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If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, BMW and Harley-Davidson are clearly trying to compliment each other to death.
Over the past few months we’ve covered a couple of head-to-head comparisons featuring BMW and Harley. First it was an ADV showdown between the R 1250 GS and new Pan America, then Ari clearly explained the not-so-complicated feelings of riding an R 18 cruiser alongside a Softail Slim. And for the latest episode of CTXP, we got all four bikes together for a good ol’ fashioned trans-Atlantic square dance.
The winners of those comparisons might seem predictable, but the subtext of staging those two tests at all is pretty interesting. It wasn’t that long ago that the idea of Harley-Davidson building a high-tech, modern adventure-touring machine was laughable. I might have literally laughed at some point, I can’t be sure. And, just the same, the idea of BMW taking another stab at the cruiser market seemed unlikely, at best, even just a few years ago. Yet here we are, with each company expanding into an area of motorcycling that doesn’t fit its own stereotype.
Obviously this kind of thing happens from time to time, and on occasion it works out really well. Porsche started building SUVs and some purists thought it was blasphemy (maybe still do) but it has been a boon for Stuttgart’s bottom line. BMW Motorrad itself pushed ahead with a sport bike about a decade ago, which worked out better than a lot of people predicted. Point being, at the very least we shouldn’t be surprised when Yamaha builds Stars, Moto Guzzi builds the MGX-21, or Honda builds the Fury.
With the R 18 and Pan America, BMW and Harley are each reaching for the next big success. The last time the Bavarians took a stab at the cruiser market was the R 1200 C, which used an existing engine and quirky, Euro practicality to try to win over cruiser folk, which didn’t go so well. Arguably the last time Harley cribbed so obviously from BMW was the famous XA, when The Motor Company knocked off the German army’s boxer-twin-with-driveshaft design in the hopes of a lower-maintenance military vehicle. In the end, the U.S. Army went with a Jeep, and the contrasting successes of horizontal-twin Harleys versus Jeeps tells us all we need to know.
The timing here is what’s most intriguing. Two titans of motorcycling, each trying to drink the other one’s milkshake. Neither attempt is half-hearted. BMW built a completely new engine just for the sake of looks and general hugeness, and as silly as that sounds, it takes a lot of effort. Harley’s attempt is just as impressive. This isn’t an off-road capable bike that made its way into an American-made brochure by way of purchasing an Italian company (hypothetically). The Pan America is the result of who-knows-how-many years of pent up engineering prowess inside the R&D labs of Milwaukee, and it is a force that should be felt around the world of motorcycling.
Then, I suppose, there’s the end of that quote that Oscar Wilde made famous: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” So, maybe the question of which company’s model is doing a better impression of the other is up to us. Whether or not we as the motorcycling public will buy a Harley adventure bike or a BMW cruiser is the real difference between being good and being great.
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