real BMW R75 motorcycle and sidecar painted with the Afrika Korps

The BMW R75 is a World War II-era motorcycle and sidecar combination made by the German company BMW.

Inside the 1930s BMW were producing a range of popular and highly effective motorcycles. In 1938 development of the R75 started in response to a question from the German Military.

Preproduction types of the R75 were run with a 750 cc area valve engine, that was based on the R71 engine unit. Nonetheless it was quickly found necessary to design an all-new OHV 750 cc engine motor for the R75 product. This OHV engine later proved to be the foundation for following post-war twin BMW engines like the R51/3, R67 and R68.

The third side-car wheel was powered with an axle connected to the trunk wheel of the motorcycle. They were installed with a locking differential and selectable street and off-road equipment ratios through which all and change gears performed. This made the R75 highly manoeuvrable and capable of negotiating most areas. A few other motorcycle manufactures, like FN and Norton, provided an optional drive to sidecars.

The BMW R75 and its own competitor the Z?ndapp KS 750 were both greatly utilized by the Wehrmacht in Russia and North Africa, though over time of analysis 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 upon standardization of parts for both machines, with a view of eventually creating a Z?ndapp-BMW hybrid (designated the BW 43), when a BMW 286/1 side-car would be grafted onto a Z?ndapp KS 750 motorcycle. In addition they decided that the production of the R75 would stop once production reached 20,200 units, and from then on point BMW and Z?ndapp would only produce the Z?ndapp-BMW machine, processing 20,000 every year.

Since the goal of 20,200 BMW R75's had not been reached, it remained in production before Eisenach factory was so terribly harmed by Allied bombing that production ceased in 1944. A further 98 devices were put together by the Soviets in 1946 as reparations.

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