Left-right combination: two Boxer legends appear from the past, R 67/2 from 1953 (left) and R 80 G/S, built in 1980.
Image: Daniel Kraus
BMW has been building motorcycles for 100 years. That’s celebrated. We’ll just go for a ride. Two vintage cars demonstrate what they were capable of decades ago. Spectacular.
As Lutz-Michael Hahn, historian of motorcycle affairs, said before the start of our little tour: “In the fifties, flat tires were a fixed item on the agenda.” That was less than two hours ago. Now we are standing on the edge of a small street in the Upper Bavarian district of Freising and we can provide the proof ourselves. The rear tire of our R 67/2, built in 1953, is flat, so flat, it couldn’t be flatter.
Walter Will
“Technology and Engine” editorial team
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The old black racer is out of action for now. Schorsch Meier and other BMW heroes plowed through the competitions for the silver vase with it. It is one of three specimens of the then young R 67/2 model, which the test department of the factory prepared for the Six Days. Higher compression of the 600 cc boxer, performance increase from standard 28 to 32 hp, a rocket. With which, it seems to us, the drum brakes had a hard time. BMW got involved again in off-road sports.