The story of the BMW R32 of 1923 and how its engineering and styling set the template that led to the creation of the modern day motorcycle.
BMW R32 Photo by Motorrad-67 source wiki commons
The beginning of the end it sounds quite fatalistic does it not? Its a phrase that is used when looking back something that has since ended.
However the phrase is a also a contradiction because every ending can also bring a new beginning.
So to begin lets move back in time to the not too distant past 2013. To a magnificent setting nestled on the shore of Lake Como Italy called the Hotel Villa D'Este.
From the windows of the Villa D' Este Hotel the eyes of the hotels guests are trained and fixed in a state of wonder and curiosity at two motorcycles dressed in the brightest shades of orange outside on the lawns.
But what attracted the guests eyes of the hotel guests to the bikes was not a superbike clothed in the usual plastic fairing affair.
What attracted them was the elegance of BMWs first superbike the R90s and the custom bike based upon it the Concept 90.
The Concept 90 took its design language from the romance of the past and the warm hot summers of the early 1970s resulting in a modern reincarnation of the R90S .
.jpg)
The result was a retro futuristic take on BMW’s first superbike the R90S by Roland Sands and his team in California.
It was so beautiful to look at with its blood orange paint work and its sculptural fuel tank quite muscular. Its boxer engine quite angular and a stance that exhibited strong shouldered manners.
This muscularity was then attached to its skeleton its all important frame which was clothed in hand crafted aluminium.
Yet although the concept bike had a masculine nature within its composition its styling was also imbued with an apparent softness. The velvet quality of that orange paintwork which harks back to the original R90S created by Hans Muth in 1973.
Cleverly the Concept 90 used the architecture provided by a newly introduced BMW bike called the R nine T a name which plays on the name R90S.
The idea behind the Bmw R nine T retro bike was to claw back the middle ground that was for so long lost due to the advance of technology.
The all important middle ground allowing the customiser the freedom to create something new. To create their own garage project
To the BMW motorcycle company the idea of the internal garage project where a few people work together on new bike design is nothing new.
BMW always had a tradition of customisation that is quite old that leads us back to a time period that stretches back over one hundred years.
Its really a tale that covers four decades the 1920’s the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s and our present time the 2020’s . Let us begin with the 1920s.
It is Christmas and a blanket of snow gently covers the dilapidated wooden sheds of the recently abandoned Gustav Otto Aircraft Factory .
The place Munich, the time 1922 a time of uncertainty and yet a time of ingenuity.
On Lechner Strasse a man can be seen crossing the street he is in a hurry to get back to his comfortable house which sits directly opposite the BMW motorcycle factory.
The man is Max Friz BMW’s chief designer with BMW.
In his house he will create the drawings for BMW’s first motorcycle the R32.
In so doing Friz becomes BMW’s first storyteller inhereting a script that contained the BFW Helios motorcycle and the M2B15 engine that it used as its power plant.
BMW had bought the BFW Helios Motorcycle company as they wished to create a motorbike that they could call their own.
BFW had created a Motorcycle that they called the HELIOS an elegant looking machine but flawed . This was due to its frame which was more of a bicycle frame design and its engine lacked refinement.
It gave BMW the start it needed and gave Friz a script to work on.
The M2B15 was BMW’s own design however it needed more development.
Starting with the engine Friz began to control the tempermental nature of it’s overheating rear cylinder by turning the engine transversely so that its twin cyclinders were facing crossways into the wind.
He then adressed the achilles heel of the Helios by creating a stronger frame that could handle the torque of a motorbike engine.
But it was what Friz did next that would set the standard for motorbikes for decades to come.
What he did was create elegance and refinement by amalgamating engine and gearbox with a shaft drive to the rear wheel and then clothing this mechanism in an all metal cladding. Refinement was the key.
Motorbikes of the time were emotional machines that leaked oil from their mechanical inerds with a dirty chain the machine and its rider soon took on a shabby appearance.
Elegance is all about presentation and the bike now called the R32 was now well mannered which also cultivated an elegant presence dressed in its jet black paintwork with white pinstriping .
This was after all the time of Art Deco the time of Bauhaus and the geometric paintings of Piet Mondrian.
A time which the new BMW R32 would have mirrored with its clean design the epitome of the machine age of the 1920s.
A machine that could have been driven off the pages of F.Scott Fitzgearld’s novel The Great Gatsby by Jay Gatsby himself in his pink suit a pink suit that would have remained clean.
The R32 was the bike which now set the standards for decades to come and also was developed into a race bike with huge sucess on the race tracks of Europe.
