BMW History: The First BMW Motorcycle

The BMW R75 is a World Battle II-era motorcycle and sidecar combo produced by the German company BMW.

Within the 1930s BMW were creating a volume of popular and highly effective motorcycles. In 1938 development of the R75 started in respond to a get from the German Military.

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

The 3rd side-car wheel was influenced with an axle linked to the rear wheel of the motorcycle. These were fixed with a locking differential and selectable street and off-road equipment ratios by which all four and reverse gears did the trick. This made the R75 highly manoeuvrable and capable of negotiating most surfaces. 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 widely employed by the Wehrmacht in Russia and North Africa, though after a period 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 Military, agreed after standardization of parts for both machines, with a view of eventually setting up a Z?ndapp-BMW hybrid (specified the BW 43), in which a BMW 286/1 side-car would be grafted onto a Z?ndapp KS 750 motorcycle. They also arranged that the make of the R75 would stop once production reached 20,200 models, and from then on point BMW and Z?ndapp would only produce the Z?ndapp-BMW machine, making 20,000 every year.

Since the concentrate on of 20,200 BMW R75's was not reached, it remained in production until the Eisenach manufacturing plant was so badly damaged by Allied bombing that production ceased in 1944. A further 98 products were assembled by the Soviets in 1946 as reparations.

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