BMW were faced with rebuilding an almost totally destroyed factory following the end of hostilities in 1945, were banned from building motorcycles, cars or aero engines by the allies and were hampered by the scarcity of raw materials. Consequently their first postwar production vehicle, a bicycle, utilised the one material that was available in sufficient quantities, aluminium, extensively in its construction. Scrap aircraft components were melted down and the frame of the bicycle was cast as a unit in the material. As the allies relaxed their restrictions on what BMW were allowed to produce, the company introduced a single cylinder 250cc machine, the R24 in 1948 and followed it with an over head valve, horizontally opposed twin displacing 500cc in 1950, typed the R51. The new machine featured plunger rear suspension and telescopic front forks and was followed in 1951 by a visually identical model displacing 594cc typed the R67. The enlarged model produced a claimed 26bhp at 5,500 rpm compared to the smaller machines 24bhp at 5,800 rpm resulting in an increased top speed from 87 mph to 93mph and a total of 1470 machines were built during the year with a retail price 2875DM. For 1952 a subtly revised model, typed the R67/2 was introduced. The 594cc machine now produced 28 bhp, resulting largely from an increase in compression ratio from the previous model of 5.6:1 to 6.5:1. The cycle parts were also slightly revised with a new full width front hub and brake replacing the single sided item previously employed with a similar item being fitted at the back and the wheel rims became polished items instead of the enamelled items previously used making the machine look less austere.
This lovely example was restored by Mr Tenant-Eyles and has subsequently covered only one mile, having been dry stored. Fitted with a matching Steib sidecar it is offered with a Swansea V5C and the original logbook.
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