IT’S BEEN A full century since BMW got into the transportation business, and it’s using its year-long celebration of itself to prove it’s got another 100 left in the tank—or battery pack, or cold fusion reactor, or whatever. After showing wild concepts imagining the future for its Rolls Royce, BMW, and Mini brands, it debuted the Motorrad Vision Next100 yesterday in Los Angeles. In a future where cars drive themselves, BMW sees two-wheeled transport as a bastion of emotion. “Riding a motorcycle is the ultimate sensual and analog experience in a more and more digital world,” says
Edgar Heinrich, BMW Motorrad’s head of design. “The wind in your hair, the centrifugal forces, the indescribable feeling in pit of your stomach.” His retro-futuristic concept is a swoop of black carbon fiber. It will never wipe out, but it still demands a human rider. Because without someone to enthrall, it’s useless.
