Director of BMW’s motorcycle or “Motorrad” division, Hendrik von Kuenheim, debuted the company’s newest bike in a whole new class of motorcycle for the German company.

The 2009 S 1000 RR will be BMW’s first Supersport bike and helps to mark the company’s entry into the Superbike World Championship. Essentially a racing bike for the road, the S 1000 RR is powered by a 1.0-liter inline-four of as yet unspecified output. The company tells us that the powerplant will meet the power, performance, weight, and package requirements for a superbike in “typical BMW style,” which we take to mean that it’s quite fast.

BMW plans on building 1,000 examples of the bike in the first production run, which will be available for purchase by next year. Enjoy a browse through our S 1000 RR gallery below, or click through the jump to read von Kuenheim’s speech officially announcing the new sports bike.