Now, the cafe racer market has been really thinned out over the past couple of years with some of the flagship bikes from the major manufacturers discontinued due to poor sales. And yet, in 2025, BMW have launched this: the spectacular-looking BMW R12S.
Which pays homage to the R90S of the 1970s. It certainly has the look of a modern-day retro cafe racer, but have they fixed the problems from their last attempt, and will this one go on to sell well?
A Good Bike Needs Good Gear
Before we get started, a massive thanks to Flying Eyes for supporting the channel and making free-to-view videos like this one possible.
A good-looking bike deserves good-looking gear, in my opinion, and Flying Eyes have the perfect solution with their range of glasses and sunglasses that are specifically advantageous to bikers.
You see, not only do they have a wide range of styles and colors to suit all tastes, but their frames are also made of a special material called Reillumine, which is super strong and also super flexible.
That means they can make them just a millimeter thin at the arms, which means they really easily slide between your head and lid. And the flexibility means they wrap neatly around the contours of your head, so they almost completely remove those irritating pressure points that can become a real distraction on longer rides.
Plus, they spring back perfectly into shape every time, and so you don’t need to worry about squashing them or bending them if you need to stick them in your pocket while you take your helmet off.
Engine and Performance
So what makes for a good modern-day cafe racer? Well, I think it has to have some proper authenticity and heritage and soul. And fortunately, this bike gets the same air-in-oil-cooled boxer twin as the rest of the R12 lineup.
That means you get an engine that’s like nothing else, really, on the motorcycle market, with a really distinctive sound and feel that’s very much a signature feature of a BMW.
And I think that really does help these bikes to stand out from the crowd, where the market is pretty much flooded with parallel twins.
It is somewhat authentic as well, in that it should feel relatively similar to the boxer twin in the R90S that this bike pays homage to, although it does produce performance figures which are much more appropriate for the modern day.
In fact, it’s no slouch. It makes 109 horsepower peak, but its real strength lies in the mid-range. It makes 115 newton meters of peak torque at 6,500 RPM, but most of that is available right down from 2 or 3,000. It really is a very nice engine, this one. It’s familiar, of course, having ridden the other R12s fairly recently.
Ride Quality and Sound
But nice to be back on it again with all that, whoa, mid-range shove. And it’s surprisingly woo!… willing to go, I’d say. It’s quite exciting to ride, massively aided by the fact that it does have a fairly nice sound to it, and there’s a bit of depth to the sound as well, even with the stock exhaust.
Loads of grunt out the corner in third there, and yet still all doing it at the same time as having some proper BMW feel to it.
The thing you also want, though, from a modern retro is a little bit of contemporary convenience and it does have that, with three riding modes, lean-sensitive traction control, cruise control. Woo! I think, anyway, it’s straddling that sort of old and new thing really very well.
Handling and Suspension
There are plenty of bikes, though, with soulful engines on the retro market. What should separate a cafe racer is a more performance-orientated chassis that really does handle well.
Most of what you’ll see on the R12S, though, is inherited from the R12 nineT, which is no bad thing at all, with it also being a rather fine-handling bike.
The spoke wheels are 17 inches front and rear, wrapped in decently sticky Metzeler rubber. Suspension is fully adjustable with a chunky upside-down fork and a mono shock at the rear.
And braking comes courtesy of Brembo with a pair of mono block radial calipers up front on 310 mil discs.
Comfort details of BMW R12S
Now, obviously, we’re not in, you know, super naked territory here. It is a bike that is a little bit limited, I guess, by how they’ve had to accommodate the old school aesthetics. Uh, but even with that in mind, it’s a nicely balanced bike that’s not too aggressive, that’s comfortable, that’s relatively stable.
Um, but it will flick side to side if you want it to, and it actually is surprisingly willing, I think, to be thrashed. I remember that from the R12 nineT.
You know, the brakes are good enough that you feel confident even if you’re barreling into a corner. The suspension’s good enough that it doesn’t get too flustered if you’re going in a bit quick.
And while it isn’t particularly light at 220 kilograms curb, well, one of the side benefits of that big boxer twin is that it does hang low, and so even little tight turns like this are possible without a dab of the foot. Honestly, I’d gladly go up and down this little stretch of road all day long.
Styling and Visuals
So yeah, it rides pretty well, but we already knew that was gonna be the case because I’ve already reviewed the R12 NineT, and it is basically the same bike, but just with a bit of a styling kit, but that is the next point. This sort of bike has to look a bit special, and I’d say this R12S does exactly that.
