James Bond might be best known for driving around in flashy Aston Martins, but it wasn’t always like that. At one time, the guy had style.
The James Bond of 2023 is quite different to that of the late 1990s, and a big part of that is the vehicles. Now, Bond rides Triumphs and drives Aston Martins, but back then he drove and rode BMWs, including the BMW R1200C in Tomorrow Never Dies.
In reality, spies are so terrible and hopeless that they couldn’t even inform anyone that the Soviet Union was collapsing before it fell apart altogether. Bond, fairly obviously, creates a more romantic idea of the spy, something to aspire to, something to fantasise about.
The BMW R1200C shown here gives you the chance to live out those fantasies at an affordable price. Set for auction by Iconic Auctioneers on 7 April during the 2024 Shuttleworth Spring Motorcycle Sale, the bike is expected to fetch between £5,000 and £7,000.
Using a 1,170cc twin-cylinder boxer engine, the R1200C is a (by now fairly distant) ancestor of the new BMW R12 that launched late last year, but this 1998 model will cost you around half as much as the new bike (£11,990) and comes with the Harley-Davidson-inspired aesthetics of the cruisers of the day completed by black bodywork and chromed trim. The performance is perfectly ‘cruiser’, too, with those 1,170 cubic centimetres producing a modest 61bhp.
It’s reasonably run-in with its odometer clocked in at 11,491 miles, but that is only just over 760 miles per year over the course of its life, which doesn’t seem too bad, although it’s worth noting the bike has spent the last few years in dry storage, according to Iconic Auctioneers. The bike also comes with a BMW luggage set and is UK-registered on a current V5C.
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