BMW Desmodromic Superbike

 

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

Original was Australian Motor Cycle News, Vol 56, No 14, 24 Jan - 6 Feb 2007. Author Alan Cathcart, Photography Arnold Debus. 

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/

Nearly-There Sportster

In the dusty archives is this road test of the LS from 1983. The scan is from the yellowed pages of "Two Wheels Road Tests: Full tests of the year's top bikes" and includes other bikes like the Kawasaki Z750GT and Honda CBX550.

The LS was new at the time and wasn’t necessarily seen as an improvement on the recent BMW models or the R75/5 from 10 years previously. It wasn’t seen as a cost effective way to purchase a motorcycle: it carried the premium associated with BMW but didn’t have the robustness of its pedigree nor the performance of its peers.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Z750GT or CBX550 on the road, though…

Access it here (file is 20MB).