If you give engineers freedom, you get outrageous things like the BMW R 1300 R TITAN

This doesn’t happen as often as we would like in the frenetic pace of work of the brands’ design and engineering teams, busy day to day finding a new model or improving the current ones, but from time to time the brands give them full freedom to develop the most outlandish wheeled machine that can come out of their heads or their pencils.

BMW Motorrad has given this little pleasure to a selected working group made up of Philipp Ludwig, project director, Andreas Martin as vehicle designer, Theresa Stukenbrock colour and graphics designer, and the prototype builders Paul Summerer and Thomas Becker, who have had the privilege of creating and introducing us to this spectacular BMW R 1300 R TITAN illustrated in these lines, which is without doubt truly brutal and radical.

BMW describes the R 1300 R TITAN as a motorcycle that is “brutal and aggressive, beautiful and extraordinary, fast and precise, designed to win” and, truth be told, judging by its looks it is certainly an exceptional machine we would love to test. Built on a “streetfighter” design base, its lines and design have been radicalised, giving the R 1300 R TITAN a silhouette that looks like one enormous single cast block.

The reality is that the R 1300 R TITAN’s chassis features a specially manufactured frame signed by specialist Wilbers, optimised to make the most of the boxer engine’s power, aided by suspension with specific settings and a larger swingarm to withstand more abrupt acceleration. All of this in a package sitting as close to the ground as possible to achieve a lower centre of gravity than the base model.

The heart of the R 1300 R TITAN remains the 1300 cc boxer engine, for which Akrapovic has prepared a special gift: a new titanium exhaust line that emerges from the cylinders, joins briefly in the centre of the motorcycle and separates again to end in two short exhaust outlets that blend perfectly into the minimal pillion seat. Between both outlets you can spot a white bottle of nitrous oxide, yes, to give an extra acceleration boost on top of everything else, delivered through a large rear tyre, and which will eventually need stopping, for which it has been fitted with a Magura HC3 brake master cylinder.

As the BMW R 1300 R TITAN is a motorcycle with lofty ambitions, this whole design exercise ends in a spectacular package in which the rider lies practically flat over the tank, so the footrests have been positioned very far back, specifically at the end of the swingarm. Furthermore, because of this rider position, the instrument cluster has been removed from its usual place on the handlebars and is now integrated into the top of the tank, which also has a modified shape. The design finishes with special graphics and a front lamp that gives a fierce stare.