BMW Profiles 1: Motorcycles from Munich

BMW Profiles 1: Motorcycles from Munich

This BMW Profiles 1: Motorcycles from Munich contains BMW history, technical specifications and production figures from the BMW Mobile Tradition Historical Archive. It also includes construction plans, design sketches, rare photographs and a BMW motorcycle poster from 1925 in Russian.

When the Bayerische Motorenwerke presented its first motorcycle, the R 32, to the public at the Paris Car Show in 1923 this proved to be the beginning of a success story on two wheels which is continuing today. At this presentation the experts were clearly impressed by the R 32, for here it was successfully shown for the first time how the individual components of engine, chassis, and drive train could be perfectly combined in one unit. The principle that the whole is more than just the sum of its parts is still the guiding force behind motorcycle development at BMW today.

When the R 32 was presented, BMW had already made a name for itself as a manufacturer of aeroengines. The high quality standards applying to aeroengines were transferred to the motorcycles, resulting in a reliability and ease of maintenance unknown hitherto. Spared from breakdowns to a great extent the motorcycles with the blue and white emblem thus incorporated driving pleasure in its most original form: BMW motorcycles, the dream of whole generations of motorcycle riders of both sexes.

Even today the BMW models of those first years still have that fascination which the observer can resist only with difficulty. In order to meet with the growing interest for veteran motorcycles, BMW Mobile Tradition has decided to make the information in its archives available to a wide public.

A special emphasis has been placed on the technical specifications of these vehicles since this subject is granted but little space in the - although no doubt copious ? literature.

When these data sheets were drawn up, various sources were consulted besides the internal archives, including operating instructions, brochures, TÜV (MOT) certificates, tests, and descriptions by the press at that time. Also deserving mention here are the archivists and engineers of various generations whose preliminary work forms the prerequisites for this documentation.

It is especially in the early periods that a lot of the information, information which today, of course, is contained in pamphlets, press kits, and operating instructions, was not or only insufficiently documented. Even proceeding with the greatest care cannot therefore altogether exclude errors.