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BMW Motorrad Days in Germany are a celebration of Beemer’s dual sport and adventure motorcycles, but this year, there was a new type of guest sporting the familiar blue-and-white roundel badge at the bike show: the one-off BMW X7 Pick-up, which combines the 340-horsepower powertrain of the carmaker’s new crossover with the body and suspension of a high-end toy-hauler.
The X7 Pick-up — which came loaded with a BMW F 850 GS in the bed — was put together by the BMW Group’s vocational trainees, along with the help of the company’s Concept Vehicle Construction and Model Technology divisions. The young talent at BMW started this project with a standard X7, the latest and most luxurious crossover vehicle the company makes. The team handcrafted the truck bed using highly polished teak wood slats for a perfect marriage of luxury and durability, and added 3D-printed parapet elements, hand grips and trim strips.
Because they built this concept to be a bike hauler, the team made sure the truck bed measured 78.7 inches long with the tailgate open, in order to accommodate a GS. Along with the roomy bed, BMW also fitted a height-adjustable two-level air suspension to handle the added weight of the bike.
Not only is the X7 Pick-up capable of hauling bikes, but it’s also a true five-seater. Although the truck is four inches longer than the standard X7, the X7 pick-up was made 440 pounds lighter than its production sibling by using carbon fiber-reinforced polymer in the roof, rear doors and elsewhere.
If this conversion wasn’t impressive enough, the X7 pick-up went from concept to real-life road-legal adventure machine in a mere ten months, thanks to the hard work of the 12 trainees from the company’s Munich factory. (They even used a former test car for the basis of the vehicle, in order to make the concept more sustainable.)
While the BMW X7 Pick-up concept may not be something you can buy in showrooms, it’s still a great example of the spectacular skills the company’s trainees pick up during their time with the company — and a way to give Beemer riders a new Bimmer to imagine adding to their garage.
