While many manufacturers are shying away from large capacity creations, BMW Motorrad is bucking the trend with an all-new large capacity boxer engine in the works.
While details on the ground are few and far between, BMW has actually released two of these new big boxers out into the wild to be used by custom motorcycle builders with the latest breaking cover in the past month.
The unique bike named “The Revival Birdcage” was unveiled at the exclusive Revival Party on eve of the annually held Handbuilt Show in Austin/Texas.
“The “Revival Birdcage” turned out great and really showcases our Big Boxer perfectly”, says Timo Resch, Vice President Sales and Marketing BMW Motorrad. “Following the “Departed” from CUSTOM WORKS ZON, this is the second fascinating custom bike built around the prototype of the BMW Motorrad Big Boxer. We will also be showing a BMW Motorrad developed concept bike featuring this engine in the first half-year of 2019. BMW Motorrad will present a series production motorcycle with the Big Boxer for the Cruiser segment in the course of 2020.”
The frame of the “Revival Birdcage” is made of titanium and was developed by Revival Cycles itself. “This was our first time to build a frame with titanium, that alone was already a significant challenge”, says Alan Stulberg, head of Revival Cycles. “Regardless, the frame came together very well in the end and we are very pleased with the result as it accomplished the goal of being nearly transparent. We wanted to focus attention on the engine and that is precisely what we achieved with this completely unique frame we designed. You can easily view the engine and the drivetrain from all angles.”
With both the exterior geometry as well as the visible elements such as the push rods running in chrome-plated protection ducts are reminiscent of the BMW Motorrad boxer engines that were built in the 1960s there is plenty of speculation around the specification of the new boxer.
All BMW Motorrad is letting on, however, is just that the cubic capacity is now much larger than any of their other boxer engines to date and utilises modern air-oil cooling.
We’ll have to wait and see what BMW debuts the engine with, but we wouldn’t bet against a big-bore roadster to compete against Triumph’s upcoming 2500cc Rocket III replacement or perhaps more realistically a big cruiser to compete with Harley-Davidson and Indian Motorcycle. Time will tell, we just hope it looks nothing like the BMW