been dead wrong.
You can believe this following or not: If I ride this bike eight miles to work and eight back five days a week, then four out of those five days someone will roll down their window at a stop light to tell me what a beautiful ride she is. This is the literal truth.
If I stop for gas people stroll over from their pump to admire. If I walk into a store I return to find people gathered, telling their friends how much they like it. People want to sit on her. Drivers hold a thumb up as they pass. I am not making this up. Nor am I the only one. All C owners experience the same thing. Ask them. If you park in a line of HD owners, they all gravitate. For sixteen years I was a high school football official. I once emerged from the locker room to find three cheerleaders stroking her tank. This is the truth. Old people, young people, working men, suits, braided beard bikers, housewives, perfect strangers. Everyone. Carefully coiffed trophy wives will roll down the window of the Escalade to tell me they admire this bike. I stopped at the cigar store the other day, the guy had to come out and see.
Is it like rap, an obviously ugly commercial racket sold to gullible youngsters? No. No one ever advertised this bike. Does it satisfy some favorite stereotype? No. It is unique. Is it beautiful? People seem to think so. It must be something innate in the shape of it.
I have been riding 55 years and have probably owned thirty bikes. I've never had anyone admire a bike like this. No, not even my V65 Magna. My daily commuter the last four years is usually a sweet K75, purrs like a kitten, runs like a deer. You know how many times anyone has ever admired her?
Never.
Bricks are a bargain to buy because they look like a frikkin brick, not because they are loaded with engineering flaws. Not by a long shot. No one wants them cause they're angular and the engine looks like a chunk. Soon as bricks hit the road, even beemerphiles said what a headache, and demanded their boxers back. BMW caved. Even those hideous GSs with their aftermarket tragkorbs looking like diamond plate medical waste bins demand inflated prices. You can pick up a fine brick for a song. But ten, twenty, thirty, fifty years from now, these chromehead cruisers will be a highly sought collector's item. Truth.
Ugly? I thought so too. After a while, I got the message.
Don't shoot the messenger.
I can agree with you to an extent. It is a unique bike. I've seen so many odd looking bikes at museums that never quite gained popularity. This one has to be on the lower end of the popularity spectrum, especially with bmw, because I rarely see them. I have only seen one in person about five years ago, and just like those people you've encountered, I was one of them. I walked around this guy's cruiser thinking, "wow, bmws make cruisers?" I wasn't so sure if I liked it back then, but I didn't dislike it due to its originality. It looked solid just like a car. I'm so used to classy sport/ cruiser style bmws and those with classic boxter engines. However, after going to bike shows, European bike meets, and personally favoring cruisers myself, I started to think that this is one odd looking bike. If I catch an r1200c with an awesome photographic perspective, then the bike really does look nice. But, from a physical standpoint, it's an asymmetrical mess waiting to be customized (if purchased by me). I still hate Magnas, though.
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I'm trying to look at this in a perspective opposite to mine. The r1200c might have a design that doesn't flow with my taste, but here is one that looks nice in front of the camera's magic. IF I were to customize this, I'd have to do something about those exposed shocks. The hunched out pipes gotta go, but then the corners of the engine block will ruin the visual perspective. A no win situation. A cruiser with a one sided swing arm doesn't appeal to me and that rear tire is too big. The rear fender looks like someone just shoved it in place. Perhaps nice saddlebags will cover this mess. The handlebars look like ape hangers off a Harley, I would lower these suckers. The headlight needs a bullet style with a visor for consistency with the tank. Finally, A BLACK SADDLE! There you go. I can kind of agree with this one... unless I'm looking at it from the front. :yow
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Lower bars would go a long way towards improving the look.
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can't reply ,too busy cleaning up the puke after vueing
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Judging by the pillion seat, they must have known that the bike would pick up no chicks. :yes
It will probably end up being the Edsel of the bike world. :neener:
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3) BMW R1200C - Here is the scene that should have been in the 007 movie: "Good day, Q, what do you have for me today?" "James, here is your new motorcycle, the R1200C." Bond takes one look, pulls out his Walther PPK and plugs Q right between the eyes, walking away as Q's corpse slumps over the bike, his blood dripping all over the bizarrely misshapen inexplicable and inexcusable ugliness of the worst design ever to escape from the Bavarian Black Forest.
http://hallicino.hubpages.com/hub/Top-100-Ugliest-Motorcycles---10-Older-Cruisers (http://hallicino.hubpages.com/hub/Top-100-Ugliest-Motorcycles---10-Older-Cruisers)
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Hey Ocelot:
Don't sugar coat it, tell us how you REALLY feel... :clap:
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It's a Teutonic interpretation of a cruiser. Nothing more, nothing less.
I like it. In the metal, it's actually kinda cool looking in that offbeat German way. Like posted previously, they do attract the crowd.
And, be honest: how pretty are our K bikes, anyway? :riding:
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Here's an Italian take on the cruiser concept; in this case the Moto Guzzi California.
Don't give BMW or Moto Guzzi any crap; we started this nonsense kind of bike.
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) BMW R1200C - Here is the scene that should have been in the 007 movie: "Good day, Q, what do you have for me today?" "James, here is your new motorcycle, the R1200C." Bond takes one look, pulls out his Walther PPK and plugs Q right between the eyes, walking away as Q's corpse slumps over the bike, his blood dripping all over the bizarrely misshapen inexplicable and inexcusable ugliness of the worst design ever to escape from the Bavarian Black Forest.
...I think the 'Bond pistol' is a Walther PP...not a PPK-slight size difference, and the PP looks/is better. But i have heard it referred as a PPK, which sounds better in eastern european accent when spoken.
The R1200C could be cool if, yes those ape hangers were lowered, and maybe the exhaust was longer and swept upward...it does have potential for customizing, i've seen them for sale cheap as well. At least it doesnt sound harley-ish eh?--like an old tractor, '...potata-potata-potata-poof!-potata-potata..."
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3) BMW R1200C - Here is the scene that should have been in the 007 movie: "Good day, Q, what do you have for me today?" "James, here is your new motorcycle, the R1200C." Bond takes one look, pulls out his Walther PPK and plugs Q right between the eyes, walking away as Q's corpse slumps over the bike, his blood dripping all over the bizarrely misshapen inexplicable and inexcusable ugliness of the worst design ever to escape from the Bavarian Black Forest.
http://hallicino.hubpages.com/hub/Top-100-Ugliest-Motorcycles---10-Older-Cruisers (http://hallicino.hubpages.com/hub/Top-100-Ugliest-Motorcycles---10-Older-Cruisers)
Oh man, that link is awesome! It has both the r1200c and the magna on there, lol. I disagree with number 8, though. That bike is nice in person and isn't worth being in the ugly category.
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Lower bars would go a long way towards improving the look.
As would a larger rear rim and lower profile tire.