BMW Motorrad Boxer Twin Motorcycle Engine History

Over 97 years of building horizontally opposed twin-cylinder engines, BMW has hit some definite high points en route to launching the 2021 R 18. Here are six engineering and product milestones we like that furthered the boxer’s allure.

Related: 2021 BMW R 18 Cruiser MC Commute Review

BMW’s first boxer arrived nearly a century ago, with the gas tank anointed with a blue-and-white roundel emblem representing the whirling blades of an airplane propeller—BMW’s initial mission. The R32 was a 494cc opposed twin, with exposed shaft drive, a hand-shift three-speed gearbox, leaf-spring front suspension, rigid rear suspension, and sprung saddle. Uncommon for the day, it nevertheless set the tone for 97 years for BMW—not bad!

Aboard a 493cc boxer equipped with gear-driven overhead cams, German racer Ernst Jakob Henne set a motorcycle land speed record of 173.7 mph in 1937. If that seems fast, it was—Herr Henne, who incidentally lived to age 101, nearly matched the terminal velocity of BMW’s own S 1000 RR…72 years before this modern superbike arrived. The ’37 BMW’s speed secrets included an inventive sliding-vane Zoller supercharger and enclosed alloy bodywork. Its nickname? The Egg.

The term “blueblood” generally describes production BMWs into the 1960s, with an emphasis on utility, quality, and stateliness rather than that drug called “performance.” The R69S broke ranks with an upgraded 594cc boxer engine rated at 42 hp—a high point at the time. Also, BMW moved to contemporary swingarm rear suspension and, for the US market, adopted a telescopic fork. A works ISDT version included high-mounted 2-into-1 exhausts, tall bars, a skid plate, shortened fenders, and knobbies.

Launching BMW into the Superbike era, the 1973 R90S was an unlikely player, given that Japanese transverse fours like the CB750 and Z1, as well as V-twins from Ducati and Moto Guzzi, owned the tracks. But BMW did it anyway, upgrading the 898cc R90/6 platform with big Dell’Orto pumper carbs, fetching bodywork including a bikini fairing, and dual front discs. Prepared by West Coast distributor Butler & Smith, an R90S won the first-ever Superbike race at Daytona.

Widely considered the original adventure bike, the 798cc R80 G/S was so named for its “dirt/street” capability (G = Gelände or “off-road”; S = Strasse or “street”). Having ridden an R80 G/S around much of the Australian outback, I can confirm that it was a fine globetrotter—except in sand and mud. Racers Gaston Rahier and Hubert Auriol were way braver, earning the G/S four Paris-Dakar wins. So in all, the formula worked, launching the modern ADV segment.

Although BMW’s first official “Adventure” model, the R 1150 GS Adventure, debuted in 2002, the company’s Electronic Suspension Adjustment (ESA) for 2008 crucially expanded the bandwidth of the big-tank, long-distance machine for ’08. Multimode Dynamic ESA followed on the R 1200 GS for 2013, and today’s R 1250 GS Adventure adds load leveling for further versatility. In short, the semi-active electronic suspenders made the Adventure real, for more riders.