However as is often the case with success it also can bring a comfortable feeling.
This is what happened in the case of BMW as it rested on its laurels to such an extent that by the early 1960s calls were being made for the closure of its motorbike division.
It is now 1963 and in the boardroom of BMW hard headed businessmen can be seen looking out of the factory windows.
They are the old guard the elders who remember the glory days of the R32 some forty years before.
The atmosphere in the room is sombre its atmosphere so dark that a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet seems appropriate “ For in the sleep of death what dreams may come “ .
BMW had been in this sleep of death for too long and had allowed others to dream.
Dreamers like Sochiro Honda whose garage projects soon led to world domination.
1961 Honda had created its CB72/77 Hawk and Super Hawk motorcycles resplendant in beautiful colours of scarlet reds silvers and blues.
Reliable clean and smooth the Hawks employed parallel twin engines of 250 and 350 cubic capacities and soon they began to prey on the British motorcycle industry .
It would only be a matter of time before Honda would begin to produce bigger machines that would rival the best that BMW could offer.
Whilst BMW had the R69S a beautiful fast machine it was very expensive to produce .
It would not be enough to rival Honda. This was the backdrop to this meeting at the BMW factory. It was a close run thing but a decision was made to keep the BMW factory open.
.jpg)
Perhaps the closing lines of JFK’s speech from the steps of the Rudolf Wilde Platz in West Berlin in 1963 gave some comfort to these hardened businessmen .
“ To lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today , to the hopes of tommorow “
With these words in mind BMW put the wind to its back and set sail with hope which in turn caused an awakening from their long cold sleep.
If 1961 was a pivotal year for Honda then 1964 was to become the pivotal year for BMW . That was the year that an engineer called Hans Guenther Von Der Marwitz joined the Bavarian firm.
Taking BMW’s Boxer twin as his muse Von Der Marwitz re engineers BMW’s old yet quite beautiful engine not much changed since the days of 1923.
In an act of dismantling not unlike the actions of Max Friz in 1923 Von Der Marwitz completely revises its internals and then clothed them in a handsome aluminium casting.
Enthusiasts will christened the Airhead. In the space of a few years he will create the R75/5 a sports bike that BMW hoped would kickstart its new resurgence .
However Von Der Marwitz was still operating in a conservative atmosphere. However In a negatively charged environment there is always the envitable positively charged response.
Behind the doors of the BMW Test Department such positivity was buzzing as hands were put to work on designing a new race bike using the new R75 engine.
What emerged from behind the doors of the workshop was a purpose built racing machine.
Lessons had been learned as the bike was given a beautiful makeover with gold metallic bodywork matched to a frame painted in a beautiful metallic green which cradled the newly redesigned R75 engine.
At the Imola 200 the three works BMW F750’s looked impressive their mettalic paintwork shining in the warm Italian sun.
What the BMW test department had done with the F750 race bike was show how exiciting the BMW motorcycle brand could be and what could be done with the new R75 engine.
The choice of colours chosen for the race bikes that of gold and green created a new visual literacy of 1920s Art Deco that would have spoken to BMW’s past and remixed it to suit the relaxed 1970s .
However BMW did not allow the new paint scheme for its new Sports bike the R75/5 nor was its styling introduced for the the R75/5 this was a mistake.
A mistake as BMW were competing with HONDA’s amazing CB750 that had emerged in 1969.
Honda slogan was that it was a company that dreamed in colour . The worlds first superbike Honda’s CB750 was a beautiful looking machine a product of the dreamlike imagination of the Honda motorcycle company .
Not only was the CB750 beautiful to look at it was also offered in a variety of interesting colours.
Wonderful candied colours with names that echo that of a sweet shop. That of eye popping candy blue green, Sweet glistning candy golds and shiny sweet ruby reds.
A mechanical feast for the eyes, a technical marvel and oh so lovely to look at.
In contrast to the sweet candied colours of Honda’s superbike with its mouth watering promise of individualism and style BMW colours looked plain.
Von Der Marwitz had done marvels with the R75/5 but next to the psychedelic colourised beatlesque candied colours offered by Honda BMW’s could not compete.
BMW R75 S its sportiest bike looked quite plain. It’s styling a little old fashioned with that front drum brake and it’s restrained palette of colours in white, black or silver.
This rigidity in it’s attituede to styling and colour literally meant closing it’s doors to the outside world and to itself. If only they had taken some of the colours and design from its F750 racers.
The R75/5 kept BMW afloat but what was needed was a through bred purpose built sports bike with some nice colours to take the fight to Honda.
