Up until the end of World War 1, BMW was a manufacturer of aircraft engines. When the German Air Force was disbanded and outlawed after the war, BMW had to turn its attentions elsewhere to put bread on the table and they began building BMW motorcycles. At that time, the chief designer was a man named Max Friz, who was responsible for the famous Boxer engines, the first of which was based on a British Douglas design. In 1923, the R32 was born, which was to become the basis of future Boxer powered BMWs. This motorcycle used the shaft drive system which would feature in all BMW motorcycles up until 1994. You can still buy used BMW motorcycles with the shaft drive system.
BMW motorcycles were to prove invaluable in North Africa during World War 2. With the German war machine insatiable for motorcycles, the company flourished during the war years, but as Germany's fortunes declined, so did BMW motorcycles. Its Munich factory was razed to the ground by bombing and after the war the Russians dismantled the Eisenach plant and re-assembled it in Irbit.
As the restriction on BMW motorcycle production was eased, they had to go back to basics. None of the old plans had survived, so the engineers were forced to use pre-war motorcycles as a template for their new machines. The bike that came off the production line was the R24, which incidentally had no rear suspension. In 1949 over 9,000 R24's were built. The R68, a sports motorcycle was introduced in 1952. This 594cc machine was to become something of a collector's piece for used BMW motorcycles lovers, as less than 1,500 were produced.
The 1950's saw a downturn in motorcycle demand. By the late 50's the vast majority of BMW motorcycles were being exported to the USA. The R27, the last of the single cylinder models was introduced in 1967. Times were changing and the public demanded different machines, and so BMW's were built, not with Sidecars in mind, but sporty performance. In 1970 the company introduced an entirely re-vamped range of motorcycles; the R50/5, the R60/5 and the R75/5. In 1974 the 500cc model was removed from the catalogue and replaced with a 900cc bike. In 1975 the R90S was introduced and soon earned the tag of the best 'Supersports' motorcycle of its day. These used BMW motorcycles are still in demand and sought after by collectors.
1977 saw the arrival of the first one litre engined motorcycles from BMW. This year also welcomed the first 'Full Fairing' to a BMW machine. 1986 brought the world's first electrically adjusted windscreen on the K100LT. It was BMW who in 1988 introduced ABS to the motorcycle world when it became standard on all their K models, the R1100S acquiring it in 1993. It is now fitted to almost all the company's shaft driven bikes. Search used BMW motorcycles for sale and own a piece of this amazing company.
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