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Motorcycles of the '20s and '30s
BMW's first motorcycle, the R 32, and its sports version, the R 37, represent a design concept that has remained unchanged to this very day. A concept that features the flat-twin engine, drive shaft
and double-tube frame. The R 37 was launched just two years after BMW started producing motorcycles in 1923. In 1925 and 1926, BMW motorcycles won three German Championships and almost 200 racing prizes.
An eight-year struggle for the world speed record on two wheels started in 1929. Ernst Henne began his successful series on August 25, 1929 with a speed of 128.7 mph. In September he improved his
record to 134.2 mph, with further improvement to 137.3 mph exactly one year later. In the spring of 1931 he achieved 147.7 mph and in autumn, 151.4 mph. Often alternating with British rivals, BMW bettered the world record each year, finally
setting up the world speed record of 173.3 mph in 1937.
Riding BMW motorcycles, Ernst Henne set up to 76 world records in these eight years. In one single year, 1939, the motorcycles from Munich brought home 491 gold medals. In 1935 BMW launched a
compressor machine with four overhead camshafts driven by verticle shafts: the pre-war BMW. With this machine, Schorsch Meier from Munich became the first foreigner on a foreign motorcycle to win the Senior Tourist Trophy on the Isle of Man in
the half-litre class shortly before the outbreak of World War II. Quite an achievement in the classical country of motorcycling!
This is BMW's history of motorcycle success in the '30s: eight German championships, three six-day trophies, 13 foreign championships, 762 first prizes in road races and 1,817 gold medals in
off-road contests.
These figures underline BMW's wide range of success in motorsport and the innumerable events in which the works team participated: Franz Bieber (who won the first German Championship in 1924) and
Rudi Reich, Hans Soenius and Karl Gall, Toni Bauhofer, Paul Köppen, and Wiggerl Kraus. Together with Scorsch Meier, Josef Forstner and Fritz Linhardt, they formed the group of "three iron men" in the Six Days. With Ernst Henne, BMW's
senior test engineer, Rudolf Schleicher, and countless private riders, they successfully tried out a motorcycle concept that excels by its sheer performance - and to which BMW remained loyal when resuming business in 1948, the year of the
German currency reform.
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| R 37 |
1925-27
The second model to bear the BMW symbol was already a sports machine: the R 37 with transverse cylinder reinforcements and mounted cylinder heads. 16 bhp provided a top speed of 71 mph. This machine introduced BMW as a manufacturer of
sporty motorcycles.
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500-cc
record-breaking machine |
1936
From 1929, Ernst Henne constantly improved the world speed record for motorcycles. Up to 1935 he used 750-cc compressor machines with 100 bhp giving him a record of 158.8 mph. Some of his machines featured various farings, this 500-cc
model...
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500-cc
record-breaking machine |
1937
...finally receiving an all-round fairing with a compressor for even more power. With 108 bhp, Ernst Henne set up his final world record of 173.3 mph on November 27, 1937. This record was to remain untouched until the '50s. BMW had the
world's fastest motorcycle.
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500-cc
record-breaking machine |
1938
Records were also set up in road races with a 60-bhp engine. Achieving 130 mph, this machine was Europe's fastest pre-war road motorcycle. For the first time both wheels had springs. The result: the European Championship in 1938 and
the Senior Tourist Trophy for Schorsch Meier in 1939.
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