BMW MOTORCYCLES 100 YEARS

BMW Motorcycles 100 Years — the complete history of the legendary machines from the Munich firm.

BMW began with aviation before turning to cars and motorcycles. It is indeed on two wheels that its land adventure began, with the first flat-twin models launched in 1923 — an engine type so representative of BMW that it was continuously refined until the early 1980s.

Over a century of history, the firm has produced legendary models that have become classics, such as its prewar supercharged racers, the R69, the /5 series, the R100S and RS, and the R80 G/S. The K series with its three- and four-cylinder fuel-injected engines, launched in the early 1980s, marked a decisive turning point for the brand. Since then, BMW has never stopped revolutionising motorcycle technology with machines as fascinating as the K1, K1200S and K1600, right through to the very latest models such as the HP, F, R1250GS, R18 maxi-cruiser and superbike S1000RR.

In BMW Motorcycles 100 Years, Alan Dowds reviews a century of technological excellence and details the history of every model.

The Author: Alan Dowds has been writing about motorcycles since 1994 and the launch of his own magazine in Glasgow, Scotland. He subsequently joined Motorcycle News before putting his pen to work for monthly publications, first as a tester for RiDE then at SuperBike as deputy editor for ten years. Alan then became a freelance journalist in 2011. Since then, he has published regularly in the most respected British magazines such as Fast Bikes, Classic Motorcycle Mechanics and Motorcycle Sport and Leisure, as well as online with Visordown, DriveTribe and FastBikesMag.com.

Alan is the author of several books including Street Racers Design and Technology, Superbikes: The World's Greatest Bikes, Classic Superbikes and Cool Wheels – Superbikes. For around thirty years, he has been able to test every new BMW model for the press.