BMW’s concept set for 2026 launch
With the middleweight motorcycle market in the 300cc-500cc bracket booming BMW is racing to get in on the action with its upcoming F 450 GS.
Shown as the Concept F 450 GS last year, it’s an all-new platform for the Bavarian brand, including a 35kW parallel twin engine that’s huge step up from the single in the current G310 models that sit at the entry level of the company’s range. While the GS is the obvious choice to kick off the new line, BMW will inevitably grow the range to mimic its larger model lines, so expect the likes of an F450R, an F450XR and even an F450RS or RR in the future.
International sales of these types of models are soaring as increasingly affluent young riders in Asia converge with an aging demographic in the West opting for mid-sized singles and twins. It’s a trend that’s seen bikes like Triumph’s Speed 400 and Scrambler 400X become runaway successes
While BMW’s original show bike was angled towards its offroad heritage, with wire wheels and knobbly rubber, the production version seen here is a more sensible, street-oriented machine using cast alloys – 19-inches at the front, 17 at the rear – and slightly tamer styling than the 2024 concept. The differences are pretty minor, though, and it’s easy to imagine a pricier ‘Adventure’ version being added to the range to reinstate the wires in future.
Starting at the front, the changes begin with a subtly reshaped front fender and screen, creating a near-straight line from the top of the screen to the tip of the nose where the show model had a more vertical windshield and longer snout. There’s also a more extensive mudguard hugging the front wheel. Behind the screen, the open-sided black panels below the bars are smaller than the show model’s, and there’s a much smaller bash plate under the engine, and at the rear the exhaust end can is sited lower than the concept’s, while the tail bodywork is reshaped and lacks the tubular steel luggage rack of the show version. Again, an ‘Adventure’ variant might bring some of those elements back once the bike is officially revealed.
Mechanically, the upside-down forks and single, four-pot radial front caliper look much the same as the concept bike versions, as does the cast alloy swingarm and the tubular steel frame itself. That suggests the show bike’s claimed 175kg mass should be on-the-money for the production version as well.
In terms of tech, while the version seen here has a conventional clutch and shifter, the new 450 engine has been designed with BMW’s ASA (Automated Shift Assistant) in mind from the start, as used on the latest R1300 models, to automate the clutch and shifting. That’s not only likely to appeal to the inexperienced riders that the model targets but it’s also a tech that’s particularly popular in big markets like China where a vast number of riders are stepping up from twist-and-go scooters to bigger bikes. Many Chinese brands are already fitting their mid-sized machines with semi-auto boxes as a result, while Honda is due to expand its halfway-house E-Clutch system to 300cc and 500cc models.
A full, official launch of the F450GS is believed to be only weeks away, so watch this space for more info as it emerges.
