In the January 24 2007 edition of Australian Motorcycle News
I found a curious article about a desmodromic BMW. It was under development but
never raced in the superbike class for which it was intended.
The design references the “legendary Rennsport 500cc Boxer GP Engine” described in Classic Motorcycle Engines. It has a number of important differences:
- Cylinders are rotated so that the air intake is a downdraft from the top and exhaust is directly out the bottom.
- Camshafts are driven by chain rather than bevel shaft, with a secondary chain driving the inlet cam from the exhaust cam.
- The exhaust cam on the bottom of the head has been staggered slightly to give better cornering clearance. This makes the head look a bit like it has been tilted or bent in at the bottom.
- Bike is 1000cc.
The bike was developed in the early 1990s and, apart from an outing at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 1999, has been hidden or a museum piece.
I've uploaded a scan to https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z_2zaSxT7sOq7AZTG9WCpb1LXAz4HwYF/view?usp=drive_link
Drivemag have a similar article, also by Alan Cathcart: https://riders.drivemag.com/features/bmw-boxer-r1-desmo-test-stillborn-superbike/
Desmodromology have a page on it and mention that 4 were
built but only one is rideable: https://www.desmodromology.nl/bmw-r1/
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