Photo: Bmw Motorrad
Maybe because of the way bikers dress, or behave, or maybe for another reason, motorcycling has always been associated with rock music. I don’t mean those diluted subgenres that started popping up all over the place in recent times, but the true rock, the likes of which Iron Maiden, for instance, makes.
That would be a variety of the music called heavy metal, an approach that earned the band numerous awards, a permanent entry in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and countless other recognitions.
And what bike maker would you normally associate with Iron Maiden and their music? Why, Harley-Davidson, of course, and you’d be right. But that’s not what we have here. Instead, we’re treated to an Iron Maiden tribute coming in the form of a BMW R 18.
The bike was shown by BMW Motorrad at the beginning of the month together with 13 others (both R 18s and R nineTs) as further proof that the German bike maker is going after Harley, guns blazing, in a segment the Americans have always dominated: custom two-wheelers.
Called Iron R 18, the bike is the work of German BMW partner Motorrad Bögel and is described as being made in the "heavy metal style of Iron Maiden.” One gets a sense of that as soon as the eyes fall on the lightning-streaked fuel tank, which boasts the word Iron written on the side in the band’s fashion, but also an abstract creature airbrushed up top, holding a BMW engine-style heart in its hands.
Very unlike BMW, the pics (just three of them) released to go with the ride are simply horrible (check the gallery above to see what I mean), so it’s impossible to tell what’s written on the rear fender of the thing. It seems to say The Number of the Beast, a reference to Iron Maiden’s third studio album, released in 1982.
Styling aside, the bike boasts several changes in other departments as well. The front fork is now a springer, a feature “unparalleled in the R 18 world,” the seat is a bobber-style one made by hand to look like a swinging saddle, and we get new handlebars at the front and a sissy bar at the rear.
The bike was propped on multi-spoke wheels, sized 21 inches at the front and 18 inches at the rear. The one out back still gets its spin from the bike’s stock engine, the 1,802cc Big Boxer that develops 158 Nm of torque at 3,000 rpm, as it hasn’t been modified in any way internally. It was gifted however with a new exhaust system Bögel made in-house and featuring a fishtail tailpipe that points upward.
Like all the other R 18s BMW had made these past two months, the Iron R 18 is a one-off with no price tag attached.
And what bike maker would you normally associate with Iron Maiden and their music? Why, Harley-Davidson, of course, and you’d be right. But that’s not what we have here. Instead, we’re treated to an Iron Maiden tribute coming in the form of a BMW R 18.
The bike was shown by BMW Motorrad at the beginning of the month together with 13 others (both R 18s and R nineTs) as further proof that the German bike maker is going after Harley, guns blazing, in a segment the Americans have always dominated: custom two-wheelers.
Called Iron R 18, the bike is the work of German BMW partner Motorrad Bögel and is described as being made in the "heavy metal style of Iron Maiden.” One gets a sense of that as soon as the eyes fall on the lightning-streaked fuel tank, which boasts the word Iron written on the side in the band’s fashion, but also an abstract creature airbrushed up top, holding a BMW engine-style heart in its hands.
Very unlike BMW, the pics (just three of them) released to go with the ride are simply horrible (check the gallery above to see what I mean), so it’s impossible to tell what’s written on the rear fender of the thing. It seems to say The Number of the Beast, a reference to Iron Maiden’s third studio album, released in 1982.
Styling aside, the bike boasts several changes in other departments as well. The front fork is now a springer, a feature “unparalleled in the R 18 world,” the seat is a bobber-style one made by hand to look like a swinging saddle, and we get new handlebars at the front and a sissy bar at the rear.
The bike was propped on multi-spoke wheels, sized 21 inches at the front and 18 inches at the rear. The one out back still gets its spin from the bike’s stock engine, the 1,802cc Big Boxer that develops 158 Nm of torque at 3,000 rpm, as it hasn’t been modified in any way internally. It was gifted however with a new exhaust system Bögel made in-house and featuring a fishtail tailpipe that points upward.
Like all the other R 18s BMW had made these past two months, the Iron R 18 is a one-off with no price tag attached.
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