History

The Bavarian Motor Works was created in 1916 as a manufacturer of aircraft engines, designed by Max Friz. In 1922 the company began to produce an engine for the Victoria motorcycle, which was made in Nuremberg. Within one year Max Friz wanted BMW in the motorcycle business. The BMW motorcycle line began with the air-cooled horizontally opposed two-cylinder "boxer" engine, derived from designs for aircraft engines called the R32, was drive shaft propelled. The BMW logo, a circle with blue and white quadrants, was derived from the image of a spinning propeller. In the mid 1930s BMW was the first production motorcycle with a hydraulic telescopic front fork.

New to BMW is a chain-driven single cylinder model named the F650, designed by BMW in conjunction with the Italian manufacturer Aprilia and the Austrian made Rotax power plant.