BMW 1930's

[Kadison55]

BMW in the 1930's .
http://www.thecoolhunter.co.uk/article/detail/1503/1934-bmw-r7/

[DarrylRi]

Gorgeous bike. It has been on display at the newly refurbished BMW Museum and Group Classic brought it out to the big BMW Biker Days in Garmisch Partenkirchen a year ago so that the 30,000 participants could get a close look at it.

http://darryl.crafty-fox.com/mcpics/2009/europe/BMWMuseum/slides/P7027670.JPG

What this little blurb doesn't tell you is that, in spite of the obvious familial resemblance to the current R11/R16 bikes at the time and the forthcoming R12/R17, the R7 was a clean sheet design with almost no common parts. It had some very interesting and ground breaking features. The first series production hydraulically damped telescopic forks that came out on the R12 appear here first. The engine has BMW's first one piece, or tunnel cast, crankcase, when BMW production bikes still had horizontally split cases. This process was needed to provide the extra strength required because the drivetrain was suspended from the bridge-like backbone frame and had to support itself from that mounting. All of the electrics are neatly hidden away behind those swoopy panels in the framework. Even the "Stop" brakelight was an innovation, and brakelights wouldn't reappear on BMW bikes until 1954.

http://darryl.crafty-fox.com/mcpics/2009/europe/BMWMuseum/slides/P7027674.JPG

[Typ181R90]

I saw that bike in person and it was very impressive, I remember the placard stating that BMW was shooting for an art-deco, streamlined racing design for this one.

http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/picture.php?albumid=39&pictureid=772

The BMW Museum was overall really impressive, I wanted to go and had to convince my wife to devote half a day in München to do so, but even she left really amazed by it. There were motorcycles all over the place, an original R32, a room of GS and racing bikes:

http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/picture.php?albumid=39&pictureid=773

and then this wall of motorcycles (crappy pic, but there wasn't really any spot to get a good shot of it)

http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/picture.php?albumid=39&pictureid=774