Last issue we looked at a general history of BMW – who celebrate their 100th birthday this year – this time we choose a bike (sometimes two) from each era as bona fide classics. Feel free to complain at our choice!
Inter-war period: BMW R32
You’ll have to be a pretty serious collector and vintage machine fan to delve around here. But fair play if you want to commute 25 miles down the A5 each day on a 100-year-old bike… If we were going to pick a super-classic BMW to own, it might as well be the R32 – BMW’s first motorbike. Just over 3000 were built in the three years between 1923 and 1926, and it pioneered the Boxer engine and shaft final drive still used by the firm today. The 494cc motor had side-valve heads, a square bore and stroke of 68 x 68mm, 5:1 compression ratio and a single 22mm carburettor. The rear suspension was very simple: there was none, while the front wheel is controlled by a natty set of leaf springs.
You’ll need to pay several tens of thousands of pounds for an R32 today, of course – if you can find someone to sell you one. More akin to an archaeological item than a means of transport, but at least
