It was the Treaty of Versailles that changed the face of BMW. Until the end of World War 1, BMW was a manufacturer of aircraft engines. Its famous round blue and white badge, which is alleged to represent a moving propeller of an airplane, serves as a reminder of the company’s past.The indisputable fact that the logo in fact comes from the colours of the Bavarian flag, and was used 12 years before BMW started building aircraft engines, does not shake the popular myth. When the German Air Force was disbanded and outlawed after the war, BMW had to turn its attention elsewhere to put bread on the table. After briefly teasing manufacturers of agricultural machinery and even office furniture, they started building motorbikes. At that time, the chief designer was a man named Max Friz, who was responsible for the famous Boxer engine, the first to be based on a British Douglas design. In 1923, the R32 was born, which became the basis for the future BMW-powered Boxer. These motorbikes used the axle drive system that would be featured in all BMW motorbikes until 1994. BMW motorbikes proved invaluable in North Africa during World War 2. Lacking chains that could clog sand, they were so successful that Harley-Davidson was commissioned by the US military, to copy the engine, which they duly did and produced the Harley-Davidson XA. With the German war machine insatiable for motorbikes, the company thrived during the war years, but as German wealth declined, so did BMW. His Munich factory was destroyed by bombing and after the war, the Russians dismantled the Eisenach factory and rebuilt it in Irbit. Not only that, their best engineers are delivered to Russia or the US to work on jet engine research. As restrictions on motorbike production were relaxed, BMW had to return to basics. None of the old plans lasted, so the engineers were forced to use a pre-war motorbike as a template for their new engine. The bike that came off the production line was the R24, which incidentally had no rear suspension. In 1949 over 9,000 R24s were built, a figure which had risen to over 17,000 in 1950. The R68, a sports motorbike introduced in 1952 This 594cc engine would become a collector’s item, as fewer than 1,500 were produced. The 1950s saw a decline in demand for motorbikes. This period saw a reduction in output from 30,000 units to less than 6,000 in 1957. In the late 50s most of BMW’s motorbikes were exported to the United States, Butler and Smith inc. had sole distribution rights, but despite strong American sales, the company struggled to survive. With financial help from Herbert Quandt and a burgeoning auto division, BMW pulled through, and in 1959, cementing its reputation in America, John Prenton drove his BMW R69 from New York to Los Angeles in 53 hours and 11 minutes, and in doing so, shaved more than 22 hours from the existing record. The R27, the last single cylinder model was introduced in 1967.
Times changed and the public demanded different engines, so BMW was built, not with Sidecars in mind, but sporty performance. In 1970 the company introduced a totally revamped range of motorbikes; R50/5, R60/5 and R75/5. In 1974 the 500cc model was removed from the catalog and replaced with a 900cc motorbike. In 1975 the R90S was introduced and instantly earned the label the best ‘Supersports’ motorbike of its time. 1977 saw the arrival of the first one liter engined motorbike from BMW.
This year also welcomes the first ‘Full Fairing’ for BMW engines. In 1978 the R100T was thrown into the ring to compete with the Honda Goldwing. 1986 brought the world’s first electrically adjustable windshield to the K100LT, which at first seemed a little eccentric, but is now used on many BMW models and has in fact been copied by Honda, Yamaha, and Kawasaki. It was BMW who in 1988 introduced ABS to the motorbike world when it became standard on all of their K models, the R1100S acquired it in 1993. It is now fitted to just about all of the company’s axle driven bicycles. Even although the company nearly died after World War 2, it has risen to become among the best motorbike manufacturers in the world.
