BMW Motorrad dropped a single-image teaser across its social media channels on May 30, 2023, inviting fans to take a guess what new bike the company will be revealing next. The image shows a black-and-white profile of a stylized drawing that most people are guessing is the long-awaited M 1000 XR. We’ll get to an additional strong reason why that’s a smart guess in a moment, but as you can see, the image does prominently display an M logo on the tank and have a distinct XR appearance. It’s not exactly rocket surgery.
The text with which BMW Motorrad accompanied its teaser image reads, “Ready for a big surprise? [fire emoji eyes emoji] Take a guess of what is coming in the comments and watch this space! 6th of June, 5 p.m. CEST #MakeLifeARide #NeverStopChallenging #BMWMotorrad”
As you may be aware, the 2023 Isle of Man TT officially kicked off on Monday, May 29. Even if you don’t follow the TT closely, it’s important to note that BMW is fielding a factory effort in the IOMTT, with factory-backed riders Peter Hickman and Josh Brookes and the FHO Racing BMW team. Both riders are racing factory-outfitted M 1000 RRs in road racing and in the British Superbikes series.
Why does that matter if we’re contemplating the likelihood of the impending M 1000 XR? That’s easy. Our colleagues at Motorrad obtained video that appears to show Peter Hickman rolling off on a slow lap on what looks an awful lot like an M 1000 XR earlier this week in front of IOMTT crowds. (For those unfamiliar, the first week is Qualifying for all racing categories and classes, and the second week is when the races take place.)
We’ll include a link to the Motorrad piece in our Sources so you can go have a look at the video for yourself, but it looks about as definitive evidence as we could expect before a formal reveal is made. There’s audio from the commentators who are at the event as well in the video, but you can’t really hear much of the bike since it’s going very slowly and isn’t rocketing around the course in anger or anything like that.
Taking a look at the 2023 IOMTT official racing schedule, we see that Tuesday, June 6, 2023, is Race Day number three. Central European Standard Time is one hour ahead of local time on the Isle of Man, which means that the big BMW Motorrad reveal will take place at 4 p.m. local time at the races. The final race of IOMTT Race Day Three is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. local time, and is the Carole Nash Supertwin TT race, which goes for three laps.
Could the big M 1000 XR global reveal take place at this year’s Isle of Man TT, once the race day is done? It’s certainly a possibility timewise, although of course we can only speculate at this point.
In any case, if you’re waiting for the big BMW Motorrad June 6 announcement here in the States, 5 p.m. CEST works out to 11 a.m. Eastern. Set your alarms, mark your calendars, and gear up accordingly.
