33 thoughts on “BMW unveils SCT 800 “Superscooter””

  1. I spent quite a while talking to the Marketing Rep for BMW USA during the M/C Show last weekend. The new Kymco built and designed BMW 450 single was on display with a cut-away of the motor (no there were no kymco logos on the castings). He said in addition to the 450, BMW was using Kymco to build all their 650cc singles (formerly Austrian Rotax) and a proposed 800cc V-twin that will be used in several products including a scooter in the future.

    It’s nothing new seeing M/C companies going to Kymco for manufacturing, I guess the BMW/Rotax connection surprised me.

  2. The MotorCycle News carried a similar article which someone debunked as a photochop with the BMW logo added (in a sort of weird location) to make it look authentic. We’ll see.

    Phil, the BMW singles were really an odd thing. Those bikes actually had parts from all over the EU and were intended to be an “EU bike” rather than a German bike, hence the Austrian motor.

  3. John, I think I remember the article you speak of. But that design is one from Obiboi for sure. I’m not sure I’ve seen his stuff go into production but it’s definitely by his hand and I hear he is a legitimate designer.

  4. It is an Obiboi drawing, but I read a few stories claiming that’s the real design. Journalism is hard. Like I was telling Brooke the other day, I don’t even recognize scootering anymore. It hurts to think about how little interest I have in an 800cc, probably-$10-grand-plus scooter, I just post this stuff because someone else might care.

  5. Bb, I hear you about the lack of interest in an 800cc $10K scooter, but *if* it’s
    for real and it sells (think Italian market) then BMW might well see their way clear to make smaller variants that make more sense to the scootering community.

  6. Just like BMW makes small, reasonably priced cars and motorcycles? I dont’ see it happening, ha. (no the Mini is not reasonably priced).

    Sure, I should be interested in any scooters, but I gotta admit, i’m just not interested in the big bikes, even a Ninja 250 is more interesting to me than an 800cc sport scooter. The engineering in the big bikes has more in common with big motorcycles, with airbags and abs and bells and whistles, and the thought of all that trickling down to 150s scares me, actually.

    Like I said in that “1914 rally” post, I’ve always stuck up for the newbies and twist and gos, and against vintage elitism, and I’ve been riding modern bikes more than vintage for a couple years now, and I’ve made a lot of friends in the modern world, but I really do miss the old days in a lot of ways. I got into scooters just as usenet and AOL were taking off, and that helped me find a great bunch of friends nationwide, but still kept the whole thing intimate. Back then, it was a struggle to find things to write about, a Vespa in a print ad would be exciting, now it’s surprising to see a print ad without a scooter in it. As anyone who’s been reading 2SB for 13 years could tell you, I wrote a lot more when there was nothing to write about, ha.

  7. Hahaha! You caught me having a fantasy about a1972 R50/3. When am I going to get over the 70s?

  8. errm, slash, I meant slash 5. I owned an R60/5, you’d think I could keep my slash series straight.

    Okay, seriously now, here’s my thing. *Everybody* makes a heavy-duty maxi-scooter. Think, for example, about the Yamaha TMax 500 (which the Obibike seriously resembles IMHO). that bike is the real thing. My local Yamaha dealer in Richmond, Virginia has one on his showroom floor, for crying out loud. But if *BMW* makes a primo scooter, that’s different. The scooter world is ga-ga over that silly photoshot print. Take a look, for example, at the related article on cyberscooter.it. See what I mean? Because it’s a *B*M*W* it validates the whole modern scooter scene. (I’m going to catch hell for saying that, aren’t I?)

    Check out the intense level of excitement that photochop generated. If that bike didn’t have the BMW logo on it, if it had been the Kymco logo, do you think it would have generated this kind of global hoopla? No way! That’s why I think, in a weird way, that photoshopped scooter changes everything. If such a machine rolls onto the showroom floor of a BMW dealership, the world will see scooters and scootering in an entirely different light.

