Ride Report: The 2017 BMW R nineT Racer

For a while, rumors have been circulating about the demise of the traditional cafe racer. With scramblers and flat trackers dominating the scene, the low-and-sleek genre has been taking a back seat. But like a venerable art rock band, the cafe racer is hanging in there. Interest is still high—so high that manufacturers are entering the fray. So let’s take a very close look at the R nineT Racer—BMW's factory cafe, and one of three new models based on the R nineT platform. The other two—the Pure and the yet-to-be-released Urban G/S—are styled as a bare-bones roadster and a retro adventure...