BMW R32

BMW R32
Stahlkocher, CC BY-SA 3.0

BMW’s first motorcycle, with boxer engine and shaft drive – a basic form the make has kept for a hundred years.

BMW had made aero engines, but after the First World War German firms were not allowed to make them. Max Friz designed, in a matter of weeks, a motorcycle with the boxer engine mounted across the frame, so that the cylinders were cooled by the airstream.

The shaft drive made the machine clean and reliable. The boxer engine and the shaft have been the hallmarks of BMW motorcycles ever since.

Materials: Steel tube frame, two-cylinder boxer engine, drive shaft

Manufacture: Made by BMW in Munich from 1923 to 1926.

The boxer engine’s cylinders sticking out to the sides.

The drive shaft to the rear wheel instead of a chain.

The double-triangle frame with the flat tank inside it.

The boxer engine had two cylinders of 494 cc and about 8.5 horsepower. Engine and gearbox were built as one unit, and the power went to the rear wheel by a shaft instead of a chain.

A triangular frame, cylinders sticking out on both sides and black paintwork with white lines.