In the autumn of 1973 they finally got one it was called the R90S .
A beautiful looking motorcycle resplendent in an eye catching paint scheme called silver smoke.
All the ingredients were there a newly redesigned boxer engine increased in its capacity to 898cc which was then mated to a sensual design.
A design that flowed effortlessly to a small bikini fairing right through to a sculptural fuel tank and ending in a stylistic ducktail faired rear end.
But what really caught the eye was its paintwork with the title of silver smoke a mixture of silver with black.
There is more to the story of BMW’s resurgence Von Der Marwitz may have written the beginning of the story by reimagining and then reengineering BMW’s classic boxer engine but he needed help in writing the story.
The script was good it just to be finished. The first to help in editing the story was Bob Lutz who restructured BMW’s motorbike division.
Proof ,reading the script he saw that within the new R75/7 engine that there was a middle ground that would finish BMW’s story of resurgance.
Now Lutz needed a good illustrator that illustrator would be a designer called Hans Muth.
Muth will be the man who will change the course of BMW’s journey from a near igniminious end to that of one of complete reinvention.
Muth was not only a designer he was also a motorbike enthusiast who owned an MV Augusta motorbike and thought why are BMW motorcycles not styled in this way!
Working from his desk at the BMW factory he parked his MV close by his desk using the bike as an inspirational tool to guide his mind.
He began to imbue his sketches of the new R90S with a softness with a velvet quality that he saw in the MV Augusta bike.
As he began to work on the clay model he began to shape it not with a masculine hard edged style but more of the feminine qualities that he saw in his MV Augusta.
With this in mind he creates what he called his flyline aesthetic which would allow a break from the old ways of styling BMW motorbikes.
The R90S was beautiful looking now it needed to be colourised and not in the conservative pallette previously offered by BMW.
Winter is very artistic, painting everything with a touch of silver it’s atmosphere creates an overspray of cold veneers on everthing it touches.
Artists have found inspiration from such effects. In his quest to create a paint scheme for BMW’s new R90S Hans Muth replicates the cold atmosphere of nature its mists and its fogs in his design studio.
Taking his spray gun he creates a two paint colour scheme of silver and black called Silver Smoke.
The Silver Smoke paint scheme was acheived by laying down a coat of silver which was then followed by an overspray of black.
The overspray of black creates the smoke effect. A stroke of creative genius it would mean that each R90S would be unique due to the elusive nature of the smoke painting technique as each overspray of black would always be different.
Muth then taught the technique to the painters at the BMW’s Berlin factory.
What he had done was remarkable, creating a form of individualism in a mass produced format.
In so doing he also created a new visual language for BMW. The clever integration of black with the silver spoke of its past , but the use of the silver showed its transition to the future.
The visual language was taken one step further when the traditional BMW black was replaced by the colour orange.
The R90S was a good looking machine but the new combination of silver with orange smoke effect was spectacular which echoed the Autumn orange of the Bavarian forests.
Muth had done something remarkable and avantgarde with BMW creating an experimental genre creating a new visual language for BMW motorcycles.
Like other great designers he had a unique ability to tell the story of BMW from where it had come and where it was going.
Now BMW had the bike that could challenge Honda.
BMW had the worlds first Superbike championship in its sights. The new colours of Orange were christened Daytona Orage in honour of the Daytona Speedway.
1976 was BMW’s annus mirablis with its R90S winning the Daytona 200 a class win at the TT and overall victory in the World Superbike Championship.
What seemed like the beginning of the end for the BMW motorcycle company was really just the end of the beginning.
The all important middle ground that power of individualism where people remix and reinterpret the dreams of others and then give them new meaning.
It showed what can be achieved when a company allows artistic talent and the engineering talent a free hand.
In a negatively charged atmosphere there is always the positively charged power of individualism.
“ Art without science is not art and science without art is not science “ Heinz Mack , Artist Zero Movement.
BMW are a very artistic brand who have always promoted art see their Art Car Series.
Hans Muth had one more task he had to teach the painters of BMW bikes the technique of creating the new smoke silver on the R90S.
He did this as he spending one week with the painters at the BMW motorbike factory in Berlin teaching them the technique.
This teaching came with a promise “ Until now you have been painters from tommorow you will be artists “
Honda was also an artistic and colourful company which introduced so many beautiful colours for its motorcycles.
We are now we well into the first quarter of the 21st Century yet we are still in love with the romance of the past. Retro bikes are all the rage.
The internal garage project is alive and thriving. And the colours they choose are even more vibrant.
Art without science is not art and science without art is not science.
Comments
Post a Comment