The Entire guide to...unusual BMW motorcycles

We love BMWs at Entire Cover. The German brand is one of the most famous in the world, but also one of the most innovative too. Famed for their unique boxer twin engines with shaft drive transmissions, the Bayerische Motoren Werke has constantly swam against the tide over the year, delivering some great motorcycles in their own way.

There have been some real crackers over the years, and some real oddballs too. These are the bikes we’re celebrating here, the brave BMWs which didn’t so much swim upstream as they did simply dive in at the deep end.

In no particular order, these are our 10 favourite unusual BMW motorcycles, let us know yours through our social media channels!

10. 1994 BMW R 1100 GS

It might be the forerunner of the ubiquitous GS that’s today’s best seller, but (if you’re old enough) cast your mind back to 1994 and the launch of the R 1100 GS.

Around since the ‘80s, the GS was always a bit of an oddity with UK buyers – who struggled to get their heads around BMW’s unique and traditional sticky out cylinders (it’s called a flat twin design – Ed) never mind one which was masquerading as an off-road bike.

The 1100 marked a turning point. It had a new and more modern engine, with oil cooling and four valves per cylinder (which were still sticking out – Ed) and it marked the beginning of the adventure tourer we know today.

Spec was good, with ABS (before it was a legal requirement), heated grips and loads of luggage capability. It was still an oddball though. The Hossack front suspension set-up was another unique feature, along with the odd three-button indicator set up. The 1150 that followed would really transform the company’s reputation, but this was the blueprint for one of the most successful motorcycles ever.

9.  2000 BMW C1

The late 1990s was a fertile time for BMW’s design team and in late 1999 they unveiled the solution to a problem few, if any, thought existed.

The C1 was BMW’s first scooter, but it wasn’t any old scooter. It was a scooter with a roof, which aimed to attract car buyers onto two wheels.

It was essentially a two-wheeled car. The C1 used a strong roll cage design, which BMW said offered similar standards of crash protection as a small hatchback. It had seatbelts and the idea was that riders (or should that be drivers – Ed) would be exempt from wearing helmets, but different governments had different opinions and the UK law makers deemed it to be a motorcycle, requiring the use of a skid lid.

Ultimately it was too heavy, too expensive and too slow to really catch on. A 200cc version followed the original 125, but didn’t really change anything. Sales were slow and it was dropped from the BMW range after a few years.

8. 1985 BMW K75

The 1970s were tough for BMW Motorrad, to the extent that there was a real chance that the bike division would be axed.

The air-cooled boxer twin engine design was outdated against Japanese fours and the brand had a reputation of building boring bikes for boring old blokes.

Thankfully for us, the axe was not wielded. Instead two things happened. In 1980 a new enduro bike, called the G/S, was introduced as an interim model. It went on to spawn a Dakar winning racer and its successors went on to become the biggest selling motorcycles in the world. The other management call was to design an all-new platform but, in true BMW style, it wasn’t conventional.

The K100 series arrived in 1983 and was powered by a 1000cc four cylinder engine, but unlike Japanese rivals the motor was mounted horizontally along the frame. A few years later came the K75, a 750cc version which essentially used the K100 motor with a cylinder lopped off.

A triple was a real rarity then, but it was a good bike in its own way. It was probably a bit too expensive and a bit too out there to appeal to the mainstream rider. It never managed to change the image of BMW as a motorcycle maker, but it was actually a very decent machine.

7. 2001 BMW F650CS Scarver

BMW’s never ending desire to appeal to a younger audience led to the creation of the F650CS ‘Scarver’ for 2001.

Styled by American automotive designer David Robb, ‘CS’ stood for ‘City’ and ‘Street’ while the name was a combination of the words Street and Carver. Carver was a skiing term, with the name chosen to convey the sensation the designers wanted riders to feel while darting through traffic.

With futuristic lines and bold colours, it looked to appeal to the new Apple generation. Other design features, like the single sided swingarm, onboard storage and a smooth running belt drive were unique to the Scarver and further differentiated it from the F650GS, upon which it was heavily based.

Despite grabbing headlines, the Scarver sold poorly. The single cylinder engine, built by Rotax, didn’t really deliver enough performance for experienced riders and, unsurprisingly, it failed to woo many new bikers into the fold. It spent three years in the BMW range and was never replaced when the F650 was superseded by a new twin-cylinder F800 platform.

6. 1997 BMW R1200C

It’s back to the 1990s for BMW’s first stab at a cruiser – the R1200C.

