BMW Superbike: the reverse miracle!

There are some unmistakable signs that make you realize that you are during the Christmas holidays. The lights, the film Trading Places on TV and … BMW which in December already wins the next Superbike World Championship.
In this respect, in the American style, let’s say, over the years we have witnessed a refinement of tradition, which has acquired characteristic facets that have made it a joke for BMW and for those who become the bearers of these inventions. It went like this:

Initially some magazines, perhaps very grateful for the well-known German generosity, began to give the Bavarians some good results in the tests by subjection and to collect a few clicks, thus, to shake things up a bit and to give some credit to a house that gives years he spends millions for nothing.
Someone else, in relaunch, went so far as to talk about records, all without times and without transponders or on the track alone. Despite the guffaws of the fans, due to the fact that during the following season the results were not proportionate, it was decided to go ahead and improve. One started, as in a relaunching competition, others also joined.

The next and most recent step is by now the habit of BMW drivers, and even teams trying to convince sponsors and the public that they are the predestined ones. All without ever showing concrete facts. Something similar to a good time verified and not only leaked, or to the fact of running on the same tracks as those who win the championship, perhaps using a transponder would help, but nothing.
But that’s the comic part. There is another side of the coin on which a reverse miracle is now carved.

The reverse miracle of BMW that despite having the best production bike of the lot, it doesn’t manage to win anything important.
It’s a fact. the BMW S1000 won the Stock World Championships by slapping opponents, races and national championships without difficulty, but at the moment of passing from the series to the series derivative, the darkness.

In fact, BMW makes excellent products and can play with everyone. Badovini, De Rosa, Reiterberger with the European. All perfect. But as soon as the technicians get their hands on it, the dream fades. And this is the reverse miracle.
Not Spaniards or Italians, who know how to improve the racing aspects of a production product, but the Germans, who with BMW over the years have always managed to make rigorously wrong choices, burning millions.
Examples? Choice of swingarm, plates, setting of the forks with the conviction of evidently knowing more than Ohlins and Showa, the stubbornly anomalous electronics too close to the automotive one, have transformed riders with real skills such as Torres, Baz and even Sykes, into riders who they have practically closed their career or ended up in the rear or on foot.

But the ability of the Germans is not only to mess things up by themselves but also to choose the least capable partners possible, this in order not to have internal competition problems. Feel Racing with which some victories and a stock title had come? Unmanageable. Althea with which a stock title and some good placements arrived? Let’s not talk about it … and the two Italian teams just didn’t want to know about committing suicide in terms of image.
Shawn Muir Racing is ideal. A team that has managed, despite millionaire sponsors, to make BMW go wrong, then Aprilia, then BMW again, but which is perfect for the Germans because it takes care of the logistics, has no demands that maybe those who know how to do in racing have bare the shortcomings of the Germans in the racing field, undermining their self-esteem.

A deadly reverse combo despite incredible investments. The results speak for themselves: BMW has been a winter miracle for years but then struggles to win a race. And it’s not just about not winning the title but not even being able to fight for it. For years, the German masters of series production seem to have been doing everything they can not to win. Apart from next year of course, because from the newspapers and from the statements, the world championship is a done deal.