IcySmooth52

I doubt either of these bikes can compete with a bike from a bicycle manufacturer. Auto manufacturers don't have any experience in bike design as we can all see with components, but geometry will be playing big here. What they're making is just the frame, and I'm placing my chips on it not competing.

mzeffex 

It's a nice looking bike - and sure, BMW knows what they're doing - with cars. Sure, they may have the carbon technology down. They don't have bicycle tech down. There is so much R&D that goes into high end bike frames that they won't get, unless it's made by another company - but it said in house.

max power

a road bike is probably the last type of bike i thought they'd make

mpath

LMFAO! You've been drinking their corporate Kool-Aid.

And I've had three M cars and on my 7th Bimmer.

tuxbailey

Correct. All M cars have a lot of recycled parts from their less glamorous cousins...

tuxbailey

$3K? I thought they would give it for free if you buy an M car, given how much they cost.

pgjackson

Yes, it's pretty much a beefed up 3 or 5...that quote was in response to a suggestion that they would just use a Chinese knockoff or a simply copy what another company did. I might be wrong, but I don't think the M division simpy buys a bunch of existing generic stuff from China and slaps it on their cars.

pgjackson

I've had 4 BMW's and only one M. But the M was called "the best handling car at any price" by Road and Track Magazine. Maybe I drink a little kool-aid...but they are bad-ass cars and NOTHING drives like them. Has there ever been a bad M car? Even the E36 (which ended production in 99), which is considered probably the weakest M, still blows the doors off of most modern sports cars.

I'm guessing there is a good reason you have owned 7 BMWs.

chadteck

I'm sure it's decent, but it's kinda lame to own a bike branded by a car manufacturer. Are GMC Denali bikes cool? Plus, it's probably the most uninteresting looking bike I've seen in a while.

I also agree with the Ultegra comments. How can you have a European-made "luxury" bike and not put Campy on it?

But, I disagree with the insinuation that an auto manufacturer can't make a decent bike frame. It's just a bike frame. BMW might have designed it, but I'm sure it's made in a factory alongside a bunch of other brands' carbon frames.

mustang1

I would never buy a bike with a car manufacturer's badge on it. Anyone seen the Audi wooden bike?.... looks just like a re-badged renovo. Costs about $7000 USD. Atleast the BMW bike isn't too far-fetched with price.

And what's with Range Rover making a road/racing bike.... shouldn't they stick to mountain bikes to compliment their off-road brand?

Let us not forget that McLaren bike either. I think I'm gonna hate the next few years seeing car adverts with bikes on the roofrack.

And another thought: where are you supposed to get the bikes serviced from coz you sure wont be able to take it to your local audi/bmw/rr dealer... you'll have to use an LBS and when they see the badge, will they inflate the servicing prices?

NathanC

The McLaren bike is different. It is a joint project with Specialized, yeah?

rushbikes

Car companies should stick to cars and bike companies to bikes unless they're going to contribute something more than a marketing ploy to suckers looking for a matching set. Is there anything unique about this M bike other than the badge?

And I think what Specialized did with McLaren was interesting, but I'm not convinced McLaren contributed anything particularly revolutionary. Maybe some tunnel time. But then again, I'm not overly familiar with the project.

And while I'm taking bold stances, all things considered (including price), M's are the best driving sport-inspired cars out there.

mpath

The E63/E64 M6 boasts a carbon fiber roof. That's like having a super-sized McDonald's meal with a diet Coke. Kinda pointless. It has the cool V10, but the car's 500lbs overweight.

The E60 M5's SMG transmission was so crappy that BMW resorted to using the 6M from the previous generation E39 M5. Problem was, they literally used the manual transmission, gear ratios and all. But it didn't complement the V10's torque/power characteristics.

And let's not even talk about the Bangled design that no amount of "M" aerodynamics - spoilers/airdams - could fix.

I could go on......

The purest remains the E30 M3: 192 - 208bhp, but only pushing 2,600lbs or so. Still my all-time favourite.

mpath

How is it different?

NathanC

Specialized makes bikes.

mpath

What? Because it remains branded as a Specialized and not a McLaren? Let's see.....hmmm, the Ducati bike - er, bicycle - is made by Bianchi. The Ferrari bicycle by Colnago. Maserati just released a fixie today made by Cicli. But the Specialized Venge is still a Specialized because they didn't sell out to McLaren by calling it the McLaren Venge. Oh, ok.

NathanC

Was Specialized a bike company envolved with the production?

There is the difference between it and the BMW bike.

mustang1

This.
And someone else mentioned that at least the specialized bike still has the specialized logo and that it was a joint project... yes that's true. I take back what I said about the specialized/mclaren thing. Besides, I actually rather like the Venge

Yeah M6 was over weight but if you compare to big Ferraris, it's not bad at all. The carbon roof was meant to reduce coentre of gravity rather than actual weight, not sure how well it done there but it does look uber cool. What's ever cooler is an E60 M5 witha carbon (effect) roof.

Talking of which, the M5 smg gearbox wasn't bad, it's just that most people who bought it drove it like an auto and didn't realize they were supposed to lift off the gas. Due to pressure from BMW NA, BMW germany gave them 6m gearbox. In Europe, we didn't have that option (we knew how to drive the car ).

I like the bangle cars, they still look fresh even though the new BMWs have come out. And you're right, the E30 M3 was awesome. But the market moves on and my new favourite is E92 M3 with DCT (btw, that gearbox is friggin' awesome).

max power

it has already been established that the ///M bike is a bespoke and unique inhouse design. . . .

pbd

I seem to recall a quote somewhere, that in addition to things like tunnel time, MacLaren was able to help with advanced lay-up modeling and advanced lay-up methods, and using MacLaren's help Specialized was able to remove an entire layer of the lay-up from the Venge while still being just as strong.

I don't know any more specific details about the project, but I do remember reading that tidbit about getting the same performance with significantly less carbon.

catonec 

not too impressed w/ the bmw bike, sorry. the range rover frame looks much nicer, although I agree w/ those who said they look like unbranded chineese frames from ebay.
is this the rangerover w/o the paintjob?? close not exact.

JimF22003

But it's completely corrosion-free.

garysol1 

McLaren never said or even hinted that they made the bike. McLaren helped Specialized in design and aerodynamics. I thought that was pretty well known and publicized.
And does anyone really believe that BMW manufactured that frame******************************

pgjackson

True, the E30 is purest of the M-Class cars (but it was specifically designed for racing, not mass production sales)...but despite the problems with the later models, they are still amazing cars. Every car has it's glitches. I have never driven a car that takes a corner as well as my 11 year old M3.

pgjackson

That is kind of what they are implying. It would be interesting to know. Or they could have just brought a bunch of guys from a Chinese bike factory over to Germany, had them draw a frame and said "make it happen". Then TECHNICALLY the frame was designed in-house.