  9. If a BMW scooter ‘validates the whole modern scooter scene’ I think it would only be from the perspective of two populations. 1) Those that would never buy a scooter and 2) BMW dorks. I just think these things aren’t scooters. Maybe great vehicles but not scooters.

  10. I have two points. First of all, what makes you think there would be a lack of interest in an 800 cc scooter? A lot of people would prefer a scooter for automatic transmission, but would like more power than your traditional 150cc-250 cc small bike. The success of the Honda Silverwing and Yamaha TMax indicates there is some market for this. Not sure what to say to Brooke. BMW Dorks? I think someone on a 50 cc Vespa clone is a dork. Personally I think anyone on a vespa or traditional scooter looks dorky, but that’s just my opinion. The BMW bike, if real, is bad-ass looking. Some might argue if you like that just get a motorcycle, but like I said its the automatic transmission combined with a big bike that makes this appealing to some people. Finally, to jrsjr, I looked at the motorcycle news site. The site just displayed an article with some comments, and the photoshop idea was from some guy that posted. Why should we trust some random person that left a post as to whether the image is a hoax or not? From what I’ve been able to ascertain the author of the article on motorcycle news is a real person who is a real motorcycle designer. So why would he photoshop a fake BMW bike and risk his reputation? Well only time will tell. I will close by saying BMW makes high quality vehicles, so how can people be so critical?

  11. I don’t think our opinions are mutually exclusive. At all. I’m thinking about your Population #1, Those who would never buy a scooter. That population includes parents of people who might buy scooters; GFs, BFs, husbands and wives of people who might buy scooters; friends and neighbors of people who might buy scooters; political representatives of people who might buy scooters; and *bankers* of people who might buy scooters. That’s what I meant by “validation” of scootering. I could be completely wrong. It’s just an idea I flashed on when I saw how ga-ga everybody went over what looks to me like a slightly elongated TMax with the BMW propeller stuck on it.

  12. The question is: Will Aerostich design a suit to accomodate the lazy-boy riding posture of the maxi-scooter.

  13. …and what kind of lap times would Troy Corser get out of one at Nurburgring? Reuben Xaus?

  14. Sorry for the delay in approval of the posts by Dave and Zachary. Beeb actually has a life and I never look at the admin stuff unless I’m posting.

    Dave, I didn’t mean to insult by referring to BMW enthusiasts as ‘dorks’. I appreciate their enthusiasm to their fine machines. But like any breed of 2-wheel nut, they have their quirks and I hope any reading has retained their sense of humor. I’m fully aware that their product is usually in a class by themselves in terms of quality and engineering.

    I think any other critical tone stems from the divergence of the maxi scooter from the ‘scooters’ that inspired many of us in the first place.

  15. The problem with some of the small scooters that inspired folks in the first place is that they aren’t as useful in this era of EPA/CARB regs and traffic moving 60 mph pretty much everywhere you want to go. Right now the SYM HD 200 scooter seems to represent the closest thing we have to a compromise between the two worlds. And, who knows, with the global economy collapsing at an ever-increasing rate (600,000 jobs lost in *one* month in the USA alone), maybe the time of small scooters is coming round again…

  16. Holding my breath waiting for the BMW maxi-scooter – Day 5.

  17. Holding my breath waiting for the BMW maxi-scooter – Day 6.

  18. I hope you aren’t motivated by the drawing by Bezzi. He’s a real designer but the model wasn’t done for BMW. He only posts non-customer drawings on his site. Just stuff for fun.

  19. Um, holding my breath waiting for the BMW maxi-scooter – Day 7.

  20. Still waiting to exhale – Day 8. Beginning to have first inklings that I may be here a while…

  21. Waiting to exhale – Day 12. yep. Officially have fallen off the 2sb newspage. It’s getting dark in here. Hello? Hello?

  22. Waiting to exhale – Day 19. While we wait, maybe we should start a write in campaign to ask BMW to put a bag hook on the SCT so we use Corazzo’s Coffee Jacket while we commute on der Autobahn.

