Behold The Future...Riding on air. BMW Motorrad and LEGO Technic build the Hover Ride concept model. Pushing boundaries has always been a part of BMW Motorrad. The future of mobility is full of surprises – as can be seen from the floating boxer. A construction kit was the start.
The LEGO designers have tasted blood. They are looking for their next adventure. The Danes have already built the miniature construction kit of the R 1200 GS from colourful bricks. "You can create anything with LEGO Technic, even the future", says designer Lars Thygesen, confidently. From these inspired thoughts, the LEGO team and BMW Motorrad set themselves a new challenge.
The ambitious goal: develop a futuristic bike that will answer the question of what motorcycle riding will be like in the future. Topsy-turvy world: the LEGO designers use their own construction kit as a basis for creating a concept bike. What happened next is phenomenal. The bike of the future is made up of the exact same parts as the LEGO Technic R 1200 GS Adventure, which presented a massive problem for designers at BMW Motorrad.
They achieve the impossible. The employees in Munich bring the Danish vision to life and develop a real hover bike from the construction kit – a flying motorcycle that floats above the tarmac. Hover Ride. Alexander Buckan, Head of BMW Motorrad Vehicle Design, is fascinated by this vision of the future: "Creating a fictitious, visionary model fro parts of the LEGO Technic BMW R 1200 GS Adventure construction set was an excellent idea and a great creative challenge.
The concept incorporated design DNA from BMW Motorrad with typical elements such as the boxer engine and the characteristic GS silhouette, while also being influenced by the design vocabulary of LEGO Technic". Go everywhere and create the future. It looks as though LEGO Technic and BMW Motorrad are spiritual brothers.
The two project partners have already proven in the past that they share common ground: we can assume that the BMW R 1200 GS Adventure has been almost everywhere on this planet, but never before in the office of Lars, in the town Billund in Denmark. Lars is sitting at his desk; next to him sits the magnificent 260 kilo, 125 HP strong machine. The Dane observes the motorcycle; his eyes scan the fork, then he turns his gaze back to his intricate illustration.
Why is this motorcycle in this office of all places? The Dane has been a designer at the LEGO Group for almost 25 years. He has been drafting vehicles for LEGO Technic for over five years, He has BMW Motorrad to thank for the fact that the machine is next to his desk. In August 2015, the Munich-based company first got in touch with the creative building block architect from Billund. The idea: create a LEGO Technic model from a real machine. The Danish toy company had already worked with the BMW Group to implement the MINI Cooper in the LEGO Creator range. The technical handicraft enthusiasts had also already designed motorcycles. But these had only been virtual models up until now. Now, a real motorcycle will be "posing as the model".
His perseverance pays off in the end. When the designers at BMW Motorrad come to visit the LEGO headquarters in March 2016, the finishing touches are being made to the model. After this, it must then pass through the strict LEGO design assessments. But when the guardians of suitability didn't find any faults and gave it their thumbs up, "everyone is happy", as Lars puts it. For now he is getting ready for his next GS adventure: offroad biking at the Enduropark Hechlingen.
http://brand.bmw-motorrad.com/en/stories/design/lego.html