[Moto] 1923 BMW R32

[Neo1524]

The first BMW motorcycle was a child born of necessity. Following the Treaty of Versailles, which went into effect on June 28, 1919, Bayerische Moteren Werke (Bavarian Motor Works, or BMW) was prohibited from building aircraft engines.

BMW was an aircraft engine manufacturer, almost exclusively, since Gustav Otto (son of Nikolaus Otto) had opened his aircraft factory in Munich in 1911. Otto teamed with Karl Rapp, who owned an aircraft engine factory, in early 1916, forming Bayerische Flugzeugwerke GmbH (Bavarian Airplane Works or BFW). A year before the Treaty, Franz Josef "Karl" Popp joined the company. By 1921, BMW was barely in business. BMW kept the lights burning with the production of truck and boat engines, agricultural equipment, and an air brake system for railroad cars.

 

 

 

 

BMW entered the motorcycle market as a subcontractor, building a four-stroke engine for Otto's BFW, which intended to build a larger motorcycle called the Helios. The resulting M2B15 engine was a 486cc boxer twin with a perfectly square bore and stroke of 68mm. The engine was inspired by the British Douglas, and it was mounted similarly, with its twin cylinders facing fore and aft.

 

 

At the heart of BMW's engineering department from the beginning was company engineer Max Friz, who was ambivalent regarding anything other than aircraft. According to Darwin Holm-strom and Brian J. Nelson in the book BMW Motorcycles, Friz "often referred to automobiles as 'stupid conveyances' and thought even less highly of motorcycles." Yet, Karl Popp felt that his company could produce a better motorcycle on its own, and convinced Friz to build an improved boxer-engined machine.

The result was the BMW R32.

The R32 was unveiled at the Paris Motorcycle Salon in 1923, and it proved to be the sensation of the event. The R32 was sort of an amalgamation of the best practices in motorcycle building at the time. With the exception of the wet sump system, there wasn't anything necessarily earth-shattering about its individual components, but its overall quality and thoughtful design made it stand out.

 

 

Unlike the Helios, the R32 pivoted the engine 90 degrees and hung the finned cylinders in the wind, solving three problems at once: a wheelbase too long for practical purposes, insufficient cooling to the rear cylinder, and placement of a transmission. With the crankshaft mounted longitudinally, a three-speed transmission could be bolted directly in line with the engine, eliminating the primary drive chain. The R32 also used BMW's trademark shaft drive to turn the rear differential.

 

 

BMW immediately refined the R32 in 1924. This rare 1923 model only has a brake on the rear wheel, operated by jamming a block of wood against a dummy rim, which is about as effective as it sounds.

 

 

Until 1969, when BMW introduced the /5 series, the company continued to use Max Friz's basic R32 layout. Even more noteworthy, the shaft drive that appeared on the R32 remained the sole drive system of every BMW motorcycle until the F650's launch in 1994.

 

 

The motorcycle seen here is part of BMW's corporate collection and was on display at the 2008 New York Auto Show in April. BMW R32s are the most highly sought-after collectibles because of their rarity and their legacy. Perfect examples such as this one--if you could find one--could fetch as high as $100,000.

 

 

BMW continued to advance the boxer-twin/shaft-driven design for the next 85 years, and today at least half of the new motorcycles available from BMW still use that basic architecture. There's something to be said for doing it once and doing it right.

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