Back in the early 1980s there were many rumours surrounding the future of BMW. The great German marque had been supplying enthusiastic motorcyclists with a range of horizontally-opposed twin cylinder machines for longer than most of those riders could... Więcej »
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Wydawnictwo: Brooklands Books
Oprawa: miękka ISBN: 9781855205949
Opis książki
Back in the early 1980s there were many rumours surrounding the future of BMW. The great German marque had been supplying enthusiastic motorcyclists with a range of horizontally-opposed twin cylinder machines for longer than most of those riders could remember. Indeed, the 1980 BMW R100 could trace its ancestry back to the 1930s, when BMW settled upon the flat twin as their favoured engine configuration. BMW motorcycles were never targeted at the economy end of the market, and their build quality, durability and detailed design emphasised this; a BMW motorcycle was never intended to be the consumer durable beloved of several larger manufacturers. But time was marching on. The air-cooled twin cylinder engine which powered all their range by the late 1960s was more than capable of competing on the road with other European offerings, but the declaration of the superbike war in the dying years of that decade changed all that. As the Japanese manufacturers came to dominate the market, and as the performance of their machines eclipsed anything offered by European marques, it became clear that any manufacturer wishing to avoid the fate of the British motorcycle industry needed to do some serious thinking. As the 1970s drew to a close, BMW had done their best with their flat twins, and their best was in fact better than anyone could have imagined. The sporting R100RS, the final capacity stretch of the venerable air-cooled twin, was almost capable of maintaining the real-world road performance of Japan's 1000cc fours. But there was nothing left in the design, as all but the die-hard enthusiast minority recognised. The rumours were finally laid to rest in autumn 1983 when the world's Press climbed aboard the first of the K100 series. And the acclaim was universal. BMW had once again demonstrated that there was no shortage of creative thinking in their design department! In place of the old twin came a four cylinder design of remarkable sophistication. Twin overhead cams, liquid cooling and fuel injection were rare enough; laying the engine over on its side, aligning the crankshaft to run in line with the frame, driving through a 5-speed gearbox and a shaft drive to the rear wheel, made this a truly unique motorcycle. And the Press loved it, as did the riders. The BMW tradition of engineering excellence and technical innovation was reclaimed; the K100 grew into the K1100, out of the K1, and but let's not get carried away! The history of this excellent motorcycle is best told by the sequence of road tests in this Performance Portfolio. Read it and enjoy it! This is a book of contemporary road & comparison tests, specification & technical data, long term reports & new model intros. Models include: K100, K100RS, K100RT, K100LT, K100RS ABS, K1100RT, K1100LT & K1100RS. 136 pages, 350 illus. including colour. SB.
