Scoop: Bmw Superboxer Revealed
SCOOP: BMW SUPERBOXER REVEALED
ROUNDUP
ONE OF BMW'S GREAT traditions involves refining what it has, instead of building something new. But the highly respected Bavarian firm is about to depart from that tradition, perhaps as early as this fall's IFMA Motorcycle Show in Cologne, Germany.
It seems likely that the com pany could choose IFMA for the debut of its all-new Superboxer. And the bike is indeed all-new. It does take some of its frame design inspiration from the BMW K-series, and it does use the company's Para lever rear suspension. But there is nothing left of the well-loved old R-series Boxer.
First, the engine: Details re main scarce, but it seems to use an air/oil-cooling system simi lar to that now being phased out by Suzuki. The engine is fitted with four-valve heads, with each valveset operated by a sin gle camshaft that resides not atop the valves, but alongside them, inside the head, a là Moto Guzzi's Daytona 1000. The en gine is mounted atop the gear box for two reasons. This high position makes possible the sorts of lean angles that would touch down the heads on traditional Boxers, and it allows the transmission gearset to rotate in a direction opposite to that of the engine crank shaft, offsetting some of the torque reac tion that has plagued bikes with longitu dinal en gines. Look for displace mentsofup -to 1100cc and horsepower ratings of more than 100.
The Superboxer's front sus pension design is equally inter esting. This appears to be a melding of a traditional fork with an automotive-type A arm. The fork uses standard construction, but its springing and damping functions are ac complished by a remote shock absorber mounted aft of the fork. It works like this: The front of the A-arm is bolted to the bottom triple clamp, the rear of it is bolted to the frame/engine cases. The bot tom of the shock is bolted to the top of the A-arm, and its top is mounted to a belicrank linkage, just below and behind the traditional steering-head lo cation. When the sliders move up and down, they compress and ex tend the shock via \~ ) the rocker-type -< linkage. The ad ) vantage is obvi J ous: less unsprung -` weight and in creased fork stiffness, thanks to bracing provided by the A-arm.
All of this, it must be noted, is speculative, arrived at after careful analysis of unautho rized photos of the Superboxer. So far, BMW is saying nothing about the new bike.
Bruno de Prato
