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BMW heads for the waves with Path 22 concept bike

BMW has been reminding us in the grandest of style recently of the serious clout it has in the classic motorcycle field. Most important is the R NineT that it put into production, but it's also been giving us a steady stream of enticing concept bikes, like the Concept 90 retro racer and the more recent Concept 101 custom bagger. And now it's showcasing another. This time, BMW Motorrad has taken a page out of the scrambler playbook with the Concept Path 22. Based on the R NineT, this concept bike is designed for surfers in impressive 1950s style. It features a single-side swing arm rear suspension, a classic circular headlamp, reprofiled tank and seat, studded tires, an oversized front wheel, longer fork travel, and a raised exhaust. It also has a unique paint job by Ornamental Conifer, and a pair of surf boards designed by Dyer Brand and mounted to a collapsible bracket on the side. Meant to showcase just one possibility for customizing the R NineT, the concept bike is named (and numbered) after one of Europe's premier surfing spots. It is being unveiled – appropriately enough – at the Wheels & Waves Festival in Biarritz, France. BMW Concept Path 22 – The Expression of Freedom. Munich/Biarritz. From June 11th - 14th 2015, the Wheels & Waves Festival celebrates for the fourth time a unique meeting of custom bikes, surfing and art in Biarritz. The festival is a great event that provides a straightforward opportunity for people to get together in a unique atmosphere and express their lifestyle of freedom and individuality. In this special setting, BMW Motorrad presents the BMW interpretation of a scrambler for the first time: the BMW Concept Path 22. Expression of a Lifestyle. The first scramblers in the 1950s were modified road machines with deep-treaded tyres, somewhat increased spring travel and a raised exhaust for off-road riding. These features gave the bikes a characteristic appearance that came to symbolise an attitude. "A scrambler is the perfect match for Wheels & Waves. It's the epitome of a motorcycle beyond established standards and conventions. Performance specifications are not so much of interest - style and originality all the more so. Scramblers express passion and are as varied as their owners. The Concept Path 22 is our own interpretation based on the R nineT. The latter is the perfect basis for a scrambler conversion", explains Edgar Heinrich, Head of BMW Motorrad Design.

BMW's Quandt family in hot water over Merkel campaign contributions

The mysterious and elusive Quandt family is in hot water again, nearly two years after its Nazi connections during World War II were exposed. The German family's patriarch, Herbert Quandt, nearly single-handedly saved BMW from being bought out by Daimler-Benz in 1959. Now, three living family members own nearly half of the German brand, and stand accused of buying votes with donations to the party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, mere days ahead of a European Union vote that would cap vehicle emissions.
Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union accepted three donations, one from each shareholding member of the Quandt family.
Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union accepted three donations, one from each shareholding member of the Quandt family, totaling 690,000 euros ($935,000), on October 9. The CDU, for what it's worth, claim the donations weren't related to any political decisions and that the family have been donors for years. A Quandt family spokesperson, meanwhile, said that the family had been waiting for Germany's September 22 elections to pass before making a large contribution to the CDU.

BMW X4 hatches its fastback shape in Shanghai

The day has finally come for BMW to pull the covers off its X4 Concept at the Shanghai Motor Show. The machine brings few surprises - we've already seen an official image gallery from the German automaker, so its exterior shape was well known - but at least now we get to see it with our own eyes, and with the lenses of our very own cameras.
You can clearly see the fastback roofline in our high-res image gallery above, along with the jacked-up stance that allows BMW to call this machine a Sports Activity Vehicle, which basically means "Crossover" to our friends in Munich. We've seen similar vehicle shapes before, most notably in the form of the BMW X6, but also as far back as the 1980s from the likes of AMC.
We fully expect the transition from concept to production to be pretty seamless, so what we see here is, for the most part, what we'll see on the showroom floor in 2014. Feel free to peruse the press release below, but first, be sure to browse through our live images from Shanghai and let us know what you think.