It was a popular time for the genre, which were also known as custom bikes. Harley-Davidson was on the verge of a revival and Japanese manufacturers were doing good business with inexpensive cruisers of their own. Bikes like the Suzuki Intruder and Yamaha Virago were Harley clones with their narrow angle V-twin engines , but BMW (as always) did things their own way.

The result did not really resonate with the conservative cruiser buying public. The boxer twin engine, single sided swingarm and Telelever front suspension were about as far away from a cruiser customer’s expectation as could be imagined.

A starring role in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies gathered headlines, and the 1200C sold moderately well in a seven-year production run, despite being derided by press and public alike.

5. 2020 BMW R 18

Possibly chastened by the R1200C’s reception, BMW stayed out of the cruiser arena for almost two decades, when they surprised the world with this, the R 18.

Unveiled at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the R 18 was an all-new design with a staggering 1802cc engine designed especially for the purpose. Air-cooled and inspired by the design of a 1930’s BMW, it never really captured the attention of the already niche buying public.

Fair play to BMW though, for creating such a magnificent feat of engineering.

4. 2011 BMW K1600GT

Unlike many of the other models here, the K1600 has been a real success.

BMW has long been considered a master of making touring motorcycles and this gets its ‘unusual’ tag by virtue of the 1600cc inline six cylinder engine, a unique feature in a modern motorcycle and the thing that really makes it stand out.

As with the R18, the K1600 is another model where bigger is better. The engine is super smooth and powers a touring motorcycle which is as good as any out there. It goes up against the legendary Honda GoldWing in the luxury tourer market, and can more than hold its own. With over a decade in production, it’s been a real success story for the Bavarian brand.

3. 2007 BMW HP2 Megamoto

By the late Noughties, BMW was pushing the boundaries with its motorcycle brand. The S1000RR superbike was just around the corner and the HP2 (High Performance Two Cylinder) range was introduced to show that the company didn’t just make boring touring bikes.

Launched in 2005, the HP2 Enduro was a bit of an oddity. The venerable 1170cc boxer twin from the GS was heavily modified and wrapped up in a tubular steel off-road chassis chassis. It marked a change from BMWs of the era, dumping the Telelever front end for some conventional upside down forks and generally losing some of the quirks which had characterised the brand’s bike for decades. It was followed by the supermoto styled HP2 Megamoto and the R1200S based HP2 Sport.

They were actually very good motorcycles, the only fly in the HP2’s ointment being the high price tag they carried. Although never conceived to be mainstream, the HP2s were too expensive and too quirky to get superbike obsessed riders off their Fireblades and Ninjas.

2. 1988 BMW K1

Desperate to shed its dull image, BMW shook up the motorcycling world in the late 1980s with this, the K1.

The company has always had a reputation for innovating with bodywork; the 1973 R90S was the first production motorcycle to be fitted with a fairing, while a few years later the R100RS came along with its cosseting full fairing.

And aerodynamics were what the K1 was about. It was a big beast of a bike, with a 100bhp version of the four-cylinder engine under those boldly coloured body panels. A quirky and distinctive machine, the K1 was the very embodiment of a Marmite motorcycle. It wasn’t without its problems. The bodywork led to a machine which could be uncomfortably hot to ride in traffic, indeed the bike’s weight and length made it a bit of a handful around town, but as a sports tourer it was in many ways ahead of the curve.

BMW had built the K1 as a 100bhp machine, under the premise that bikes were likely to be limited to this under European law. That never happened and more powerful, conventional (and affordable) sports tourers like the Honda CBR1000F and Kawasaki ZX-10 would prove more popular.

The K1 remains a real cult classic which, like most of the motorbikes listed here, showcases the bolder side of BMW Motorrad.

1. 2022 BMW CE 04

Bringing us right up to date is our final Beemer making a big statement – the CE 04 electric scooter.

Shown as a design concept back in 2017, the CE 04 was the successor to the C-Evolution – the brand’s original electrical scooter, which went on sale in 2014.

With its bold styling, the CE 04 is sure to grab attention wherever you ride it. The ‘04’ in the name signifies the bike’s performance is in line with a 400cc petrol scooter and, overall, it’s a very good scooter. They’re still very rare though, a combination of costing more than twice as much as a good petrol equivalent and a general scepticism towards EV motorcycles.

It's still a fabulous machine which turns heads like nothing else on sale today.