Munich Archives - Asphalt & Rubber

News

BMW Invests €200 Million in Electric Battery Center

By Jensen Beeler 11/27/2017 No Comments

If you needed a bigger sign that the current zeitgeist of vehicle transportation is electric, look no further than BMW’s recent investment of €200 million for what the German brand is calling a “battery cell competence centre.”

The rather large capital expenditure, based in Munich, centers around the German brand’s commitment to electric vehicles, and its desire to develop next-generation electric drivetrains.

Specifically, the battery cell facility will allow BMW to explore new battery cell designs, chemistries, and technologies, so it can better work with battery cell manufacturers for the automotive company’s growing needs.

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Trips

Reitvergnügen – Day One – Autobahning

By Jensen Beeler 09/02/2015 6 Comments

Our first day in earnest sees our group leaving our Radisson hotel in Munich, walking across the street to the massive München BMW dealership, grabbing our respective bikes – a fleet of F800R, F800GT, R1200R, R1200RS, R1200GS, and S1000XR motorcycles – and heading out on the autobahn, towards Austria.

Since our group is full of early risers, we got things moving ahead of schedule. For some, this meant extra time to meet our fellow riders; though for one member of the group, it meant a little extra time to shake off the cobwebs with a pre-ride beer – an occurrence that unfortunately became more of a ritual.

Joining me on our trek through the better parts of Europe is a dynamic group of individuals: there are a bunch of NY/NJ guys from N2 Track Days, an Apple engineer with an affinity for Triumphs, a designer with the gift of gab, and a former World Champion motorcycle racer.

The show is orchestrated by Cat MacLeod, a tall Scotsman with bleached white hair that ends in a ponytail, and his team of European tour guides and logistic personnel who are eager to help us navigate some of the best roads in the world, as well as the nightlife that surrounds them.

With nearly 500km of riding to report for Day 1, we better stop stalling and get to it, eh?

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Trips

Reitvergnügen – Day Zero – München

By Jensen Beeler 08/28/2015 7 Comments

Asphalt & Rubber will have a decidedly European kick the next few days, as David and Tony are in the UK for the British GP, and I will be in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy for a bit of motorcycle touring.

I got this amazing opportunity to join Leod Motorcycle Escapes for their “Alps & Sachsenring Dream” tour, which means for the next five days I’ll be riding in the German/Swiss/Italian Alps, as well as the Italian Dolomites. Once that’s done, we head back into Germany for a two-day track day at Sachsenring. Schwing!

Over the course of the trip, I will be riding the new BMW R1200RS (maybe a little seat time on the S1000XR too) during the touring sections, and throwing a leg over the updated 2015 BMW S1000RR while at Sachsenring. It’s a hard life, right?

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Racing

WSBK: Chaz Davies Hits the Wind Tunnel Ahead of Monza

By Jensen Beeler 05/09/2013 2 Comments

BMW Motorrad Goldbet SBK’s Chaz Davies had some homework ahead of this weekend’s World Superbike round in Monza, as the Welshman spent time in BMW’s high-speed wind tunnel to work on his aerodynamics with the BMW S1000RR. With Monza being one of the fastest courses on the WSBK calendar, a rider’s ability to have the optimal body position down the the track’s long sections, where speeds can easily exceed 200 mph, is a crucial element to race-day success.

“It was a really interesting afternoon”, said Davies. “When testing on a track, you try new development parts and different settings but you are not working on your body. So it was great to experience in a stable environment with my riding position, to move myself around on the bike, to have elbows and shoulders in different positions and to then see in the data what difference it makes.

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