BMW R75 / 6 1974 Motorcycle photo

The BMW R75 is a global Conflict II-era motorcycle and sidecar combo made by the German company BMW.

In the 1930s BMW were creating a number of popular and impressive motorcycles. In 1938 development of the R75 started in respond to a demand from the German Military.

Preproduction models of the R75 were powered by the 750 cc part valve engine, which was based on the R71 engine motor. Nonetheless it was quickly found essential to design an all-new OHV 750 cc engine for the R75 unit. This OHV engine later proved to be the basis for succeeding post-war twin BMW engines like the R51/3, R67 and R68.

The third side-car wheel was influenced with an axle connected to the trunk wheel of the motorcycle. These were installed with a locking differential and selectable road and off-road gear ratios by which all and reverse gears proved helpful. This made the R75 highly manoeuvrable and with the capacity of negotiating most surfaces. A few other motorcycle manufactures, like FN and Norton, provided an optional drive to sidecars.

The BMW R75 and its rival the Z?ndapp KS 750 were both broadly employed by the Wehrmacht in Russia and North Africa, though after a period of evaluation it became clear that the Z?ndapp was the superior machine. In August 1942 Z?ndapp and BMW, on the urging of the Army, agreed after standardization of parts for both machines, with a view of eventually creating a Z?ndapp-BMW hybrid (selected the BW 43), when a BMW 286/1 side-car would be grafted onto a Z?ndapp KS 750 motorcycle. They also agreed that the make of the R75 would stop once production reached 20,200 items, and from then on point BMW and Z?ndapp would only produce the Z?ndapp-BMW machine, developing 20,000 every year.

Since the concentrate on of 20,200 BMW R75's was not reached, it continued to be in production before Eisenach factory was so badly destroyed by Allied bombing that production ceased in 1944. An additional 98 models were built by the Soviets in 1946 as reparations.

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