BMW Motorrad has reportedly filed a new trademark for the R 12 model in Europe, in what could be an upcoming 1,200 cc boxer twin engine cruiser motorcycle, which could borrow some styling cues from the current BMW R 18. The trademark filing is pretty self-explanatory, with the “R” indicating that the new model will be a boxer twin, while the “12” is a giveaway of both the engine displacement, as well as the fact that the new model will be a cruiser, matching the naming convention of the R 18.
BMW Motorrad already had a 1,200 cc cruiser motorcycle, sold from 1997 till 2004, and was used in the 1997 James Bond movie “Tomorrow Never Dies,” where Pierce Brosnan, as the then 007, used the bike in a chase sequence, on the streets of Saigon, Vietnam. In that sequence, Bond jumps the bike from one rooftop to another. The spiritual successor to that cruiser was the BMW R 18, with the name taken from BMW Motorrad’s history, which has one of the largest displacement engines on a motorcycle and is also one of the heaviest cruiser bikes available on sale.
Clearly, BMW Motorrad sees a growing market for a lighter, and perhaps a little nimbler 1,200 cc cruiser motorcycle, designed for a wider audience. And so, the R 12 has been trademarked. Now, BMW Motorrad has a couple of existing boxer engine options in the ballpark of 1,200 cc. There’s the liquid-cooled 1,254 cc engine of the current R 1250 range, but BMW also has the 1,170 cc, air-cooled engine used in the BMW R NineT which is more likely to be used in the new R 12.
Source: https://www.carandbike.com/news/bmw-r-12-trademark-filing-hints-at-new-1-200-cc-cruiser-2946369
