BMW Motorcycles

A gift for a BMW rider. The history and pictures are great.

Excellent overview of BMW history. Not musch about current motorcycles, but good coverage of first models and their evolution.Good reading for the person interested in the history of this company and of the earlier models.

In my youth when I first started riding motorcyles some 30+ years ago BMW's were somewhat fuddy duddy. Usually black, always shaft driven and somewhat sluggish in performance. They were the marque of the older, more refined rider.Then in 1975 came the R90S which stood in stark contrast to the "rice burners" of the time: it just oozed style, its paint work was beautifully appointed with understated performance. It also had a VDO quart clock in the bikini fairing. Not a head to head match for the "rice burners" of the day, a gentlemen's express. Younger guys took note and I still recall my first ride on one.Then in 1977 came the R100RS with it's wind tunnel developed full fairing and serious purpose. More people sat up that Beemers were evolving and they were eaking out more performance from the "air head" Boxer Twin.And then in 1980 came the R80G/S which in its GS form has become a world leader in its class. I have had four in various forms. What a bike.I have been in the fortunate position of having owned twelve Beemers in one form or another in the last tweleve years so to be able to read how it all started and where it is going to has been great. This book might well not be "the definitive" work but it a great reference and sets out the history of the BMW motorcycle marque and is essential reading to anybody who owns a BMW or considers themselves interested in motorcycles in general on Beemers specifically.

It doesn't say so on the cover but this is pretty much a history of, or story of BMW motorcycles. The difference is that it is told in a more relaxed manner than most. Still broadly covering the model ranges through the years.Although paperback, the quality of paper and print is excellent along with decent photographs of the machines. It doesn't tend to go into technical specifications and is more of a story or narrative and as such is worth having alongside other books which, while all essentially providing historical context, do it in a different way. The photos are shot differently too. Again, in more relaxed fashion.As a general and enjoyable relaxed narrative I'd say 5 stars, but as some may find the lack of specification detail a dissapointment 4 stars is probably a fair appraisal.

This is a good and very readable history of BMW motorcycles. The reason I purchased the book was because I was considering purchasing a used BMW and I wanted to get some perspective about the past models, their stats, and things to look for each model when purchasing used. This book doesn't really give you that sort of information in the detail I wished, though it does cover some issues with certain models. Its still a good read and was written in 2009, so its fairly current. The only problem with the book is the photos and the bike being discussed don't line up. There will be two facing pages full of information about a bike with photos of other models, but the photos of that bike being discussed are 2 or 3 pages away.