The Honda Gold Wing is the gold standard of touring bikes, and BMW’s K1600 line has long lived in the shadow cast by the king. Now, though, it seems BMW wants its own version of the most baffling Honda bike of all time: The Honda Valkyrie Rune. This is the BMW Motorrad Vision K18, and it could be BMW’s first step towards a Rune of its own.
Back in 2003, the Honda Rune hit the market as a stripped-back version of the Gold Wing. It was a deeply early-aughts design, but it was nearly identical to Concept T2 — an unexpected hit at the 2000 Cycle World show. If BMW wants to be extremely cool, this performance-focused, aluminum-faired tourer with a 1.8-liter inline six will stand as the company’s own Concept T2, to be followed by a near-identical production model. Please, BMW, give us the six-cylinder price-no-consideration muscle cruiser. We deserve it.
The Rune wasn’t exactly a hit
The Rune, of course, turned the fervor around Concept T2 into a financial drain for Honda. The company reportedly never recouped its production costs for the Rune, and instead saw the project as a way to prove that it could, in fact, make a street bike look just like the concept. BMW would likely have a similar economic albatross around its neck if it were to ever bring this concept into production, but I truly hope the company does. Build a big, dumb muscle tourer with air suspension, BMW.
In all likelihood, the Vision K18 is just about showing off a future upgraded engine for the K1600 — or, in this case, a future K1800. Other than specs like the bike’s 1,800cc displacement, the 6 cylinders, and the 6 exhaust pipes (which make excellent noises by the way), there aren’t many details on this concept bike, but I like the dream of BMW sending this bike into production looking exactly as it does in these press shots, six-into-six exhaust at all. Who needs saddlebags when you have pipes like that?