Like I say, a lot of the styling cues are taken from the R Nine T S, which is an iconic model in the history of BMW, and I think that’s most evident in this little half there in the seat cowl, and of course, this brilliant paint job.
On this bike, I believe it’s called N42 Lava, which isn’t particularly catchy, but the original on the R Nine T S was called Daytona Orange, and it is very much the same effect with a really punchy look to it, and then also some nice detail with that red pinstriping, a bit of silver, and on the tank is actually brushed aluminum, which is a nice detail to show off.
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Features and Build Quality
The other thing that helps to make this bike look a little bit special as well is some of the Option 719 billet stuff like the engine covers, the foot pegs, the levers, the reservoir caps. All of them, the bar end mirrors as well, do add up to something that gives it a bit of a visual lift.
And while the price is pretty steep on this bike, and we’ll get onto that in a moment, well, all this stuff is bundled in as standard, and it does look really rather good. In fact, the spoke wheels are the classic Option 719 wheels as well, which really do play into the whole look of this bike, and from every angle, I think it looks absolutely fantastic.
Riding Position and Practicality
So I talked at the top of this video about the fact that cafe racers have seen a bit of a decline recently with bikes like the Thruxton from Triumph being discontinued last year.
They launched a final edition to send it out with a bang, and also BMW’s own R Nine T Racer, which was a beautiful bike and a lot of fun to ride. Um, but yeah, that went two, three, four years ago as well.
Now, I think it’s fair to say that it’s no coincidence that both those two bikes were really quite aggressive in terms of the riding position with fairly low clip-on style handlebars that weren’t a million miles off, you know, a modern-day super sport.
We all know that the average age of the biker is increasing, and so much like sports bikes, which haven’t sold as well as nakeds recently, you know, I don’t think that many riders or that many potential buyers were wanting to reach right down to those low handlebars and really crane their backs.
With alternatives like the Speed Twin in the Triumph lineup, which was basically a Thruxton with flat bars, and also the standard R Nine T.
Which is the same as the Racer but with flat bars, you know, it’s easy to see why more people were going for the slightly more sat up and slightly more comfortable and usable and versatile alternatives in those respective lineups.
This though, while it has got that cafe racer specialness and image, but I’m very pleased to say it’s got a rather nice handlebar position which is completely flat and actually just carried directly over from the R12 Nine T.
That means you’ve got something you can commute on. You’ve got something that you can pop to the shops on. You’ve got something you can ride all day if you’re out with your mates, and so I think this is gonna be much more palatable to a wider range of riders, and hopefully that increases its commercial viability.
Authenticity and Heritage
I will say as well I assume there’s some sort of production efficiencies in effectively making the same bike as the R12 Nine T but just with a bit of a fancy body kit on it, as opposed to giving it a completely separate riding position.
That said though, I wouldn’t say it’s completely whoa! Uh, cynical and business-minded of BMW to fit this bike with some flat bars because if you look back at those pictures which I showed earlier of the R Nine T S, well, that bike had flat handlebars as well , and so you could argue it is the more authentic and true to the original riding position.
Price details of BMW R12S
There is one sticking point though, and it is quite a big one, and that’s the price with it starting at 18,460 pounds. That’s four grand more than a standard R12 Nine T and about six and a half grand more than something like a Kawasaki Z900RS, which also fits into the retro good looking but fun to ride category.
Now, the counterargument could be that you get decent levels of spec and plenty of features with three riding modes, cornering TC and ABS, hill hold control, headlight pro, the quick shifter, the cruise control.
The keyless ignition, and heated grips, and also like I say, the way this bike is finished is absolutely delicious, but that still doesn’t change the fact that 18 grand is quite a lot for a hundred-ish horsepower retro.
I guess that’s just the price you’ll pay though for one very special looking bike. For the boxer twin fan and for anyone who’s a fan of the BMWs of the past, this one is certainly worth a demo, and I’m pretty certain it won’t disappoint.
Conclusion
Honestly, there’s not a great deal to dislike here. Perhaps the quick shifter is a little bit clunky, but otherwise it’s a statement bike that’ll definitely turn heads and will feel pretty special every time you take it out for a ride.
Then it goes well too with the punchy engine and the sweetly set up handling, and there’s no real penalty in terms of comfort with a rider triangle that I think is sustainable for a full day in the saddle.