  23. Waiting to exhale – Day 23. In all fairness to BMW, let me say that they have plenty to be proud of in thir first outing with a brand new World SuperBike machine and team. Eigth place in their very first outing is quite impressive! Eleventh in the second race wasn’t too shabby, either. I predict a podium finish well before the SCT hits der Autobahn.

  24. Waiting to exhale – Day 30. Just above the little text-entry box, it says “Speak your mind,” so I will. It’s about the “weight” thing. CAUTION: Heretical views ahead! Seriously, whenever I think about the weight issue, I always remember the following anecdote. Years ago I decided to do the Daytona Bike Week thing by renting a couple Harleys in Orlando and organizing a meet-up with old friends from Gainesville and also friends from Switzerand who were also making the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimige. Honestly, I had only ever ridden a Harley once before, an 883 Sportster that felt heavy and clumsy, so I was a little nervous about how much heavier and clumsier a “big-twin” could possibly be.

    At the appointed date and time I saddled up the rental FXR and rode around the parking lot to get a quick feel for the bike. Boy was I surprised. It felt quite light and well-balanced even at the very lowest speeds. In fact, once it was moving, it felt like a great big old minibike. What a shock! By way of comparison, I swapped over to the 883 Sportster we had also rented and, sure enough, it felt heavier and clumsier by far. That was the day I started to develop a sense of appreciation for the more subtle factors that come into play in the perception of a motorbike’s “weight.” Things like Center of Gravity, Wheelbase, Trail, Rake, Seat Height, Rider Positon, and piles of stuff I have no clue about all come together to create an perception of the weight of the vehicle.

    I’m not being disingeneous. I totally understand about absolute weight when manuvering in a parking space plus the size advantages of a VBB vs a Burgman-class bike. What I’m trying to convey is the sense of what, for lack of a better word, I would call “balance.”

    Of course, there’s no way to tell how the SCT would actually feel and it may be a while, if ever, before we get a chance to actually sample one, but I wouldn’t rule something out just because of the absolute weight.

    CAVEAT: The weight thing can work backwards, also. I can think of an example of a bike that has heavy steering and a high center of gravity which feels quite “heavy” on the road (in fact, it’s a handful) even though it weighs hundreds of pounds less than the Harley FXR I cited above. As a counter-example, I can cite a case where a motorcycle designer tried to compensate for a high center of gravity by giving a bike cat-quick steering geometry. That bike felt terribly “unbalanced,” like it wanted to fall over and fling you off every time you went round a curve.

    Balance.

    Meditate. Meditate.

  25. Waiting to exhale – Day 63. At the risk of seeming too snarkicidal, I would like to point out that Oberdan Bezzi has now worked his Photoshopical magic on illustrations of some Yamaha vaporware, the MT-02 and MT-0X. Folks over on Moyorcycledaily.com are just as worked up about those illustrations as folks in the scooter world were about the SCT 800.

    What is it about Bezzi’s work that causes this effect? It looks like Bezzi applies great design to feasible-looking machinery and then tops all that off with a bit of photorealism in parts of his illustrations to give you the (mistaken) impression that the machine actually exists, or might exist. If you see the illustration of the MT-02, look particularly at the front wheel, brakes, fender and forks to see what I’m getting at.

    Somewhere a Yamaha fan just took a deep breath…

  26. There’s been another flurry of Oberdan Photoshops. I wonder if there were any sitings of the SCT 800 at Sachsenring???

  27. Damn, Bb, I owe you an apology! On day 634, I exhaled (and fell out of my chair). That Oberdan artwork ending up being pretty close to the concept bike that BMW revealed at the 2010 EICMA this week. Well, now that this matter has been resolved, it’s now official that I am wrong about *everything* that I’ve ever posted online. Sheesh…

  28. Whoa! Finally came out of my Alzheimer’s fog long enough to exhale. Finally! Maybe Oberdan can do some more cool sketches for us. Please…

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