Book Review
“BMW Airhead Twins – The complete story”
Author: Phil West
Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd, Ramsbury, Marlborough Wiltshire SN8 2HR
Email: enquiries@crowood.com www.crowood.com
Tel.: 016725232 Hardback, 225 x 265mm
(portrait): 208 pages with over 290 photographs and illustrations.
ISBN: 978-1-78500-695-1 £25 (UK), $34.78 (US), $44 (Canada), $44.52 (Australia)
Say ‘BMW motorcycle’ and most motorcycle fans will automatically think: ‘airhead boxer twins.’ The distinctive, air-called horizontally opposed, twin-cylinder engine layout has been so intrinsically linked with the legendary German marque that, for most of BMW’s history, very few other manufacturer have even attempted to use it.
And what a history that is. From powering the first BMW motorcycle in the 1920s to style icons, racing and recordbreaking in the 1930s; from wartime workhorses to a new generation of luxury tourers in the 1950s and 60s; and from the first faired superbike in the 1970s to the creation of the original ‘adventure bike’ in the 1980s, BMW’s versatile airhead boxer was at the heart of them all. Consistently proving itself over the years, the engine became so beloved that, when BMW tried to replace it in the 1980s, a huge backlash ensued. It was quickly reinstated.
In comparatively recent years, the term ‘boxer twin’ has become a popular name for the machines – but where did it come from? The boxer twin layout was not actually a BMW invention. It dates back much further, to 1896, when German engineer Karl Benz designed a new, four-stroke engine. His flat, horizontally opposed twin-cylinder engine involved two pistons that reached top dead centre and bottom dead centre at the same time. The piston action was likened to two prize fighters trading blows in the ring, which is where the term ‘boxer engine’ was born.
The backbone of the Bavarian marque was eventually killed off in the 1990s, due mostly to environmental and regulatory demands, but its new, oilcooled replacement was deliberately as close to the original in terms of style and versatility as it could be. Even then it was not quite the end of the airhead.
The iconic twin lives on today not just as a revamped classic, but also as a style icon that often forms the basis of numerous customs and specials. BMW regularly revises the boxer back catalogue for its fashionable new retros and is currently developing an all-new aircooled boxer twin, intended to be a big-bore cruiser to rival Harley-Davidson’s equally legendary V-twins.
The BMW airhead story is certainly considerable, spanning nearly a century and touching almost every type of motorcyclist. It has proved to be a demanding one to tell, and the writing of this book would not have been possible without the assistance of BMW itself, particularly BMW UK and BMW Motorrad’s extensive archive.