BMW’s ‘F’ range has sometimes been overlooked in the past, which is a shame. The Bavarian bike-mongers were ploughing a lonely furrow in the parallel-twin world nearly 20 years ago with the original F800 models, and now everyone’s in on (arguably) the dullest of the two-cylinder layouts. They must be fuming. But not too much, since BMW unveiled a trio of new F-models at the Milan and NEC shows. First up is what it calls a ‘concept’ (these generally end up as production machines) F450
GS, which is a small-capacity twin-cylinder adventure machine, a step up from the truly entry-level G310 single, but a level down from the likes of the F700/750/800 models of yore. It’s the famed A2-compliant machine we all know and hate so much these days, with the associated 47bhp peak power output (though we’re still hoping BMW will make two versions, one with more ponies). The release also mentions an A2-licence lower weight limit, which suggests 175kg dry, which is encouraging enough on an off-road beastie.